Kanye Karaoke: Kanye West joins James Corden for “Carpool Karaoke”

Terence Patrick/CBS Instead of a car, it was at 30,000 feet and instead of just the two of them, they were accompanied by a gospel choir.  Other than that, it was just another edition of “Carpool Karaoke” when Kanye West joined James Corden on Monday night’s The Late Late Show.

Dubbed “Airpool Karaoke” for the one-off jetliner installment, Corden calls Kanye for a ride on his private jet after Corden’s own flight #808 — get it? — is cancelled.  After squeezing into the middle seat next to West and asking, “Are you a talker, or a sleeper?  ‘Cause I can do both,” Corden drops his usual, “Do you mind if we can listen to some music?” question to kick things off. 

“Yo, Jason — can we hear some music?” Kanye asks someone on the plane.  That would be Jason White, leader of Kanye’s Sunday Service choir, who stands and leads the rest of the plane’s passengers, aka the choir themselves, in song.

Corden asks Kanye about what prompted him to release his new album, Jesus Is King.  Kanye says it’s all about his recent spiritual awakening, which he discussed at length, offering that his example of being called to work for God is a more compelling one for others to follow precisely because he’s so successful.

“I think [God] wanted me to suffer more and wanted people to see my suffering and see my pain and put stigmas on me and have me go through all the human experiences,” West told Corden. “So now, when I talk about how Jesus saved me, more people can relate to that experience. If it was just, ‘We grew up with this guy and he’s a superstar,’ it’s less compelling than this guy who had a mental breakdown and this guy was in debt.”

Kanye and Corden also talked about West’s marriage to Kim Kardashian, which ‘Ye described as “heavenly…It’s magnificent,” adding that he ultimately wants them to have seven children. 

And of course, Kanye, Corden and the choir performed songs Kanye often does at his Sunday Services, such as “Jesus Walks,” “Souls Anchored,” a gospel rewrite of Nelly Furtado‘s “I’m Like a Bird” and “Through the Fire,” the Chaka Kahn song Kanye sampled for “Through the Wire.”

There’s a lot to unpack in Kanye’s appearance, but Corden’s probably grateful that it happened at all.  Kanye’s been scheduled to appear on The Late Late Show more than once and has canceled every previous time — as Corden told guest Kris Jenner last year, once when Corden had literally just pulled up in front of Kanye’s house to record the segment.  Kanye later sent sent Corden some gifts by way of apology, which someone commented were very expensive.

“Yeah,” Corden retorted.  “They cost my show $45,000!”

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