Hear Kanye West’s Spiritual ‘Ultralight Prayer’

Kanye West at Lollapalooza, Chile, 2011. Photo: Rodrigo Ferrari

Kanye West celebrated Easter Sunday with “Ultralight Prayer,” a reworked version of The Life of Pablo‘s opening track “Ultralight Beam” that focuses entirely on the contributions of gospel singer Kirk Franklin, Kelly Price and a choir. The track features no instrumentation, just powerful voices.

Franklin’s song-ending sermon featured on the still-in-the-works Life of Pablo is extended for “Ultralight Prayer,” with the gospel singer and his choir ringing out, “That’s why we need more [faith] / I’m searching for you, I’m looking for [more] / Yes I am / In your arms is where I feel [safe] / They’re killing our babies in the streets, I’m call out for [war] / I just need a little bit more of some [faith].”

It’s unclear if “Ultralight Prayer” is its own Easter entity or whether West substituted “Ultralight Beam” on the album. The rapper is still tinkering with his new, Tidal-only album ”“ which he called a “living breathing changing creative expression” ”” so far altering the Taylor Swift-baiting “Famous” and reinstating Sia and Vic Mensa’s original “Wolves” vocals back onto the track while isolating Frank Ocean’s “Wolves” outro as its own song. When West does finish work on The Life of Pablo, he promises it won’t be released on compact disc.

On March 19th, the rapper briefly opened a pop-up shop in New York to sell Life of Pablo-branded merchandise. West later tweeted that the store sold $1 million worth of clothing over the course of 20 hours.