KB Believes Christian Hip Hop Is Helping Lead Gen Z to Christ
- Michael Foust Crosswalk Headlines Contributor
- Updated Oct 09, 2024
Dove Award-winning artist KB is calling on the church community to embrace Christian hip hop as a tool for the gospel, emphasizing its influence on younger generations who may be skeptical of the church but receptive to faith-infused music that speaks to their culture. KB won a Dove Award last week for Rap/Hip-Hop Album of the Year (His Glory Alone II), his third win in that category and his sixth overall. Afterward, he gave his testimony, saying he was saved nearly two decades ago after a friend gave him a Christian hip-hop record.
The gospel "never made sense until I heard it in the language of hip-hop, and God saved me," he said.
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," he said. "You're talking about the massive deconversion and rejection of Christianity in Gen Z. …What are they listening to? Hip-hop."
The church, though, has an opportunity to capture the genre for Christ, he said. Teens and young adults who are involved in revival movements across the U.S., he said, are often listening to Christian hip-hop.
"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, he said.
"Gen Z, the people that don't want Jesus, allegedly -- are at these festivals," he said.
KB is an advocate for CHH, he said, 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 all the way 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."
Mainstream culture, though, is recognizing the excellence of CHH, he added.
Kendrick Lamar, a mainstream rapper with 17 Grammys, referenced Christian artists Lecrae and Dee-1 on a recent single. Lamar is performing at halftime of the 2025 Super Bowl.
"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," KB said of CHH. "This is a movement. People are coming to Christ. Marriages are being saved. Folks are finding themselves in this gospel representation."
WATCH: KB, Lecrae - Miracles (Official Music Video)
Photo Credit: ©Dove Awards
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.
