Kanye West is a funny fellow. Chalk it up to the wafting of dragon energy. Whether this new pivot from Kanye is a permanent change, or whether he's playing a role, I'm still not entirely sure. Regardless, when was the last time you heard of a prominent artist like Kanye promoting a Christian perspective on pre-marital sex, or acknowledging his porn addiction? Exactly. In an interview with Beats 1, Kanye shared how he developed a porn addiction, how it harmed him, and how and why he instituted a no-pre-marital sex policy for people working on Jesus is King. Brace yourselves.

A summary writeup of the interview from Billboard:

West made a habit of comparing the spiraling actions following his mother's death to that of a drug addict coping with a loss. Kanye confessed that he drowned himself in his sex addiction along with a plethora of materialistic items. "That Playboy that I found when I was 5 years old was written all over that VMAs moment," Kanye stated. "That was such a script out of a rock star’s life. Some people drown themselves in drugs, and I drowned myself in my addiction [sex]."

Kanye first encountered a Playboy when he was five (yikes) and his obsession with porn grew ever since. What's noteworthy isn't that Kanye liked the naked ladies, but that Kanye is acknowledging porn is an addiction. Yes, I know you probably know porn is an addiction afflicting the country, but now we have a hip hop star saying it. How often does that happen? Not often.

On premarital sex, Kanye was even more level:

When collaborating with others on Jesus Is King, West set up some lifestyle guidelines that they would have to abide by in order be part of the project. Yeezy asked others to fast during portions of creating and also not partake in any premarital sex at times, which he knew would receive some blowback once it became public. It seemed as if he wanted the creative process to maintain its purity while the team locked in and built camaraderie. "When people pray together and fast together, the power is increased," said Ye.

For me, that right there is the kicker. Premarital sex isn't near the cultural woe as say transgendering children, aborting children, or harvesting body parts from aborted children. Abstaining from pre-marital sex, though, acknowledges the innate value of a person's sexuality and an honoring of someone's entire person, saving the most intimate part of ourselves for one person for life. "Waiting for marriage" is, quite simply, a pure act of love. Kanye West is, at least based on the summary from Billboard above, starting to see the benefits of waiting for marriage. Kanye. Kim Kardashian's husband.

So regardless of Kanye 2.0 being all to sell records, if he's simply maturing, or really has gotten fed up with our nihilistic culture and is seeking real meaning (possibly some combination of all of the above), we can for sure take new Kanye for the positive impact he could have on our toxic culture. Sometimes what really launches a movement is a normalization of something we all know to be true: porn is a problem, abstaining pre-marital sex is a positive good. If Kanye can normalize that which is normal, when our culture insists hedonism is the way to go (if it feels right, it IS right), we may be able to swing the culture at least incrementally.

What say you?

"Jesus is King" drops today.

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