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We’re all made in the image of God. Kanye West wants to be God.
Hip Hop has always been about braggadocio antics and ego, but believe it or not there is a ceiling to what people will approve of. Kanye West has walked that fine line and is about to step over it.
But is this really anything new? Rappers have been referring to themselves as things that they aren’t since the beginning. When you lie, you have to continue to create new lies to support the original lie. In hip hop, the titles and bragging have escalated from the dopest emcee, ambassador of a region, gangster, baller, don, killer, king of a region, king of hip hop, best to ever do it, Makaveli (Tupac), Hov (Jay-Z), a God, Rakim (a Five Percenter) and now Yeezus.
I’m not really shocked. The infatuation with Jesus has been with Kanye since he hit the mainstream with “Jesus Walks.” In ’06 Kanye said that he should be in a revised version of the Bible. He didn’t just liken himself to Jesus on the 2006 Rolling Stone cover, he posed as him – crown of thorns and all. And most recently of course the rumor that his new album would be titled ‘I Am God’ and then ‘I Am A God’, to finally the recent rumor/leak the title will actually be Yeezus.
You can call it art or metaphorical and lie to yourself all you want but Kanye is no different than the countless men in the past that have worshipped and created idols, or lied to themselves by thinking that they are equal to God or God himself. He is the furthest progression in hip hop toward thinking and/or trying to get others to think that he is the greatest ever. That progression naturally moves to blasphemy by putting himself on the highest level possible – God.
I would wager that Kanye is just creating a buzz for his new album and testing the waters to see if the masses would accept it, and end up changing the album title.
Find more from AllHipHop.com contributor Chad Horton at Rapzilla.com, and follow him on Twitter (@chadhorton).