Is “God” Kanye West’s “Yeezus” tour cursed?

By Alison Lesley --
06 Nov 2013 --

Kanye West has cancelled a string of dates for his Yeezus tour. So far he’s cancelled just as many concerts as he’s actually performed. This latest news is a follow up to the controversy around his creative direction on stage to reference stories from the Bible and even have an actor portraying Jesus Christ.

Kanye West held an interview with the radio station Wild 94.9 (WSHH) about his imaginative decision to have an actor play Jesus Christ during his Yeezus tour earlier this month. Kanye defended himself by stating, “God knows where my heart is at.”

West contended by stating that plays are done all the time where actors depict Jesus. One of the interviewers agreed with him by adding on about the similar Madonna’s “Like a Prayer” music video a while back. Kanye added that he had a Pastor friend whom he had conferred with on how they he wanted to deliver it, later, he said, his girlfriend asked him, “hmmm…is that weird If Jesus comes on stage?”

In Christianity, actors can portray God, and that’s what makes it different from other religions, Kanye told his interviewers. He stated, “You know, what’s awesome about Christianity is that we’re allowed to portray God. We’re allowed to, you know, draw an image of him, we’re allowed to make movies about him.”

The Yeezus tour involves a strong amount of religious rhetoric and imagery with an actor playing the son of God, another playing a demon and twelve female “disciples” acting in conjunction with him.

Kanye has clearly showed that he is confident enough to push the envelope artistically by posing with a crown of thorns on his forehead for the cover of Rolling Stone in 2006. On his latest album, he’s named one of the tracks “I am God.” He went on by saying to W magazine in July, “I made that song because I am a god. I don’t think there’s much more explanation.”

The tour kicked off in Seattle, then moved on to San Jose, California. Kanye suddenly cancelled his show in Vancouver on October 20, just a day after the tour started and cited “unforeseen circumstances,” rescheduling the date until October 31. Rumor is that Kanye had actually cancelled the date due to his marriage proposal to his girlfriend Kim Kardashian at a baseball stadium in San Francisco few days later.

Oddly enough, West also cancelled a November 1 Salt Lake City tour date, replacing it with an Anaheim, CA tour date, which was also cancelled on October 29. The postponed October 31 Vancouver show has been postponed yet again, after equipment was damaged en route to Canada. Stops in Denver, Minneapolis, and Chicago were also cancelled.

West’s sixth album titled Yeezus was released by Def Jam Recordings in June.

Adam R. Holz, a music reviewer (Focus on the Family’s Pluggedin.com), took issue with the album’s content:

“Yeezus dabbles in occasional moments of social commentary. Much more often, it’s Kanye’s infamous ego – not to mention his profanely and pornographically detailed libido – that ascends to the throne of an album on which he dares to compare himself (and his sexual prowess) to God.”