Why Willy Paul’s music is not gospel

The article is not meant to downplay the artist’s talent and creativity in music but let’s call a spade a spade and let Gospel music be Gospel music.

We may think that this is hating but the truth hurts. These artists are downplaying God. In response to a question by Larry Madowo’s on whether his new song is gospel, Willy Paul said “you don’t expect me nianze Kuimba ka watu wa kitambo, niko generation ingine, siezi jizeesha.”

Let’s be serious for a while and dig deep. Is entertainment not the main arsenal used by the devil to lure people in to his darkness? The answer is obviously yes.

This what the devil has been doing? He has brought entertainment in to the gospel and made musicians sing secular music camouflaged as gospel. Examples of this kind of “contemporary” gospel include Kelele Takatifu’s Itakuwa Ngori, Thitima, Tiga Wana and Willy Paul’s Fanya.

As we listen to the so called “Contemporary” gospel, there is no Godliness in it. There is no shred of spirituality or linkage to the heavenly realms. There’s no contemporary gospel because we have the one old gospel of a God who has never and will never change.

Don’t get me wrong. These songs are highly successful and would fit very well in the secular category and not gospel where they hide in. In fact artists like Willy Paul are wasting a lot of talent singing counterfeit gospel instead of focusing all their energy in producing amazing records. Not singing gospel doesn't make you a sinner.

The only negative impact they have is that these songs weaken the Christians who listen to it to see God as someone who is easy and cool. They make you feed from the entertainment and makes you see the real worship songs as boring. They make God look as someone who understands we are in the 21st century and we are the fun and up with fashion generation.

These types of music have made Christianity seem like a weak religion yet Christians are the weak individuals. In this generation, such Gospel artists have tried to bring God to their level instead of going to God’s level. They see God (who never changes) as someone who should keep up with changes and taste of music the people have.

A statement from DJ Mo defending his wife (Number Nane) after many people bashed her new song with Willy Paul as being secular. Dj Mo argues that the church is the enemy of itself by failing to support this new type of music. How can the church support a song that has no spiritual foundation but calls itself gospel because it only mentions the word ‘neno’ which means ‘the word’. Mentioning the name of Jesus, God or the Holy Spirit in a song doesn’t automatically make it gospel.

It is evident that the controversial musician is highly talented and his creativity may just be what is needed to take Kenyan urban music to the next level but not gospel music.