Kanye West releases 'Jesus Walks'

Why it matters

"Jesus Walks" came out May 25, 2004, as the third single from The College Dropout. The beat samples the ARC Choir's 1997 "Walk With Me," plus military-drill chants Kanye built underneath. The song is, on its face, a five-minute argument that a rap song about Jesus could be commercially viable in 2004. Most labels and most A&Rs at the time thought it could not. The song was a hit. It peaked at #11 on the Billboard Hot 100. It won the 2005 Grammy for Best Rap Song. The three competing music videos (each directed by different filmmakers, each pursuing a different visual interpretation of the song) became their own minor 2004 cultural event. "Jesus Walks" is the song that proved Kanye could take a hard creative position the rest of the industry thought was a dead end and turn it into a chart record. The pattern would repeat across his entire career. The first time he ran it, it was for this song. You can play "Jesus Walks" at almost any function and it will work. Not many rap songs about Jesus can do that. This one does.