Kanye West releases surprise Christmas Day EP Emmanuel … a year after dropping album Jesus Is Born
Kanye West has released a new EP titled Emmanuel on Friday to coincide with Christmas Day.
The 43-year-old star worked with his Sunday Service Choir on the five-song, 12-minute recording, which comes a year after he dropped the surprise album Jesus Is Born.
West said in a statement that the new EP was ‘inspired by ancient and Latin music’ and ‘celebration of the miracle of the birth of Jesus Christ.’
The latest: Kanye West, 43, has released a new EP titled Emmanuel on Friday to coincide with Christmas Day. He was snapped in NYC last year
The Grammy-winner served as composer and executive producer on the EP, which includes a choral track dubbed O Magnum Mysterium, a Christian prayer called Requiem Aeternam and the hymn Gloria.
The Bound 2 singer last year began showing his religious side with his weekly Sunday Services, which took place in locales ranging from Los Angeles to New York City to Chicago.
Last Christmas, he released the album Jesus Is Born, which featured 19 songs over 84 minutes and collaborations with artists including Ant Clemons, Fred Hammond and Kenny G with Timbaland and Mike Dean pitching in on production.
West last year expounded on his faith after Drake questioned how long he’d be doing religious music on the podcast Rap Radar last December, saying, ‘God bless him on his new journey, but I don’t even know if he’s ever going to make secular music again or not … I don’t know.’
West performed at The Forum in Inglewood, California in October of 2019
West was snapped last November at a service at Houston’s Lakewood Church
At a subsequent Sunday Service West said that he takes offense ‘when somebody calls me secular,’ noting all of the charitable endeavors he was involved with.
‘Y’all can look at the domes that we was building, affordable homes, y’all call that bizarre,’ he said. ‘Y’all can take the picture of me painting it silver, y’all can call that what y’all want.
‘But don’t call me secular ’cause secular is trying to say that I’ll do anything for anyone other than Christ. That’s where they got it messed up. That’s where they got it twisted.’
Emmanuel is available on iTunes and Spotify.