Kanye West Filmed An Awkward Carpool Karaoke On An Airplane
In retrospect, it was inevitable. Kanye West’s Sunday Services had to, somehow, join forces with James Corden’s Carpool Karaoke. The content gods demanded that these two difficult-to-escape human beings would link up to jam their two respective enterprises down our collective throat at the same damn time. It happened last night.
James Corden has been trying to get Kanye West to do Carpool Karaoke for a few years. Last year, when Kris Jenner was on Corden’s Late Late Show, Corden mentioned that he’d tried to schedule Carpool Karaoke sessions with West a few times, only to have West cancel at the last minute, costing the show $45,000. But now that West is out promoting his gospel album Jesus Is King, West finally went on Carpool Karaoke, though he did a different version of it.
This time, the idea was that it was Airpool Karaoke. Corden, flying back to Los Angeles, hears that “Flight 808″ is cancelled, so Kanye West somehow gets him on a plane? In coach? I don’t know how completely they thought this whole storyline through. But then, all the other people on the plane turn out to be West’s gospel choir. So instead of singing along with songs on a car radio, Corden awkwardly tries to find his way into the choir’s versions of “Jesus Walks” or Soul II Soul’s “Back To Life.”
At the beginning of the skit, West seems annoyed to be involved. (Who can relate?) Then he talks about his faith and gets all excited, saying that God motivated him to “start a church in Calabasas.” He says that he knew he’d be famous for the rest of his life when he wrote the “Slow Jamz” line “She got a light-skinned friend look like Michael Jackson / Got a dark-skinned friend look like Michael Jackson.” He gets Corden to beatbox and sing about God.
Also, Kanye West says this: “God is using me — as humbly as I can put it — He’s using me to show off. Last year, I made $115 million and still ended up $35 million in debt. This year, I looked up, and I just got $68 million returned to me on my tax returns!” The idea, it turns out, is that West’s bank account numbers are God’s will. The whole episode is definitely a thing that you can watch. If you feel like doing that, it’s below.
Kanye West was on a couple of TV shows last night. On Thursday night, West showed up on Jimmy Kimmel Live, promising that Jesus Is King would be out before actually finishing it. And late on Thursday night, after appearing on Kimmel, West was photographed at the Oculus, the New York train hub. It turned out that he was filming his Kimmel performance. It has aired. You can watch West doing “Closed On Sunday” and “Faith” with his choir and band below.
Jesus Is King is out now on G.O.O.D. Music/Def Jam.