Christian and Gospel music are having a moment in an evolving industry. Lecrae, four-time Grammy-winning Christian artist and founder of Reach Records, joins Billboard On The Record to break down the genre’s rapid growth, how it’s attracting younger generations and the nuances of combining faith with business. From building his own independent label to staying tapped in with rising artists, Lecrae shares his journey creating a career outside the traditional system, why speaking out matters and what makes Christian music a uniquely powerful and complex space.

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Kristin Robinson: Christian and gospel music is going through a serious boom. According to Luminate’s latest report, Christian gospel has risen by 25% from 2024 to 2025, making it the second-fastest growing genre in America behind rock. New superstars like Forrest Frank, Brandon Lake, and others are making faith-based songs cool for a TikTok generation, and the mainstream music business is starting to cash in. My guest today to break down Christian music’s rise is Lecrae, a Christian artist and rapper who’s witnessed the genre’s evolution throughout his two decades of releasing hit songs. I’m going to ask him today how did the Christian gospel business got this big and what makes this space distinct from about every other genre in music. All right. Lecrae, welcome to On The Record. Thanks for being here.

Lecrae: Absolutely. Thanks for having me.

I’m happy to get you here in LA  you’re usually in Atlanta, right?

Lecrae: That’s right. Yeah.

Okay. But we’re both from Texas.

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

So we got the same roots. I love that. So thank you so much for coming. I really wanted on this season of the show to get into some genres that we haven’t really covered yet. And one of the genres we haven’t covered yet — if you could even call it a genre — is Christian music. So I’ll start there. I mean, Christian music is kind of really a subject matter rather than a genre.

There you go. Look at you.

Can you break down all the different sub-types within Christian and gospel?

So it’s the only genre that is based off of subject matter — or content. I think it’s over 51% of the content referencing Christian subject matter, then it’s Christian music.

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