When asked what's one word to describe KB in 2015, the Reach Records rapper didn't miss a beat in delivering his answer: "Focus."

Sure enough, the artist also known as Kevin Burgess has a laser-like focus on delivering a message of hope both onstage and offstage, as an artist and as a father, husband, friend and mentor. Deeply rooted and serving in ministry in his home church community in Tampa, Florida, KB's new album, Tomorrow We Live is inspired by the real-life experiences we all go through, and the ultimate victory of Christ that fuels our hope. 

I had a chance to catch up with KB to talk about the new album, his international trips, the friends he put on the record, being a new daddy, and a new genre of music he's developing, among other things.

You've got the new album out, Tomorrow We Live, and it's about the ultimate victory that we have in Christ. When I heard that title it felt like it was almost like a play on the phrase, "Eat, drink, and be merry, for tomorrow we die." Was that at all part of your thinking in this?

That's exactly the thinking behind this. The phrase emerged from a brainstorm that we had. I believe it was Alex Medina that really helped bring those words together. We were playing with 70 words to create the album title and the combination Tomorrow We Live sounded so profound and represented the feel and the direction I was going musically.

Then it was later on that that verse, "eat, drink, and be merry for tomorrow we die," sort of just made sense as this being the distinction. So if we continue Paul's thought, if Jesus is alive, then it isn't tomorrow we die. It's tomorrow we live.

I love all the different ways that you illustrate that on this record. You're talking about internal struggles. You're talking about the love of family, like your wife and your new child. I feel like there's some kind of end times flavors on there, too. You kind of cover a lot of topics when you're under this umbrella. Talk about how these themes of family and internal struggle and external struggle kind of all fit in here.

I think all of those things you just described make up the human experience. There are external issues, internal issues, and then we're in relationship with people. That's what it means to be human. That's what it means to be in culture. So I want to make music and bring concepts that are transcendental that they can speak to the human experience no matter where you are and for all times.

I think that was kind of my burden on this record is to try to bring topics and songs and feelings and emotions. The album is really a collection of moments because it goes through the emotions of a day. If you think about it through the lens of a full 24 hour period, you can see what I was thinking how you would wake up in the morning and maybe jog and then come in from a jog and then how you would be with your family and have that family, how we would go out and maybe go to a wedding and celebrate the wedding. Then come home from the wedding and have very contemplative things and have a crisis that night. 

What was it about South Africa and feeling led to go there and get outside your comfort zone that really kind of brought all of this home to you? What was special about being there?

South Africa really provided clarity for me. I was away from home and all my responsibilities and I can't turn off my worry sometimes and my anxiety for people around me. I am constantly bearing somebody's cross and I'm OK with that, but that always stretches a man. So I found myself very -- I don't want to say free -- but very available to think. I had a lot of time to really just breathe in the inspiration of the scenery around me and really sit and look and listen.

There was time to breathe and listen and feel. Not just make music off of my obvious senses, but I also want to make music based off of what I feel. I felt those things were more evident to me when I went to Africa because it taught me that if I'm going to make the music that I really want to make, then I need to have a space where I can actually create it and that takes clarity. That takes availability and I think that's what South Africa really helped me with.

It takes a number of time zones away where that phone isn't ringing off the hook.

Yes.

You're talking about inspiration and responsibilities that you got away from, but on the other hand you're a dad now. You're one year in. How is being a dad and all that comes with effective your perspective as you wrote this record?

A lot of folks ask me how is this album different from my first one. I almost unanimously say I'm different. I am just not the same man that I was a few years ago and being a father is just instant growth. It happens literally overnight. You thought you were a man. Now you really, really, really become a man. Not that you can't be a man without a child. You can be a man without a child, but there are areas of sacrifice and selfishness that you get to explore when a child comes into the world.

Also with that, it's not just the responsibility, but you feel your heart get larger for this child. Because of this child, your heart enlarges and you feel a love that you've never felt for any human being. It's a different type of love. It's affection and almost this borderline obsession that wants nothing but good for an object. It's true love, not perverted with lust or selfish ambition. It's just I love you for what you are. You are absolutely beautiful with all your scrapes and bruises and birthmarks and dirty diapers and peeling skin and waking me up in the middle of the night. It's just all beautiful.

I can only describe it as falling in love. That's what I was getting at with my song on the album, "I Fall in Love With You." That's the only way I can describe it and it's shaped me.

The other thing that it's done for me is it's made me very hungry. I'm very focused. That's why I would describe myself as a focused man because I see a clear vision because I have a vision for what I want for him and what I want for him I want for the world. I want him to come alive. I want him to be happy. I want him to be whole. I want him to be healthy and that's very much what I want for the world.

Now I make my music that way not just to enrich my situation, but I want to see people come alive. I want to see people hopeful. I want to see people happy and I want to give them the truth that I know will get them there because I think as we are satisfied, God is glorified when our satisfaction is in Him. That's just basic Christianity and I want to see that come alive in people everywhere.

That's what I travel the globe to do and my baby has really given me a renewed sense of that and that vision to do that. That puts Twitter followers in perspective. That puts first week album sales in perspective. That puts my fellow artists in perspective. Nothing matters besides furthering the kingdom of God. That's the only thing that matters. Everything else is secondary at best.

If all of this is stripped from me tomorrow, I have built something here in Tampa where I'm counseling people and enriching their lives, further my church. That I would still be just as active in helping people because I don't need hip-hop. I don't need a name to do what I've been put on this Earth to do and I'm just blessed that I get the opportunity to do it through hip-hop.

While you were recently in Trinidad and Tobago, you said something about how God is working all over the globe. Tell me more about that perspective and what you're seeing out there.

First of all, Trinidad and Tobago is probably one of the best trips that I've ever had to a foreign country. The hospitality was just through the roof and the place that we were brought out to is this event that they do every other year. They have 8,000 to 10,000 people there. They just want to make this free event and bring out the artists to minister. They take it so serious that they bring out the literally best production on the island and it's the best production that you can get anywhere.
There was pyro. There was CO2 and these are things that are normally reserved for certain people, but they were like, "No, we want you to headline this and we want you to have access to it all."

Fireworks, confetti cannons, everything. I was easily surrounded by a few million dollars worth of production. I was like a kid in the candy store getting to put together this set where I can literally have fireworks and fire come up from the ground and confetti canon. 

One of the things I've always wanted to do was start my shows off with a fog that was just on stage like I was walking out of clouds to come to the microphone. I got to do that. It was an amazing, affirming experience as an artist and a creative. It really kind of put new fuel in my tank because I would love to give that experience to people everywhere all the time.

I know I'm a long ways from that, but it really gave me something to work towards. Then in addition to that, it's just God's people. Everywhere you go, Christianity, people have their different expressions of it as far as music is concerned and the liturgy or whatever, but people are in love with Jesus everywhere, every tribe, every tongue and it's crazy.

I met so many of my fans, people in Trinidad that know my music, that are singing every word. It's incredible. This is happening. We get so nearsighted at home, but the worst things are the things that are right in front me. I strain the net to swallow the camel all the time. I always get readjusted when I go to foreign countries. There are a billion things happening outside of you, that you don't realize, but this little chink in your armor is causing you to be ungrateful. That really struck me.

You talked about how spiritually and focus wise being abroad has affected you. What about creatively? You've got this new sound you describe as "world trap." How would you describe that to someone since this is something new that you're doing?

World trap is basically a combination of two things that I love. I love big sounding music. I love like Lion King anthems and Disney soundtracks, lots of vocals and instruments and then also trap music, which is closer to the culture that I grew up in, that I'm in now. I'm very close to South Florida, which is the home of trap music in a lot of ways.

I wanted to combine the two and I'm with a group called Cobra, a production team, and Joseph, who sort of leads it, is a musical genius, plays all these instruments and can write strings. He has on two occasions hired an orchestra to replay my songs. That's what got my sound, Doubts, on 100. If you haven't heard that yet, check that out. It's a literal orchestra playing my song and he wrote the pieces for it. Same thing for horns and the bass. All these instruments, he's just a monster at that and I just kind of give him a sense and he runs with it.

Dirty Rice, the other half of Cobra. There's another part of Cobra and he brings in the trap element and I think it meshes really well and I'm looking forward to doing a lot more of that type of music in the future.

That's awesome. Also another thing, it feels like you're doing more of, on this record, is you're actually singing more. Is this a side of you that you've been holding back for a while and felt like it was a necessary part moving forward?

It is. I took voice lessons for a year when I was in college and I was singing Latin hymns and old negro spirituals and just trying to get my vocals right and I used all of that in my music with harmonies. If you listen to my music a lot, you'll hear a lot of harmonies in there before this. I was like there are certain things I want to do and I normally write them for singers to sing and my team sort of pushed me and said, "You can hold a note. Go in there and sing it."

After many takes, we established some pretty fresh things and even did a song where I sung the whole thing. I think it's a part of my skill set and decided to implement it more.

You worked with some great people on this record and a diverse array. What's your friendship with folks like Bubba Watson and Matty from For Today. There's even this guy I'd never heard of Justin Ebach.

Justin Ebach is a writer for Word. He just has an incredible voice. He's also a phenomenal writer. He wrote two things on my album. He wrote "Lights Go Out." He also wrote another song that ended up not making the album, but is in that same vein of his skill of making these really heartfelt hooks. His voice is just unique. He kind of has an Adam Levine sound to it. I love hearing him sing.

Justin normally likes to write stuff and has other people sing it. I said I don't put people on my music for their name. I put them on there because I think that they sound good, so that's fine. People don't have to know who you are, but I want you on the album and I want your name on there too.

There's Blanca as well on that song. I've always been a fan of Blanca since the Group 1 Crew days. I'm so excited to see her out doing her own thing; she's just killing it right now. Had her into the studio in Orlando. Good time of fellowship and she went in there and we were just in awe. No auto tune, no nothing. Just perfect pitch. Literally we just had free access to do whatever we wanted to do with her voice because she can do it all.

Then Bubba. He's a Christian hip-hop fan. He jumped on the opportunity to be on that song. We were originally trying to get Toby on that song. It was going to be me and Toby, kind of shake things up a little bit, and it ended up not working out with Toby because of timing. So we were like let's just do Bubba. Obviously Toby and Bubba are different, but we were like it's about taking risk. Let Bubba do some.

So I got with Bubba and wrote a verse for him and he kind of tweaked it a little bit and we went in there. Also in Orlando we recorded with Bubba and the next day recorded with Blanca and Bubba went in there and did his thing. I was excited about that. Matty is actually my homey. He's a good friend of mine, so that just made sense.

We haven't heard much from your buddy Canon. How is he doing? How is he recovering and all that?

He's actually doing very well. Actually I was in Trinidad and Tobago with him last weekend and we had this epic moment on stage where we did "Paganini," which is a song from Andy Mineo and I basically had him come out on stage. He uses crutches. Got out on stage and sat down in a chair and we did the song together. It was amazing. It was just a powerful image of God's grace seeing a man who fell 30 feet walking out onto the stage in all confidence and skill and setting it on fire. He's doing very well.

He's back. That's what he kept saying the whole time: "I'm back. I'm back. I'm back."

How could people be praying for you and your family as the record is about to release, as summer season is about to come out? What are some ways people can be praying for you?

They can be praying for impact, that this album scales and also has impact. That people are blessed by it and encouraged by it and feel like their lives are changed by it. Definitely want to pray for that.
Just pray that we continue to keep our hands to the plow, like this is work, work that I love. I don't ever want to get sidetracked and try to milk the system or manipulate people and live for the perks, but just pray that we stay focused. I would ask people to join me in praying for that.