Netflix has released Jeen-Yuhs, a faith-based documentary series on the career of musician Kanye West. The series covers his life and career beginning in 2002 and follows him through his rise to success not only in hip-hop, but Christian and gospel genres as well.
Beginning as early as 2006, Kanye was creating controversy in the faith arena when he posed for Rolling Stone wearing a crown of thorns and deifying himself in his 2013 album Yeezus with the song “I Am a God.”
But in 2019, Kanye West had a spiritual awakening and formed the gospel group Sunday Service Choir that he leads and produces with Jason White as choir director. West began holding Sunday Services with the choir, which he still holds regularly, and released the album Jesus is Born. He went on to release Jesus is King, that became his first album to top the Billboard Top Christian Albums chart. West next released Donda, originally titled “God’s Country” but he changed the title in honor of his mother Donda West, which took the top spot on both the Billboard Top Christian Albums and Top Gospel Albums charts for 2021.
The directors of Jeen-Yuhs, Chike Ozah and Coodie Simmons, have emphasized the faith-based nature of the documentary series. Ozah said, “Our faith guides us. I feel that the story of the documentary is a faith-based documentary. The way we structured it, the first film, or act, is ‘VISION’.” This is followed by “act ii: PURPOSE” and concludes with “act iii: AWAKENING.”
Pastor Michael Todd, in an interview with Variety, said the documentary is “inspiring people to believe again, in their own dreams, in their own destiny, and having faith in a journey that doesn’t look like anything else.”