KB (Feat. Andy Mineo) – Not Today Satan

Kevin Elijah Burgess (aka KB) is an American rapper/ hip hop artist and leader of His Glory Alone (HGA).  His group caught the attention of Lecrae,  Ben Washer, and DJ Official and invited to Lecrae’s Acquire the Fire tour.  He appeared on Lecrae’s Rehab before releasing his first mixtape, Who is KB? before going solo.

KB released four albums and one EP:

• Weight & Glory (2012)
• 100 (EP, 2004)
• Tomorrow We Live (2015)
• Today We Rebel (2017)
• His Glory Alone (2020)

Also, check out my review of Crowns & Thorns (Oceans).

Lyrics can be found at https://genius.com/Kb-not-today-satan-lyrics.

Note to new users: This is a different kind of review site!  Read About the Berean Test and Evaluation Criteria prior to reading this review.

1. What message does the song communicate?

This song is Satan’s smackdown where KB, with his many cleverly-placed pop culture references, informs us that:

• Satan’s endgame will be the lake of fire.
• KB stays on the straight and narrow path.
• The Devil’s attacks are relentless and enticing, accusing and reminding us of our past and future.
• KB wears the armor of God, protecting us from Satan’s attacks.
• KB is covered by Christ’s blood.
• Christ paid for our lawbreaking.
• Satan works in politics, the Instagram Explorer page, and KB’s last court date.
• KB is vigilant of Satan’s schemes, enabling further resistance.
• Evil doesn’t sleep.
• If Satan reminds us of our past, remind him of his future.

I have an issue with KB when he says Satan is responsible for all evil.  He’s not.  This communicates a failure to take responsibility for our actions.

Score: 8/10

2. How much of the lyrics line up with Scripture?

Almost all of it is Biblical, except towards the end of Verse 3.  Not everything bad is Satan’s fault.

[Chorus]

An old black church phrase, used as a reminder to Satan that his days are numbered.  His end is the lake of fire (Revelation 20:7-10), combined with taunts similar to Elijah’s statements to the 450 prophets of Baal (1 Kings 18:27) and “get behind me satan”, spoken by Jesus to Peter (Matthew 16:23 and Mark 8:33).  Each iteration of Chorus contains additional lines that add to this theme along with filler.

[Verse 1]

Lines 1 and 2: KB wants to stay on the straight and narrow (Proverbs 3:5-6, Proverbs 4:27, Isaiah 30:21, Matthew 7:13, and Luke 13:24-25).

Lines 3 and 4: References the famous story of Adam and Eve’s partaking of forbidden fruit in Genesis 3:3-7.  KB must train to resist the devil so that he will flee (James 4:7).

Line 5: Our battle with Satan is spiritual, not physical (Ephesians 6:12).

Line 6: NBA star Stephen Curry sponsors the company Under Armour.  KB uses clever wordplay to reference how he is “under armor”, referencing the armor of God in Ephesians 6:10-18.

Lines 7 and 8: More wordplay, this time about Rudyard Kipling’s The Jungle Book, adapted by Disney in 1967 and again in 2016.  Satan cannot “bear” to be around us when we continue to wear our “under armor”.

Line 9: The Devil is an accuser, living up to his name (Zechariah 3:1-2 and Revelation 12:10).

Line 10: That is, by the blood of Jesus (Ephesians 1:7, Hebrews 9:22, 1 Peter 1:2, and 1 Peter 1:18-19).

Lines 11 and 12: References Genesis 3:15, where the seed of the woman (Jesus) would crush the head of the serpent (Satan).

Line 13: Part of Jesus’ mission is to pay for our sins on the cross (Isaiah 53:1-12, Matthew 20:28, Mark 10:45, John 1:29, John 3:16, John 19:30, Acts 4:12, Acts 20:28, Romans 5:6-10, Romans 6:23, 1 Corinthians 1:30, 1 Corinthians 6:20, 2 Corinthians 5:21, Galatians 1:3-4, Galatians 3:13, Ephesians 1:7, Colossians 2:14, 1 Timothy 2:6, Titus 2:14, Hebrews 9:12, Hebrews 9:15, Hebrews 9:22, Hebrews 9:26, 1 Peter 1:17-21, 1 Peter 2:24, 1 Peter 1:18-19, 1 John 1:7, 1 John 2:1-2, and Revelation 5:9).  It adds a basketball reference, that Jesus finished it by making a basket with nothing but net (John 19:30).

Lines 14 and 15: DM means “direct message” in social media, usually for romance.  KB is married and isn’t looking for a partner, avoiding adultery of the heart (Matthew 5:27-30).  KB also references the famed OJ Simpson murder trial, stating that he will defend his marriage much like OJ Simpson’s lawyer defended him.

Lines 16 and 17: KB wishes the Devil would enter the lake of fire last weekend.  Don’t we all!

[Verse 2]

Line 1-6: A phrase that means “the person we’ve talked about entered into the conversation”.  KB uses it to introduce his opinions about where he thinks Satan works today, including:

• Politics
• The Instagram Explore page, which is full of temptation
• KB’s court date.  I’ll trust KB on this one since I don’t know the details.

Line 7: KB asks God to increase trust in Him.

Lines 8 and 9: Another clothing line word play, this time, it’s North Face.  KB intends to fix his eyes on Jesus (Hebrews 12:2 ).  Also, see commentary on Verse 1, lines 1 and 2 regarding straight and narrow.

Line 10: The Bible describes our short life like a vapor (Psalm 102:3 and James 4:14), grass (James 1:10 and 1 Peter 1:24), and a breath (Psalm 39:5 and Job 7:6-7).

Lines 11 and 12: To “stay woke” means to keep aware of today’s political issues.  KB uses it to mean “stay alert, because Satan is around the corner” (Genesis 4:7, 1 Peter 4:7, and 1 Peter 5:8).  After all, evil doesn’t sleep.

Lines 13 and 14: A Nacho Libre reference, where corn is used to tempt Nacho away from his diet to lose weight.  See commentary on Verse 1, lines 3 and 4.

Lines 15 and 16: References the airline United, stating that the Devil’s lies won’t fly with him.  See commentary on Verse 1, lines 3 and 4.

[Bridge]

Lines 1 and 2: More filler.

Line 3: God is KB’s ruler, not Satan.  Kb surrenders to God (Isaiah 64:8, Matthew 10:38, Matthew 11:28-30, Matthew 16:24, Mark 8:34-38, Mark 10:28, Luke 9:23, Luke 14:27, John 15:1-11, Romans 6:13, Romans 12:1-2, Galatians 2:20, Philippians 2:5-8, Hebrews 11:6, James 4:7-10, and 1 Peter 5:6).

[Verse 3]

Lines 1 and 2: KB obeys 2 Corinthians 2:11.  He is not ignorant of the Devil’s schemes.

Lines 3 and 4: KB keeps himself so busy that he doesn’t have time for Satan.

Lines 5-7: Unlike others, who were taken away by their own lusts that lead to death (James 1:14-15), KB will not give in.  See commentary on Verse 1, lines 3 and 4.

Line 8-10: That is, the gates of hell will not prevail against KB (Mathew 16:18) and the place that he goes, that is, the body of Christ (1 Corinthians 10:17, 1 Corinthians 12:12-27, and Ephesians 4:1-16).  This is his “squad” by which he invites others to join.

Lines 11 and 12: KB has been providing facts, much like Newsweek reports news.  He “kicks” them around as Bruce Lee did in his movies.

Lines 13 and 14: U and V literally come before W in the alphabet.  UV is also part of the spectrum of light, which references the light of God (Psalm 27:1, Psalm 119:105, Psalm 119:130, Matthew 4:16, John 1:1-8, John 8:12, Ephesians 5:14, James 1:17, 1 Peter 2:9, 1 John 1:5-7, and Revelation 21:23).  KB also says to God “here I am, send me” (Isaiah 6:8).

Line 15: I have no idea what this means, but I’m pretty sure it’s not unbiblical.

Lines 16-18: This is an oft-quoted phrase, where if Satan brings up our past, we should remind him of his future.  See commentary on Chorus and Verse 1, line 9.

Lines 19-22: I disagree with KB.  Not all evils are Satan’s fault.  There is also the world (Matthew 6:24, Luke 16:13, John 15:19, Romans 12:2, Ephesians 2:2, Colossians 3:1-2, 1 Timothy 6:10, 1 John 2:15-17, 1 John 3:17, 1 John 4:5, and James 4:4) and the flesh (John 3:6, Romans 8:5, Romans 7:14-25, Romans 8:6-14, Galatians 5:19-25, Philippians 3:18-19, Colossians 3:1-3, 1 Corinthians 2:14, and 2 Peter 2:1-10) to consider.  Blaming everything on the devil open the door for KB’s failure to take responsibility for his actions, akin to Eve’s response in Genesis 3:13.

Line 23-27: See commentary on Chorus.

Lines 28 and 29: That is, KB believes God.

[Outro]

Lines 1-3: See Chorus.  Also, ends with “amen” meaning “so be it”.

Score: 8/10

3. How would an outsider interpret the song?

Considering KB’s audience, I am confident that his unbelieving listeners will be able to comprehend the gist of his message, even if they don’t understand all the pop culture references (which aren’t a big deal).  However, I fear that blaming everything on Satan feeds into our culture’s blame game instead of owning our error.

Score: 7/10

4. What does this song glorify?

While it glorifies God that KB informs us about Satan’s tactics and end, some of it is taken when KB blames everything wrong on the Devil, failing to hold himself accountable.

Score: 8/10

Closing Comments

KB’s Not Today Satan is a good song with an unfortunate error.  It glorifies God in that JB warns us against Satan’s attack strategy, suggesting we put on God’s armor to protect ourselves; However, he is mistaken that the Devil is the source of all evil.  I pray that unbelievers who comprehend KB’s message will take responsibility for their actions.

This is not a worship song.  Therefore, I cannot recommend it for corporate worship.

Final Score: 8/10

Artist Info

Track: Not Today Satan (listen to the song)

Artist: KB (Feat. Andy Mineo)

Album: Today We Rebel

Genre: Hip Hop/Rap

Release Year: 2017

Duration: 4:06

Agree?  Disagree?  Don’t be shy or have a cow!  Calmly and politely state your case in a comment, below.

Updates: 

03/25/2021 – Updated per repetition announcement.

10/01/2020 – Release year contained the album instead of the year.  I corrected it.  I also added my previous review of Crowns & Thorns (Oceans) to the introduction.