Behind the Rhymes: KB – Give My All

Christian ministry Desiring God published an article on Friday titled “God Loves Good Hip Hop”, which highlighted a new Spotify playlist by Rapzilla.com called “Joy in God Through Hip Hop”.

This will be the beginning of a series of articles on Rapzilla.com about the Bible passages behind songs on the playlist. The first: “Give My All” by KB.


Look, I ain’t dying with my feet up /
I don’t care where you bury me, bruh /
Running hard till I drop /
So bury me in my Free runs /
Funny how I don’t want the stuff people dream of /
Rich living in a beachfront, eased up with my ease up /
So what if they think you the man /
That don’t mean nothing in the kingdom /
So what I want y’all to remember me for /
If you forget my name, please remember my Jesus

KB’s radical start to his 2014 EP 100 may have been inspired by a radical message the Apostle Paul delivered in Acts 20.

On Paul’s third missionary journey, he stopped in the city of Miletus on his way to Jerusalem and sent messengers to bring him the elders of the Ephesian church; a church Paul had served longer than any other, three years. When they arrived, Paul told them this would be the last time they saw his face.

Paul knew danger loomed on his mission trip, but this danger failed to deter him.

“Behold,” he said, “I am going to Jerusalem, constrained by the Spirit, not knowing what will happen to me there, except that the Holy Spirit testifies to me in every city that imprisonment and afflictions await me. But I do not account my life of any value nor as precious to myself, if only I may finish my course and the ministry that I received from the Lord Jesus, to testify to the gospel of the grace of God” (Acts 20:22-24).

Danger failed to deter Paul because he valued his mission and he who sent him more than his own life.

Why? What about his mission and he who sent him was better than breathing?

His mission was “to testify to the gospel of the grace of God.” Paul uttered these words to perhaps the same Ephesian elders who received his letter Ephesians, which featured the following famous passage on grace.

“By grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God, not a result of works, so that no one may boast. For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them” (Ephesians 2:8-10).

Paul recognized that God created him for a purpose. This purpose was “to testify to the gospel of the grace of God.” Apart from this purpose, his life was devoid of value.

And what a purpose!

Paul deserved hell, but he was instead heaven bound because the same Jesus he persecuted suffered on the cross to pay his sin debt. For Paul to suffer to spread the good news of he who suffered far worse to save him was a privilege.

Likewise, on “Give My All”, KB counted all comfort and fame he could achieve in music as loss for his listeners to remember his Savior.

His athlete language (“running hard till I drop”) is used by Paul not only in Acts 20 (“if only I may finish my course”), but also in 2 Timothy 4 (“I have finished the race”).

In running hard, people become uncomfortable in the present for the sake of a greater reward in the future. Some run hard for fortune and fame — they endure the uncomfortableness of hard work for the future comfort of “rich living in a beachfront.”

But Paul and KB’s hard running neglects present comfort not for the sake of a greater comfort in this lifetime, but instead that people may remember their Jesus.

Let this fuel us all to give our all, and inform for what we give our all, in the face of any type of suffering.

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.
RELATED ARTICLES

Most Popular