“Up From Ashes” by Kanye West
The title of this song (“Up From Ashes”) and the message contained therein refer to a spiritual experience, if you will, that the vocalist is going through. It has been theorized that the lyrics are premised on the challenging year Kanye West had in 2018. During that time, he had said and done some things (most importantly publicly endorsing US President Donald Trump) which turned the public sentiment against him. But more generally, the titular phrase is symbolic of the vocalist completely overcoming some type of life-threatening situation. And basically, he is crediting a higher power with empowering him to achieve this state.
And it is this higher power that he primarily addresses throughout the song. Considering the theme of the overall project it is featured on and the names dropped in the chorus, it is most likely that Kanye is speaking of a divine relationship with Jesus and by extension God. Or another way of looking at it is that his becoming cool with “Christ” has brought him good things. Some of them include being “blessed with new life” and healing via the “light” emitted by “God”. And that light would be a reference to a supernatural experience. It is apparently not intended to be interpreted literally.
Conclusion
So conclusively, we know that Kanye seems to currently be making a transition into the gospel-music genre. And “Up From Ashes” is one of the first songs he has released under this rebranding. And accordingly it is based on the common Christian idea of an individual being able to experience a sort of rebirth via a personal relationship with Christ.
Quick Facts about “Up From Ashes”
The track was supposed to have been released on 29 September 2019. However, for some reason this didn’t happen.
“Up From Ashes” is the opening song on the tracklist of West’s first gospel album titled “Jesus Is King”.
