Credit: Alamy

There’s bragging in rap music, and then there’s what Kanye West did on Yeezus.

Not content with proclaiming himself to be a ‘rap god’, as Eminem did on his 2013 track of that name, Ye straight-up declared “I am a god” on his song from the same year.

‘I Am a God’ featured on his sixth album, Yeezus, and it was, to put it lightly, controversial. Kanye’s ego had long been a source of pop culture fascination, but he really went above and beyond on this track. Proclaiming himself a god over an industrial beat, the accusations of blasphemy were inevitable. “I am a God,” he raps on the chorus, “Hurry up with my damn massage”.

The song’s title and lyrics were one thing, but Ye listed God as a featured performer on the song, too. The track left him open to criticism, although he had plenty of defenders and fans, too. All in all, it caused a stir.

Ye claimed in a 2015 interview with In Camera that the song wasn’t about him specifically, but rather was “about us as a race”. He insisted that “we are an extension of God, that we all have God inside of us”.

The song is reaching for some lofty themes, but, as Ye revealed in a different interview with W magazine two years earlier, it actually originated in quite petty circumstances. ‘I Am a God’ was actually Kanye’s response to what he felt was a diss by a leading fashion designer.

Ye had been invited to a runway show during Paris Fashion Week in 2012, but his invitation was conditional. If he accepted, he would have to agree not to attend any other shows during the event. His disgust at being ordered around like this sparked him to write the song.

“’Cause it’s like, yo!” he spat, “Nobody can tell me where I can and can’t go. Man, I’m the number one living and breathing rock star. I am Axl Rose; I am Jim Morrison; I am Jimi Hendrix”. 

Kanye raged that the notion of this designer believing they could dictate to him where he could and couldn’t go was “just ludicrous”. More than that, he claimed it was “blasphemous to rock ’n’ roll, and to music”.