Thanks to Kanye West, we now all know The Father, but what about his own father, the original Mr. West? Kanye brought his old man Ray West out to his Wyoming ranch for his new “Follow God” music video, the first official video off his delayed gospel album Jesus Is King after the 30-minute IMAX film of the same name he screened ahead of its release. It starts with Ray asking, “What does it really mean to follow God?” in a voice-over before talking about how Kanye and his siblings were scared the first time they walked in snow. “I said to them, ‘Instead of creating your own footprints, walk in the footprints that I already made.’” Aw! Ray and Kanye don’t do much walking in the actual video, instead opting to traverse the Wyoming snow in an already big ATV, and then an even bigger one. They also dance!
The song touches on possible past issues between Kanye and his dad — “I was screamin’ at my dad, he told me, ‘It ain’t Christ-like,’” he raps, adding, “I’m all good, I tried talking to my dad / give him some advice, he starts spazzin’ on me” at the end. But it looks like they really are all good now! And if that’s all not enough to warm your cold heart when it comes to Kanye, just read what he wrote at the end of the video, about his dad’s first visit to his Wyoming ranch: “It took me 42 years to realize 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?’” Hallelujah to that.
