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After a lengthy — and we do mean lengthy — delay, Kanye West‘s new album “Jesus Is King” has finally dropped.
The project was initially supposed to drop nearly a month ago and during this time, early previews of the music already had people worried. One track in particular was previewed and it featured the lines, “Closed on Sunday, you my Chick-fil-A.” In early October, it wasn’t well received and now that the song “Closed on Sunday” is out, the line still isn’t holding up well with audiences.
Another song that has people puzzled is “Hands On”, which features the gospel legend Fred Hammond. Towards the end of the song, Hammond gives his signature crisp vocals. However, some people suggested that the vocals were so crisp that they were manipulated using autotune.
One line has Hammond singing, “Yes, I understand your reluctancy, yeah/ But I have a request, you see/ Don’t throw me up, lay your hands on me/ Please, pray for me.” While the harmonies come out great, it definitely sounds like autotune was used. Check out the song for yourself below.
Some folks immediately wondered why the producers of the song would try to autotune a voice that’s already celebrated.
Then there were those select few who thought an autotune Fred Hammond was the way of the future.
It’s no surprise that Kanye would have Hammond on the track, considering the overall spiritual and religious nature of the album. In a recent interview with Zane Lowe, Kanye explained:
“Now I’m letting you know what Jesus has done for me,” he said. “I’m no longer a slave. I’m a son, now, a son of God. I’m thinking of something I wanna say out loud — Christian innovator. When you’re thinking about the church—because it has to stand on the word so hard — it loves to be extra traditional to the point of blocking innovation.”
It seems a supposedly autotuned Fred Hammond might be apart of the innovation West was talking about.
Along with striving for new ideas, West also explained how his views on culture has changed. “I thought I was the God of culture but really culture was my God . . .What is a culture today? What are some of the major things that it includes and all of the major points of what might make the culture? Taking a knee at a football game, wearing expensive clothes, rapping about—just rap, period—making money from rap, making money from basketball, buying jewelry.” he said. “To be down with or part of the culture, you have to use social media. None of these things that you need to be involved in order to be down with the culture are owned by Black people. So who designed the culture?”
Questions that might need answers. But until then check out all the questions and reactions people have for Fred Hammond’s alleged autotune below.