A new clue has emerged in the ongoing mystery that is Kanye West’s fashion-influenced God complex and/or religiosity: a WWJD bracelet, worn while shopping for furniture on Thursday afternoon.
Two anecdotes for context. First, in 2008, Kanye offered an alternate definition for “WWJD”:
Every time I write a chorus or any type of hook, I say like, “What would [Young] Jeezy do?” You know how niggas be like, “What would Jesus do?” Our shit is like, “What would Jeezy do? What would Jeezy say on this record?” At the end of the day, I make my shit straight white T-shirt-ready.
Second, in 2004 Kanye purchased a $25,000 ring with “a river of yellow and light-brown diamonds making up Jesus’ blond hair, aquamarines for his blue eyes, and little rubies for tears of blood,” then flew into a self-doubting frenzy when Rolling Stone writer Touré inquired further:
“It doesn’t bother you to sport a blond-haired, blue-eyed Jesus?” I ask him.
“Only thing that bothers me is how other people are going to react to it,” he says.
“But don’t you believe Jesus was black?”
“I believe Jesus was black. When I saw it, I said, ‘I don’t particularly want to wear this as far as what I represent, even though I love it.’ But I do think it’s a beautiful piece of artwork.” An hour later he’s back at Jacob’s.
“I love the way it looks with the blue eyes,” West tells Jacob, “but I’ll get too much flak for it. I can’t explain that blue-eyed shit. I need to do another one. A black one. Because I have socially conscious lyrics and I’m-a get flak.”
Jacob pops out the blue stones, but West discovers that no other colored stone looks good. So even though the blue eyes bother him politically, they go back in. Can he live with a blue-eyed Christ on his chest? Can he handle the inevitable criticism?
“I gotta get my explanation together,” he says as he leaves Jacob’s. Twenty minutes later he’s got his defense. “I’ll say it’s the one off my grandmother’s wall!” he says. It’s a eureka moment. “It’s Grandma’s Jesus!” Huh?
Those anecdotes are almost entirely unrelated to one another, except as evidence that Kanye would probably freak out if he knew we were talking about his WWJD bracelet. The pressures of Christ, fame, and clothing weigh heavily on this man.
