Dove-Award-winning artist KB says Christian hip-hop can be a "powerful tool" to advance the gospel, and he's on a mission to change how the church views the genre.
After all, he notes, he himself was saved and discipled through Christian hip-hop (CHH).
"That's how I found out who Charles Spurgeon was, and John Wesley and Martin Luther," KB told Christian Headlines, referencing his early influences, CHH artists Flame and Ambassador. "I went to Bible college because of Christian hip-hop.
"The church has to see it as a resource," KB said.
This month, KB released his newest album, His Glory Alone II, a 16-track project that includes collaborations with Lecrae, Brandon Lake, Britt Nicole, Wade and others. The album, he says, is his most vulnerable project to date. That vulnerability, he said, comes from being older – he's 35 – and having more experience in life as a husband and father.
KB wants the body of Christ to see Christian hip-hop in the same way it views other genres within Christian music – as a method to spread the gospel. For example, in his track Miracles, a collaborative song with Lecrae, the duo raps and sings about how God has worked in their lives.
"It's a powerful tool in the hands of God," he said of CHH. "Open your eyes and look at how active God has been in doing great things with it.
"We use hip-hop – the most powerful genre in the world – to tell the Gospel story," he said.
KB recounted a story that was relayed to him about a group of inmates in Alaska watching his recent appearance on Good Morning America. The inmates "were so moved by the segment that they all spent their money and ordered" KB's book, Dangerous Jesus. Once the books arrive, the inmates will go through them as a group.
"God is using this music to save our children, to shape our generation, to introduce people [to Jesus]," he said.
At his concerts, he sees people of every generation and every ethnicity, he said.
"Hip-hop is a language that is understood, particularly by certain people, in powerful ways," KB said. "We speak that language on behalf of the church."
Photo courtesy: ©Provident, used with permission.
Video courtesy: ©KB
Michael Foust has covered the intersection of faith and news for 20 years. His stories have appeared in Baptist Press, Christianity Today, The Christian Post, the Leaf-Chronicle, the Toronto Star and the Knoxville News-Sentinel.
