Member-only story
Black Gospel Matters — Because Gospel Is Intrinsically Black
Gospel is one of the only predominantly Black art forms left on the American cultural landscape. Here’s why.
Update 6/7/22: Level has a new home. You can read this article and other new articles by visiting LEVELMAN.com.
When Kanye West debuted his “Sunday Service” sessions at the beginning of 2019, performing gospel-influenced reworkings of his songs and backed by a Black gospel choir, it was met — like most Kanye West undertakings — with both praise and skepticism by fans and critics. It didn’t, however, come as much of a surprise. West had already flirted with gospel music in “Jesus Walks” from his 2004 debut album and again in 2016 on The Life of Pablo’s “Ultralight Beam,” which featured gospel superstar Kirk Franklin and a 10-piece choir.
But West’s embrace of gospel, most recently with his gospel-rap album Jesus Is King, is nothing new or revolutionary in hip-hop or R&B. The Game, Pharrell, Mary J. Blige, Charlie Wilson, Chance the Rapper, even Snoop Dogg — who released the surprisingly decent gospel double album Bible of Love in 2018 — have participated in gospel music. Two decades before West put a gospel choir behind his music, Sean “Diddy” Combs brought out a choir at the 1997 VMAs to perform the Grammy-winning hit “I’ll be Missing You,” his tribute to the late Biggie Smalls.
Gospel music has been the thread connecting Black music for a half-century, the source to which the winding rivers of Black music inevitably return. Much of gospel music’s bond to the Black community owes to its twin messages of faith and deliverance that have sustained Black Americans in the long struggle for emancipation and equality. Yet, while other Black musical innovations have routinely been appropriated by White artists — whether jazz, blues, rock ’n’ roll, or hip-hop (see: Post Malone’s 2019 American Music Award win for Favorite Rap/Hip Hop Album) — gospel music still remains largely an African American market. How that came to be is a story of numerous factors, some more innocuous than others. However, with the increasing likelihood that the time is nearing its end, it’s worth celebrating gospel’s evolution and existence as one of the last predominantly Black artforms left on the…
