“Hip-Hop Saved Me”: KB on Christian Rap’s Power
KB, a Dove Award-winning artist, is urging the church community to embrace Christian hip-hop as a vehicle for spreading the gospel, highlighting its impact on younger generations who may be sceptical of the church but are open to music that reflects their culture and incorporates faith.
Last week, KB won a Dove Award for Rap/Hip-Hop Album of the Year for “His Glory Alone II,” marking his third victory in that category and his sixth overall. After the ceremony, he shared his testimony, revealing that he was saved nearly two decades ago after a friend gifted him a Christian hip-hop record.
He remarked, “The gospel never made sense until I heard it in the language of hip-hop, and God saved me.”. Acknowledging the rawness often found in mainstream hip-hop and rap, KB noted that “the devil knows how powerful a tool hip-hop is, and he loves to invest in it.”
“The church has been a little slower in recognising that you have this powerful tool in your hands, he continued. “You are talking about the massive deconversion and rejection of Christianity in Gen Z. What are they listening to? Hip hip.”
The church, however, has a chance to harness the genre for Christ, he noted. According to him, teenagers and young adults participating in revival movements throughout the U.S. are frequently engaged in Christian hip-hop.
KB continued “You think about what’s happening in Ohio State right now—these movements of mini-revivals that break out,” he said. “Oftentimes, these are people who are young, and they are very much listening, of course, to Maverick City, but they’re also listening to Lecrae and Hulvey and Forrest Frank—these things fuel and build your faith.”
Christian hip-hop/music festivals such as Holy Smoke in Nashville and Glo Fest in California attract unchurched teens. “Gen Z, the people that don’t want Jesus, allegedly — are at these festivals.” He said KB is an advocate for CHH because of the impact the genre has had on him.
“I went to Bible college because of a Christian rap song,” he said. “I married the love of my life at 22 years old because of a Christian rap song. I gave myself to the local church because of Christian hip-hop.
“But we don’t have what we would call the institutions that also turn this counterculture, organic movement into something that can be corporate, where folks can feed their families off of it—where people [can] have jobs down the line from road managers [to] festival owners,” he said, noting Christian hip-hop is rarely played on radio stations. “That’s been a big barrier. It doesn’t generate the money.
Further mainstream culture, he added, is beginning to acknowledge the quality of Christian hip-hop (CHH). Kendrick Lamar, a mainstream rapper with 17 Grammys, mentioned Christian artists Lecrae and Dee-1 in a recent single. Lamar is also set to perform at halftime during the 2025 Super Bowl.
“Something is happening in the mainstream right now where they are paying attention to what’s unfolding in something that goes beyond just music,” KB remarked about CHH. “This is a movement. People are coming to Christ, marriages are being restored, and individuals are discovering themselves through this gospel representation.”
READ: October 11: This Day In History (world history).
Content Credit| Igbakuma Rita Doom
Picture Credit | https://rapzilla.com/2014-10-kb-wins-hip-hop-rap-song-of-the-year-at-the-2014-dove-awards/
