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Jesus Walks

"Jesus Walks"
Kanye West - Jesus Walks - CD single cover.jpg
Single by Kanye West
from the album The College Dropout
B-side "Heavy Hitters"
Released May 25, 2004
(see release history)
Format 12" single, CD single, vinyl
Recorded 2000
Sony Music Studios
Light @ The End Of The Tunnel
(New York, New York)
Genre Hip hop
Length 3:13
Label Roc-A-Fella, Def Jam
Writer(s) Kanye West, Che Smith
Producer(s) Kanye West
Kanye West singles chronology
"All Falls Down"
(2004)
"Jesus Walks"
(2004)
"The New Workout Plan"
(2004)

"Jesus Walks" is a song by American hip hop recording artist Kanye West. It was released on May 25, 2004 as the fourth single from his debut album, The College Dropout. The song contains a sample of "Walk with Me" as performed by the ARC Choir. "Jesus Walks" was acclaimed by music critics, who praised its compelling sonic atmosphere and boldness in its open embrace of faith. It was met by widespread commercial recognition, peaking at No. 11 on the Billboard Hot 100 and becoming West's fourth consecutive top twenty hit in the United States.

The single was accompanied by three separate music videos, each of which visually interpreted a portion of its multifaceted context in different ways. "Jesus Walks" continues to be a crowd favorite and stands as one of the most-performed songs by West, who has included it within all of his headlining tours. At the 47th Grammy Awards, "Jesus Walks" was awarded the Grammy for Best Rap Song. Rolling Stone named the song No. 19 on their list of 100 Best Songs of the 2000s. The song was named the 6th best song of 2004 on Village Voice's Pazz & Jop critics poll. In October 2011, NME placed it at No. 69 on its list "150 Best Tracks of the Past 15 Years". The song was listed at No. 123 on Pitchfork Media's 500 songs of the 2000s. It was placed at No. 273 on Rolling Stone's list of "The 500 Greatest Songs of All Time".

The song is essentially a spiritual exultation, wherein West discusses how Jesus "walks" with all manner of people, from the sinner to the saint. Towards this end, the first conceptual verse of the song is told through the eyes of a drug dealer contemplating his relationship with God. It reportedly took over six months for West to draw inspiration for the second verse. West also uses the song to express his critical views on how the media seem to shy away from songs that address matters of faith, while embracing songs discussing violence, sex, and illegal drugs. He rhymes, "So here go my single, dog, radio needs this/They say you can rap about anything except for Jesus/That means guns, sex, lies, video tapes/But if I talk about God my record won't get played, huh?" This is directly taken from West's experiences when he was struggling to get signed onto a record label; many executives turned him down after he played a "Jesus Walks" demo for them. They reasoned that he did not conform to the stereotypes associated with mainstream hip-hop and therefore was not easily marketable. Many of his friends in the music industry also warned him that while the song was outstanding, it would never make it to radio.


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