Christian Review Magazine Issue 4 - April 2015 | Page 67

P

erhaps the most
influential jazz musician
ever, Louis Armstrong was
born to a mother who often turned
to prostitution and was son to a
father who abandoned him soon
after he was born. Johnny Cash, the
“Man in Black,” was born into a
family of sharecroppers and by the
age of 12 was spending his days
hauling heavy loads of cotton. If
one inspects the formative years of
artists and musicians often a
common thread he would find is
that early on, music appeared as
the last thing on the list as an
ultimate destination.

READ OUR RE
VIEW OF KB’S
NEW
ALBUM “TOM
ORROW WE LI
VE”

Kevin Burgess, now better known
by his stage name KB, is a rapper.
His latest EP 100 debuted at #1 on
Billboard’s Christian Album Chart,
#4 on Billboard’s Rap Chart and
respectfully at #22 on Billboard’s
coveted Top 200 Album Chart. He’s
won a Dove Award (Nominated
twice), been a Recording Academy
featured artist on Grammy.com and
has received critical acclaim from
his peers and media such as
Billboard Magazine and The Blaze.
He’s toured nationally with Tenth
Avenue North and is scheduled to
join Trip Lee for the upcoming “Rise
Tour.” But like so many musicians
that came before him, KB, the
rapper, almost never happened.

seek a safer instrument for musical
expression. “I grew up in a
structured military family. In my
house, you couldn’t listen to hip
hop,” KB explains. “I used to hide in
a closet and listen to it on my
Walkman.” KB hails from Tampa,
FL by way of an Air Force base close
to East St. Louis. Along the way,
KB, thirsting for an outlet for his
love of music with a desperate need
for expression, picked up the
trumpet. Fast forward to the
present and KB has already
released a mix tape, a widely
successful debut album and is
working on his second hip-hop
studio album. And in what was once
considered the disfavored music of
his childhood, KB has discovered
redemption.

At birth, the doctor didn’t think
he’d ever be able to talk or even
speak clearly. Fortunately, KB was
able to overcome this ailment, but
hip-hop was frowned upon in his
household, forcing the youngster to

KB was barely a teenager when his
parents divorced and seemingly
overnight he was ripped from a
structured safe family-first
environment to a single parent

household in a rundown community
in Southside St. Petersburg, FL.
“All of a sudden it was just me and
mom smack dab in the middle of
the hood,” KB recalls. It was an
overwhelming stressful situation
for everyone but especially for a
teenager. KB struggled to find his
place. A naturally skilled learner, he
was at the top of his class. But for
all his effort, both positive and
negative, there came opposition for
a young man trying to tackle his
own demons – The biggest obstacle
being the loss of a father to a nasty
divorce. KB tried to fill the void with
anything from sports and gambling
to dabbling with drugs and
everything in-between. Struggling
with anger, he’d often get into
street fights. It wasn’t until he
found faith and rediscovered hip
hop, the contraband music from his
childhood, that KB would find his
place. Ironically, at first, it came in
the form of dreadlocks.

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