The mystery behind Kanye West’s cryptic Jesus Is King vinyl appears to have been solved.
When Jesus Is King was released on 25 October, people in possession of the blue vinyl noticed the code “AR 1331 A” embossed onto the record.
While the meaning behind the code wasn’t immediately clear, Third Man Records, the independent label founded by Jack White in 2001 in Detroit, Michigan, recently tweeted an explanation.
“Third Man archivist and Detroit music historian Ben Blackwell has cracked the code on the mystery of what ‘AR 1331 A’ means on Kanye’s Jesus Is King artwork,” the label wrote.
“It’s the Archer Records (AR) pressing plant code assigned to this 1970 Detroit gospel single.”
A pressing plant is a manufacturing facility where records are made.
Pressing plant codes are used to keep track of the specific characteristics of a record, such as the year of its release or its label.
The gospel single referred to in Third Man Records’ tweet is called “The Original Glorious Church of God in Christ”. The single was also released on a blue record that looks similar to the Jesus Is King vinyl.
Jesus is King recently became West’s ninth consecutive number-one debut on the Billboard 200 albums chart, meaning West is now tying with Eminem for the record.
