Kanye West's Jesus Walks: The College Dropout

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Jesus Walks Analysis
“Jesus Walks” is a track from an American Rapper and producer Kanye West’s debut studio album titled “The College Dropout”. By the name of the album alone you can guess the tone and projected audience of the album. The album tells the story and struggles of that an individual is going through. It is an album that not only has songs but also has interludes and skits. The song Jesus Walks has high accolades and did very well in it’s debut as a mid-tempo hip hop song. At the time of release it was a very controversial song for the industry. Uses of tambourines to symbolize chains implying the idea of racial inequality and slavery were used. The idea of us being “trapped” was given.
From the beginning of the song Kanye West sets the tone through his lyrics. “Yo, we at war, We at war with terrorism, racism, but most of all we at war with ourselves.” This first states that we as society or we as African Americans, are taught at a young age that we will have to face racism, might even be viewed as terrorist. However, we don’t take this and “act accordingly”, we are at war with …show more content…

He is known for his phenomenal producing skills. This was his first studio album that he not only produced but was the main feature. The label, Def Jam Records is home to some of society’s most notable artist with Kanye West joining in 2004, the same year “The College Dropout” debuted. I believe West joined at the perfect time and by doing that his sales and overall aesthetics of the album and song skyrocketed. Jesus Walks peaked at #11 on The Billboard Top 100. This was just one of his many albums with the label. He has been a public figure to not only his musical audience but to those whom never even listened to him as an artist. I would say his perceived audience of the song Jesus Walks would be a younger minority group that relates to the topics he discusses throughout his lyrics. It appealed to me even at a young

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