Kanye West Isn’t the First to Merge Rap and Gospel

Rap and gospel are both rooted in black culture. Now, Kanye West's bridging the two with his latest album.

Transcript

00:00Hip-hop is like the first music that wasn't directly born out of the black church.

00:24You could actually argue that all indigenous American music, except for that of the Native

00:29American, owes its roots to the Negro spiritual, and it is that music of the slaves.

00:34It was a way of them, from a heightened spiritual standpoint, to deal with the situation they

00:39found themselves in.

00:40With a music like hip-hop that is so popular and people gravitate towards it, if it wants

00:45to use that music as the foundation or the base to create or to have a message that goes

00:52out that is a gospel message, that is a message of salvation, is a message of redemption,

00:58is a message of forgiveness, and that can take root around the world, I think that's great.

01:28Gospel music is gospel.

01:34The good news is what message you're putting on top of whatever that music is.

01:40For the first time in its history, you have the black church in a certain way who is saying,

01:44you know what?

01:45This style of music is reaching a generation that the style of music that we're used to

01:51and we're singing on Sunday morning is not.

01:53And so we need to get a part of that so that we can stay relevant to the parishioners that

01:59we have now, and particularly their children.

02:12We're also living in a culture that is so cynical in so many ways, and it's becoming

02:17so polarized around things like politics and even religion that people are looking for

02:23purpose and meaning so that they can connect not only with their own inner purpose, but

02:27to be able to connect with other people.

02:28I look at what he's trying to do, hopefully, right, that whatever it is that people may

02:34have had hesitations about him in the past will stay in the past if he stays on the path

02:40of being what it is that he's saying he's doing through the music and these new Sunday

02:44services that he's doing.

02:45I'll be his biggest support.

02:54I love you.

02:55I love you.

02:57I love you.