KB Case Study by Derek Cruz

Biography

cruzdj2 — 2023-11-09 13:42:15 UTC

Kevin Elijah Burgess, more known by his stage name "KB" was born on July 21, 1988 (age 35) in St. Petersburg, Florida. He is an American Christian hip-hop artist and is currently the leader of the hip-hop group HGA. After his birth his parents moved to Southern Illinois until they divorced when he was 8 years old. He moved back into south side of St. Petersburg with his mother which is "probably one of the worst areas in the state." He was a great student and was offered a path to college through a program at St. Petersburg Collegiate High School. He started to struggle with extreme depression which led him to abuse drugs, this negatively impacted his school performance. He even thought about suicide. After high school Kevin enrolled in Bible college where he became friends with a group of Christian rappers. They formed a hip-hop group called HGA "His Glory Alone" The track “100” from the EP of the same name, took home the Dove Award for Rap/Hip-Hop Song of the Year in 2014. And his last LP, 2015’s Tomorrow We Live, garnered both critical and commercial acclaim, earning a Stellar Award nomination for Rap/Hip-Hop Gospel CD of the Year and debuting on the Billboard charts as the No.1 Christian Album and the No. 4 Rap Album overall. His music is very lyrical and on the hip-hop side of rap. #kb #roughchildhood #christian #nothingtosomething #Florida #HGA

My Story

cruzdj2 — 2023-11-17 13:21:50 UTC

Back in 2020 when I became a Christian, music was very dull, the only good christian music I knew was Casting Crowns, Hillsong, and bands like those. So I was still listening to a lot of mainstream rappers like Eminem, Travis Scott, etc. This didn't help my faith because they were all talking about the same stuff, sex, drugs, and Eminem even talks about murder a lot. I ended up finding KB and Bizzle in 2020. I was thinking about doing Bizzle for my case study but KB sounded easier. Anyways, KB helped me listen to christian music that in the hip hop genre. Which connected me closer to God because I was rapping about Him when I rapped KB's music. His music also helps me get into the "wanting to go to church" mood. My faith gets dull and I often go back to stuff I'm trying to leave in the past but KB's music helps me to reconnect to my faith.

Lyric Analysis

cruzdj2 — 2023-12-05 13:56:12 UTC

The song "No Chains" is a rap song released in 2018 by the Christian artist KB. The song talks about KB being free from the bondage of this world. "I'm so free I got no chains on me" is the chorus of the song. KB talks about his life and his start of his Christian life in the song. "Right back where I started with it, I've been on since college with it" College is where KB started his career when he became friends with a group of Christian rappers and formed the hip-hop group called HGA. Another lyric talks about how he is bring God to hip-hop and spreading the message through his music, "My side we revive God through the WiFi." KB talks about choosing God over fame. He has the talent to be super famous but chose to make music for God and not the world, "Faithful over famous." Overall, KB talks about other issues in people's hearts like smoking weed to be happy and other things. No Chains is one of my favorite songs. KB did a excellent job making a good song with a great message. #saved #rapper #revivial #freedom #jesus #HGA #nochains #KB

Influential Lyrics

cruzdj2 — 2023-12-11 13:44:40 UTC

The song Armies by KB has been a song I've always loved since I first listened to it. The song talks about God having an army of angels to protect KB. Anytime I feel alone, attacked, sad, I can listen to this song to remind myself I'm not alone. The song makes me feel comfortable and get's me hyped up to get up and start doing something instead of sitting there letting the emotions get to me. My favorite lyrics in this song are, "Oh vanity, Satan try to cancel me, I don't fear your plan for me, I just made a canopy. When you come to handle me, there's another hand on me. Even when they all abandon me God got the destiny, I see no enemy, yeah." Those lyrics make me feel loved and feel that i'm not alone and that God is always with me.

Artist's Fashion

cruzdj2 — 2023-12-11 13:54:13 UTC

In many of KB´s pictures he is wearing street wear. He wears clothes like designed T-shirts, joggers, athletic brand shoes like Nike and Adidas. I can't assume that his style is because of where he was raised. In St. Petersburg there is many different clothing styles, some people wear athletic brands like Nike, others prefer brands like Vans. KB also wears his own brand very often as seen in the picture above. His brand is a street wear type of brand. There is letter-man jackets, hoodies, sweatpants, and t shirts.

KB's Musical Influences

cruzdj2 — 2024-01-18 13:11:24 UTC

KB has multiple musical influences. At first though, KB was influenced by the movie "8 Mile". He says, "Like many, I saw and was influenced by the movie 8 Mile. [Laughs] I think everyone who ended up seeing 8 Mile thought they were a rapper!" Once getting into Christian rap, he found someone that influenced him in the community. A christian rapper named FLAME was KB's influence. He states, "I was introduced to a guy named FLAME, his first album is still one of my favorites to this day. I immediately identified with him through his slang and accent, as he is from St. Louis, not far from where I grew up." He also says he is influenced by The Ambassador, Da' T.R.U.T.H., and Lecrae.

Geographical Post

cruzdj2 — 2024-01-18 19:00:47 UTC

KB was born in St. Petersburg, Florida. St. Petersburg is most known for beautiful weather, a lot of culture and arts, sports, dining, and of course amazing beaches. St. Petersburg actually holds the record for the most amount of days of consecutive sunshine which is 768 days. As in hip-hop the top known artists from here are Rod Wave, KB of course, and Chester Watson. For sports, St. Petersburg hosts the Tampa Bay Rays and Tampa Bay Rowdies. They don't host but they also root for the Tampa Bay Buccaneers. Another cool fact is St. Petersburg has the one of the largest cable suspension bridges in the Western Hemisphere which is 4.1 miles long. Overall St. Pete is a very well rounded and beautiful town.

Art/Imagery

cruzdj2 — 2024-01-18 19:22:44 UTC

Many of KB's music videos are bland. It will just be him jumping around rapping the music. Because he is a Christian he doesn't use images in guns or gangs or women or anything like that. In his music video for his song "Armies" he uses fire. I believe he used fire to represent the army of God. In his song "10K" he uses a lot of CGI. You see him in this weird futuristic box, and then like an ice box, then in nature. KB also shows himself more in nature or outside. In 10K he showed himself in a grass field. To sum it up, KB's art style is mostly random but his newer songs use more CGI than his older songs.