Songfacts®:

• This song talks about society, racism, and war with ourselves. It decries what rappers typically talk about, which is sex, drugs and money. >>>

  Suggestion credit:
  Justin - Springfield, MO
• Rapper Che Smith, who goes by the stage name Rhymefest, wrote this song with West. In the February 24, 2006 Guardian newspaper, he said: "Kanye and I grew up together. I found a gospel song by a choir of reformed drug addicts in New York. Even though I'm not a Christian it moved me and the beat was kinda like a rap groove. We jacked the whole song but it came to life when Kanye added the army sounds and made it like God's soldiers. Then the writing began. If you make the verses about Jesus it takes away the power of the chorus, so the verses were the sinner speaking. We got the 'Niggas' sound from a Curtis Mayfield song. When we write together we'll listen to a beat and I'll come up with a line and he'll flip it around into something else, then I'll add more lines and before you know it we got a song. Kanye will remember each way we flipped it; he has an ability to memorize. I look at it like this: that was not my record and not Kanye's record; that was a record from the creator to his creations. I'm grateful."
• Kanye West knew the challenges of getting "Jesus" on secular radio; when songs in the past referred to Jesus, they had to say, "He" or "Him" (and somewhat recently "God" is being accepted) but never Jesus. In his second verse he challenged radio stations with the following lyrics: "So here go my single dawg 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?" His strategy worked - not only did he get "Jesus" on the radio and on MTV, he also won three Grammy Awards in 2005 as a result. >>>

  Suggestion credit:
  Nikki - Chicago, IL
• This song meant so much to Kanye West that he made three music videos for it, using over one million dollars of his personal money. One video was for BET, one for MTV and one for MTV.com. >>>

  Suggestion credit:
  Nikki - Chicago, IL
• A breakdown of some of the lyrical references in this song:
  
  "I walk through the valley where the shadow of death is" is taken from the 23rd psalm in the Bible ("Even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil, for you are with me.")
  
  "But I'll be gone till November" is a reference to 1997 song of the same name by Wyclef Jean.
  
  "My feet don't fail me now" is a runner's slogan popularized by track and field star Bruce Jenner in the 1976 Olympics. Jenner wore the message on a sweat shirt and went on to win the Decathlon. The expression was originally the catchphrase of Birmingham Brown (played by Manton Moreland), the manservant of Charlie Chan in 1930s detectives movies. Like the character of Chan himself, Brown was a racial stereotype. He always uttered this phrase in exaggerated fear when preparing to run from danger. Eminem used the phrase in his song "Lose Yourself"
  
  "Wanna see thee more clearly" is taken from "Day By Day," a song sung to Jesus in Godspell, the 1971 pop musical based on the Gospel of St. Matthew.
  
  "The way Kathy Lee needed Regis" refers to Kathy Lee Gifford, an American TV personality whose career suffered when she left the show she hosted with Regis Philbin.
  
  "Guns, sex, lies, videotape" is a reference to the 1989 cult film Sex Lies and Videotape directed by Steven Soderbergh. >>>

  Suggestion credit:
  Bertrand - Paris, France
• The album was nominated for several Stellar Awards, which honor musicians and songwriters in the gospel realm, including Best Gospel Rap Album, but was pulled from the ballot after several complaints. As the Washington Post noted, one outraged Christian at GospelFlava.com furiously typed, "Lord, please help the Stellar Committee and deliver them from ignorance and commercialism in Jesus' name!!"
  
  But Rev. Tony Lee, who met the rapper when he performed at Ebenezer AME Church in Fort Washington, disagreed: "It's a challenge when Kanye could talk about drugs and guns and violence and he wouldn't get half the flak that he gets for talking about Jesus," he said. "My question is what statement is the church sending to a person like Kanye who is trying to reach out? He comes for the sinners and he comes for the sick, and we are upset because he is not coming in the usual way."
• West sang a gospel version as part of his Sunday Service project, which he started on January 6, 2019 in his Calabasas home. The location of the weekly service varies, but always caters to an exclusive audience that shows up to hear gospel-soul makeovers of songs by Kanye and his contemporaries, as well as faithful renditions of traditional gospel tunes. Despite its Christian theme, it's a church service where music is the religion of choice.
  
  The rapper told David Letterman: "It's just an idea we had to open up our hearts to make music that we felt was as pure and as positive as possible and just do it for an hour every Sunday, and have something where people can just come together and feel good with their families."