JESUS WALKS

"'Jesus Walks'" was the third single from Kanye West's debut album ''The College Dropout''. Released in 2004, the single peaked at #11 in the USA becoming West's fourth top-20 single; it also peaked at #16 in the UK. It is considered by critics to be one of his best tracks.

Contents

Song overview

Music videos

Recognition and awards

''Punk'd'' incident

Track listing

A-Side

B-Side

Remixes

Song overview

The song is essentially a spiritual one (an image of the ''Christ the Redeemer'' statue in Rio de Janeiro appears on the single's cover), in which West discusses how Jesus "walks" with all manners of people, from drug dealers and murderers to regular citizens. It also explains West's views on how the media seems to shy away from songs talking about God, while embracing songs discussing violence, sex, and illegal drugs. The lyrics "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?" show this. The song was co-written with rapper (and close friend of West's) Rhymefest. The track is built around a sample from the Arc Choir's "Walk with Me".

Music videos

In total, three separate videos were made for "Jesus Walks", each funded by West himself. One depicting a black prison camp, a male and female drug runner and others, one of Kanye as a preacher in a baptist church and showing a prostitute, an alcoholic and a drug dealer going to pray in the church (this version is the one shown on MTV, VH1, and BET), and one depicting the life of Jesus in the current day.

Recognition and awards

At the Grammy Awards of 2005, "Jesus Walks" became only the second rap song to be nominated for Song of the Year, following "Lose Yourself" by Eminem from the year before. West, Rhymefest and Miri Ben-Ari won the Grammy Award for Best Rap Song for co-writing the song's lyrics. "Jesus Walks" was nominated for several gospel awards before the awards committees learned that the song contained some explicit language, and removed it from these awards.
"Jesus Walks" gained West further mainstream exposure when it was prominently featured in trailers and commercials for the 2005 film ''Jarhead''.

''Punk'd'' incident

In 2004, Kanye West was filming the music video for this single, when the team from MTV's ''Punk'd'', posing as the Los Angeles Film Commission, shut down the shoot for violating a law about filming on Sundays without a permit. To the audience's amusement, Kanye stole the music video footage back from them and then jumped into his van for his safety until Ashton Kutcher stopped the van. Rhymefest was the first to greet him as he stepped out of the van after learning he had just been Punk'd. Chris Milk, who directed the music video, also told West that he already paid for the film.

Track listing

A-Side

# Jesus Walks (Clean)
# Jesus Walks (Dirty)
# Jesus Walks (A cappella)

B-Side

# Heavy Hitters (Clean)
# Heavy Hitters (Dirty)
# Heavy Hitters (A cappella)

Remixes

★ Kanye West feat. Mase

★ Kanye West feat. Mase and Common from ''The College Dropout Video Anthology''

★ "Jesus Walks in the Jungle" by DJ Zinc

★ "Muhammad Walks" by Lupe Fiasco from ''

★ Unofficial Jesus Walks Remix by G-Unit