Follow God

“Follow God” is American rapper Kanye West’s latest single from his ninth studio album “Jesus Is King”, which was released on the 25th October 2019.

The track was written by West himself and five other individuals: Aaron Butts, Bryant Bell, Calvin Eubanks, Curtis Eubanks and Jahmal Gwin. “Follow God” – as the title suggests – is about following a religion and God, and features West discussing the struggles he faces trying to follow a religious life. The track also acts as a successor to his February 2016 track, “Rather Stretch My Hands, Pt.1”. The song features a flipped sample of group “Whole Truth” and their 1974 song, “Can You Lose By Following God”.

The music video was released for “Follow God” on the 8th November 2019 via YouTube, and was directed by Jake Schreier. It features Kanye West and his father, Ray West. They are wearing matching camel coloured snowsuits as they walk through snowy meadows with mountains in the background. As they start walking, a monologue from Ray West is played. “What does it really mean to follow God? Like as I stand here today I’m reminded of the first time my children ever got an opportunity to be in snow. And when we walked outside in the snow, they were very fearful in terms of the steps that they would take.” Once they enter a large truck, West’s father continues his monologue. “And what I did was, I walked in front of them and I took steps and I said to them, ‘Instead of creating your own footprints, walk in the footprints that I’ve already made,”. The end of the video, viewers are shown a blue screen with white text that states: “My dad came to visit me at one of our ranches in Cody, Wyoming. He talked about his love for fishing, and how he would like to come here in the summers.”
“It took me 42 years to realize that my dad was my best friend. He asked me, ‘How many acres is this?’ I told him ‘4000.’ He replied with these three words: ‘A black man?’”. As of mid-November, the video has over 4.6 million views and over a quarter of a million likes.

Release Date: 25th October 2019

Songwriter/s: Kanye West, Aaron Butts, Byrant Bell, Calvin Eubanks, Curtis Eubanks & Jahmal Gwin

Producer/s: West, BoogzDaBeast & Xcelence

Label/s: GOOD, Def Jam

Music Video Release Date: 8th November 2019

Music Video Director: Jake Schreier

Chart Rankings: Since its release, “Follow God” has ranked highly in charts across the globe. Ranking at #7 in Australia, #29 in Austria, #6, #14 and #34 on various Belgium charts; #6 in Canada, #18 in the Czech Republic, #11 in Denmark, #9 in Estonia, #55 in France, #22 in Greece, #11 in Hungary, #12 in Iceland, #5 in Ireland, #53 in Italy, #40 in the Netherlands, #6 in New Zealand, #13 in Norway, #14 in Portugal, #28 in Singapore, #8 in Slovakia, #18 in Sweden, #14 in Switzerland, #6 in the UK Singles charts, #2 in the UK R&B charts; #1 on the US Billboard Christian Songs charts and the Gospel Songs charts, #3 on the US Billboard Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Songs and lastly, #2 on the US Rolling Stone Top 100.

The lyrics to “Follow God” can be found here: LINK