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A new wave of artists is transcending traditional notions of Christian music<\/a>, drawing young global audiences<\/a> to faith-based rap, Afrobeats and R&B<\/a>.<\/p>\n Often boosted by social media, many of them got their start with independent labels or by uploading self-made songs to streaming platforms. Now, bigger labels and streaming services are catching on.<\/p>\n People are looking for \u201csomething soul-feeding, something forward-looking, positive,\u201d said James \u201cTrig\u201d Rosseau Sr., CEO of Holy Culture Radio. \u201cThey find a sonic coziness, but then a message that is feeding that need.\u201d<\/p>\n Interest in the music has proliferated since 2022, said representatives at Spotify and Amazon Music. However, breaking into the mainstream has been challenging for this group of mostly Black and\/or African artists who are making music that can’t always be defined and that hasn’t been well-represented in the Christian music industry.<\/p>\n \u201cOver the last two years, there\u2019s something happening momentum-wise, and it still feels underground, but now it\u2019s starting to get the visibility that it\u2019s deserving,\u201d said Angela Jollivette, who previously oversaw the Grammy Awards’ Gospel\/Contemporary Christian categories and runs Moonbaby Media, a music supervision and production company.<\/p>\n Christian rap\u2019s star rose around 2013 when rapper Lecrae Moore<\/a> won his first Grammy. Today, newer artists are modernizing Christian hip-hop. Florida rappers Caleb Gordon and Alex Jean are among those leaning into rap\u2019s subgenres as well as Afrobeats<\/a>, the popular blend of West African music styles. Nigerian Christian Afrobeats pioneer Limoblaze is now signed to Moore\u2019s Reach Records label, and Afrobeats artists such as CalledOut Music and \u201cThe Voice UK\u201d winner Annatoria are on the rise.<\/p>\n \u201cI think the world is now like, we can hear ourselves represented,\u201d Moore said. \u201cTo me, that is a picture of the faith. We\u2019re a global faith.\u201d<\/p>\n Dallas-based Ghanaian Canadian artist Ryan Ofei, a former member of Christian act Maverick City Music, pivoted to Afrobeats-R&B fusion, releasing his first solo album in 2024. He said the growing vein of Christian music is less \u201cpreachy\u201d but still a \u201cmassive evangelistic tool\u201d for nonchurchgoers.<\/p>\n \u201cYou can bob your head, you can have a long drive,\u201d Ofei said. \u201cBut the whole time, you\u2019re still edified, and you can still feel the presence of the Lord.\u201d<\/p>\n Christian rap, R&B and Afrobeats artists say they want to write music they can play around their children \u2014 but without sacrificing the craft.<\/p>\n \u201cI\u2019m giving them sounds that are ghetto and cool, but not profane,\u201d said rapper<\/a> Jackie Hill Perry. She called Christian rap today less intellectual and more \u201cvibe-driven\u201d than when she started more than a decade ago.<\/p>\n Rapper Childlike CiCi got her start as a secular artist recording in \u201ctrap houses,\u201d a term for drug-selling homes where some of hip-hop\u2019s biggest names also propelled trap music to popularity. A few years after becoming a Christian in 2019, Childlike CiCi sought to make music she couldn\u2019t find \u2014 rooted in faith but inspired by trap and its more aggressive counterpart, drill.<\/p>\n \u201cWhen people think of Christian hip-hop, they expect it to just be like Kidz Bop,\u201d she said. \u201cI think it\u2019s bigger than that. Like, the Bible is not Kidz Bop<\/a>.\u201d<\/p>\n Some artists found Christian rap corny at first. But London-based Limoblaze said Moore\u2019s music transformed his faith \u201cfrom a religious practice to an actual relationship with Jesus.\u201d<\/p>\n Capitalizing on Afrobeats’ global popularity and his own growing audience, Limoblaze met with Spotify, Apple Music, YouTube and Amazon about three years ago. Months later, Amazon launched its first Afrogospel playlist, he said.<\/p>\n \u201cI think Christian Afrobeats is slowly but eventually going to be on a mainstream level, at least in the African music scene,\u201d said Limoblaze.<\/p>\n Compared to mainstream counterparts, streaming numbers for these subgenres remain smaller, but their fanbases’ dedication is outsized, said Lauren Stellato, programming lead for Christian and gospel music at Amazon Music.<\/p>\n \u201cThese young artists and young fans are bringing faith into sounds and spaces that they really already live in,\u201d she said. \u201cThe audiences are responding to it because it feels natural.\u201d<\/p>\n Some artists have collaborated with popular Christian acts like Forrest Frank, and Christian rap is breaking into secular, mainstream spaces. Christian rappers Gordon, Jean, nobigdyl., Hulvey, Jon Keith and GAWVI performed at the 2024 Rolling Loud Miami festival. Months later, Rolling Loud gave a solo set to Christian rapper Miles Minnick, who spoke this year on a Grammy panel and performed at a Super Bowl event<\/a>.<\/p>\n Churches have long resisted acts that veer from tradition, like Kirk Franklin’s modern gospel sound in the 1990s, said Emmett G. Price III, dean of Africana studies at Berklee College of Music. Price added that although there is still resistance, newer artists are important because \u201cyou don\u2019t have a homogenous Black church.\u201d<\/p>\n When traditional worship songs don\u2019t resonate, there\u2019s nothing \u201cungodly\u201d about wanting God in other music, Moore said.<\/p>\n Artist C\u00e8Jae said her R&B songs are still rooted in the Bible, but they also explore personal themes like heartbreak and struggling to pray regularly.<\/p>\n \u201cWe don\u2019t get the feeling part sometimes,\u201d she said of traditional gospel. \u201cOr if we do, it sometimes seems like a recycled message.\u201d<\/p>\n U.K.-based alternative artist Sondae said the sonic diversity helps people find music they can connect with \u2014 whether that\u2019s gospel, Afrobeats or contemporary worship songs that appeal more to white audiences.<\/p>\n \u201cI feel like God has blessed his harvest in such a way that there\u2019s different flavors of fruits popping up everywhere, and everyone\u2019s getting blessed,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n Christian rap, R&B and Afrobeats artists still lack the same industry buy-in, financial resources and radio exposure contemporary Christian and secular artists have, said Jollivette, who is working with the Recording Academy to develop a rhythm and praise Grammy. Some have won in existing faith-based Grammy categories by competing against artists with vastly different sounds.<\/p>\n Christian music is also a lyric-based term, so categorizing artists in a \u201cgeneration that doesn\u2019t really draw genre distinctions\u201d is challenging, said Mat Anderson, senior vice president of label strategy and operations at Sony Music Entertainment’s Provident Entertainment.<\/p>\n Observers say the quality of Christian hip-hop and its counterparts has improved over the years, but skeptics remain.<\/p>\n Christian rapper Torey D\u2019Shaun said on rapper nobigdyl.’s podcast that even rap he admired artistically didn\u2019t resonate at first. A Kendrick Lamar lyric led D’Shaun to faith after hearing his East St. Louis upbringing reflected on Lamar\u2019s \u201cgood kid, m.A.A.d city\u201d album, with parallel tales in Los Angeles, he said.<\/p>\n \u201cWe should be allowed to make denser music than youth group music,\u201d said D\u2019Shaun, a member of nobigdyl.\u2019s indie tribe rap collective<\/p>\n C\u00e8Jae said streaming representatives have told her more platform playlists would help the genre take off, but there’s not enough Christian R&B music yet. Anderson from Sony Music said that\u2019s starting to change.<\/p>\n Still, in a self-focused industry where it can be hard to make money and break out, Hill Perry said it\u2019s important to heed the Bible\u2019s call to humility. She advises artists to avoid obsessing over numbers and practice humility daily, which will translate into their careers. Limoblaze agrees.<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s such a resolve for me, knowing that whatever is going to happen is going to happen because of the Spirit of God and not because I am powerful, talented,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n Kramon is a corps member for The Associated Press\/Report for America Statehouse News Initiative. Report for America<\/a> is a nonprofit national service program that places journalists in local newsrooms to report on undercovered issues.<\/p>\n