Christian hip hop has most memorable Dove Awards to date

On the same evening that Lecrae became the first hip-hop artist to win Artist of the Year at the Dove Awards, KB orchestrated what the Associated Press called one of the memorable performances of the night.

[Kevin Burgess] and a group of dancers faced off against other dancers dressed as police officers in riot gear. The song, “I Believe,” ended with both sides joining in dance and Burgess said as a black man in America, he wanted the performance to explore the issue of police violence.

“What does it look like to have the two come together and talk and become unified, linking together to actually bring peace?” KB said, according to the AP. “It’s a hot topic. And I want to see more believers coming in hand and hand.”

More Christian hip-hop artists performed than usual at the 2015 Dove Awards.

At the sold out Allen Arena at Lipscomb University in Nashville, Tenn., Derek Minor performed “Empire,” track No. 3 of his album by the same name, alongside Grammy-nominated, four-time Dove Award-winning, Christian Music Hall of Famer Nicole C. Mullen.

Minor — along with Dirty Rice, Joseph Prielozny, Street Symphony, S1, J. Rhodes, 808XEliTE, GAWVI, Nate Robinson, Mashell, Vohnbeatz, Lasanna “Ace” Harris, Alex Medina and Jaquebeatz — won a Dove for their production on Lecrae’s album Anomaly, which won Rap/Hip-Hop Album of the Year.

Tedashii also performed at the 46th annual event. He rapped a new song, which can be heard when the award ceremony airs on the Trinity Broadcasting Network (TBN) on Sunday, Oct. 18 at 10 p.m. ET.

Televised award winners will include Lecrae’s victories in the Artist of the Year and Rap/Hip-Hop Album of the Year categories. He also won Rap/Hip-Hop Song of the Year for “All I Need Is You,” which was co-wrote by Joseph Prielozny, Dirty Rice, Dustin “Dab” Bowie and Latasha Williams.

In addition to KB, Derek Minor and Tedashii, NF performed “All I Have” at the Doves. He received numerous nominations for awards, including Short Form Video of the Year for his song “Wake Up,” but he lost that honor to Andy Mineo’s Kyle Dettman-directed music video for “You Can’t Stop Me.”

Four performances and four awards, including Lecrae’s making of history, made the Dove Awards a memorable night for Christian hip hop.

All photos by John Shearer/Getty Images for Dove Awards

David Daniels
David Daniels
David Daniels is a columnist at Rapzilla.com and the managing editor of LegacyDisciple.org. He has been published at Desiring God, The Gospel Coalition, Christianity Today, CCM Magazine, Bleacher Report, The Washington Times and HipHopDX.
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