Musician KB believes hip hop can reach young people

Hip hop music can be an effective tool for spreading the gospel, Dove Award-winning artist KB says. The gospel “never made sense until I heard it in the language of hip-hop, and God saved me,” he said at the awards.

Acknowledging the coarseness of mainstream hip-hop and rap, KB said 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 recognizing that you have this powerful tool in your hands. You’re talking about the massive deconversion and rejection of Christianity in Gen Z. What are they listening to? Hip-hop.”

The church has an opportunity to capture the genre for Christ, he said. Teens and young adults who are involved in revival movements often are listening to Christian hip hop.

“You think about what’s happening in Ohio State right now, these movements of mini-revivals that break out,” KB 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, he said. “Gen Z, the people that don’t want Jesus, allegedly, are at these festivals,” he said.

KB is the industry’s strongest advocate for the genre because of how hip hop has affected 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.

“Something is happening in the mainstream right now where they are paying attention to what is going on in something that isn’t just music. This is a movement. People are coming to Christ. Marriages are being saved. Folks are finding themselves in this gospel representation.”

–Alan Goforth | Metro Voice