From the Suffering (Black) Jesus to the Sacrilegious Yeezus: Representations of Christ in African-American Art and Religious Thought

Broadly definable as an interdisciplinary study of religion, music, literature, and history, this thesis analyzes the music of Kanye West and its evolution from the tradition of African-American art and religious thought. Tracing the roots of West’s rap music lyrically and thematically to its foundations in the slave songs, the blues, the literature/art of the Harlem Renaissance era, and the gangsta rap of Tupac Shakur, I explore how the catalog of his albums show a (post)modern evolution of African-American religious thought that first began in the slaves’ paradoxical re-appropriation of the hegemonic religion of their masters. Furthermore, I illustrate how West’s music evinces an evolution of the slaves’ divided religious identity and contributes to the subversions against the hegemony and oppression of white (supremacist) Christianity by African Americans throughout history. In demonstrating how the frameworks of both race and religion interact and collide in the historical battles over the metaphysical significations and color of Christ, I emphasize how each representation of Christ—whether the massa Jesus of the slave songs, the black lynched Jesus of the Harlem Renaissance, the Black Jesuz of Tupac Shakur’s gangsta rap, or the sacrilegious Yeezus/Jesus of Kanye West—reflects the contextual realities of African Americans.