www.BREmagazine.

com Cover Story d e c e m b e r 2 0 0 7

He is the ruling supernova of gospel gone pop. Early

in his career, the Fo Yo Soul Entertainment/Zomba
Gospel artist earned that exalted status by becom-
ing the top selling contemporary gospel artist in
measurable history. He has been anointed and
celebrated for his astonishing list of achievements
and awards; yet just there out of the public’s view,
beyond the glory, sit the daily battles faced by a
man whose life seems dusted with gold.
Many, many days in the life of Kirk Franklin
have been filled with battles--nearly his whole
life in fact. His seventh and latest CD impact-
ing December 18, The Fight of My Life,
includes personal glimpses into his bouts
with nature—his own, plus the darker side
of others.   Sometimes it seems Lucifer is
standing on the sidelines waiting to call the 
winner.
Supernovas are triggered by suddenly
turning on or turning off the production
of energy. Energy has never been in short
supply when it comes to this powerhouse
–or his ability to shift the energy flow
where he wants it. Compare the off-
stage Franklin with the power wattage
of the man in performance. Since his
earliest rounds of media interviews,
Franklin has been soft spoken--no
braggadocio here. If he wore gold
chains and rocked the house on
stage, well that was his way of call-
ing attention to the message he

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was sending. It was a call for understanding, a beckoning to include a wider
world than “just preaching to the choir.”
On the phone from his home in Texas, Franklin speaks of life, his doubts,
the fights and the future. Pain edges into his voice from time to time, not to
engender any sympathy, but to only further explain himself, making sure it’s
understood that he’s talking about the glory and wonder and demands his
Jesus makes, and he wants everybody within the sound of his voice to feel
that glory.
He speaks of the first release from the album, “Declaration (This Is
It!),” which reworks the old Michael McDonald/Kenny Loggins’ smash,
and explains that when he was in the studio recording his version of the
song, someone who was around from back in the day told him the gen-
esis of the tune. “It was written about Kenny Loggins’ father, who was
gravely ill at the time. So it’s always been a song about survival from
the every day trials of life--to life and death--to looking at our life’s pur-
pose,” he says.
“Declaration (This Is It!)” was the #1 most added and #1 most
increased airplay at Gospel radio when it was released and is being
picked up at Urban AC formats quickly. Black radio has taken an open
arms approach to Franklin’s music since the time back in early 1995 when
Norfolk DJ Drew Dawson began playing “Why We Sing.” The album had been
out for a year and had sold good, solid ‘gospel numbers.’ Dawson played it
frequently and it hit; soon other stations across the country were playing it,
and the song moved across both format and racial lines. That album, Kirk
Franklin & The Family, made history as the first gospel debut record to
go Platinum. “Why We Sing” became the inspirational hit of that year
and because it propelled listeners beyond the “Me Obessed” end of the
century mind-set, it can be said it became the inspirational song of the
decade…but it did more. This album shifted gospel into mainstream
almost seamlessly. The legendary Tom Joyner played Franklin right
along with his jokes, the rap and the R&B--no explanations neces-
sary. The music was and is irresistible. The essence of what family
could be, the reality of hardships we all endure and the power of
spiritual revelations all contribute to Franklin’s extraordinary
power as a lyricist.
The new album delivers on Franklin’s well-documented irre-
sistibility factor. “Help Me Believe” targets those who may
doubt their own faith but are looking for reconfirmation. “He
Will Supply” is a tambourine-shaker that celebrates what Franklin
knows in his soul to be true; hip hop comes on in with “Jesus,” the
force that rules Franklin’s life and presents one of the battles for
him. No doubt the adoration superstars routinely receive could
get in the way of their ability to humble themselves, but Franklin
fights the good fight. “It’s hard for me to always let Jesus do what
he does and get myself out of the way,” he admits. But he works
at it every day, on his knees.
He also works on making certain his music reaches out to
people. “I want them to identify with what they are hear-
ing, to say, yes, they’ve been there. Everybody’s under-
stands “This is It.” “There’ve been times in my life,

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This is it ...You can’t mess
with my mind anymore, I’ve
sworn I’ve been here before
... it’s a new day, I’m not
afraid anymore ... yes, I
believe…—Kirk Franklin
I’ve been wondering why ...
but, still somehow I believe,
we always survive.” The
song’s hand-clapping
groove reinforces the
strength of God’s grace
and of prayer: “This is it
... You can’t mess with
my mind anymore, I’ve
sworn I’ve been here
before ... it’s a new day,
I’m not afraid anymore ...
yes, I believe…”
He sings of not having his mind
messed with, but oh, has it ever
been! Abandonment, rebellion,
accidents, criticism--all could
have produced a different man.
When he was just about old
enough for pre-school, his teen-
aged mother left him and there
was never a father around, but
God has always had his hands
on Franklin. When he was four,
Gertrude Franklin, his elderly,
distant aunt, adopted him.
She brought him up in the
Baptist Church, paid for his
piano lessons by collecting recy-
clables and watched the preco-
cious little boy’s talent blos-
som.. He was offered a gospel
record deal at age seven, but
his aunt refused to allow it. By
11, he was named minister of
music at Mount Rose Baptist
Church. With puberty, the
good little guy started to act
up. The fatherless child felt
backed into a corner by the
roughnecks in the tough
Riverside area of Fort
Worth. They called him
“church boy.” “I resented
it because it was taken for
weakness,” says Franklin,
“It was like you can
jump on the church boy
because he’s not going
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d e c e m b e r 2 0 0 7
It’s hard for me to
always let Jesus do what
he does and get myself
out of the way.—Kirk Franklin
to fight back. He’s going to turn the
other cheek.”
Franklin didn’t turn the other
cheek, he turned to acting up--
drinking beer, smoking, running
the streets and eventually ending
up in juvenile detention.
His rebellion was brought to
a pretty quick halt. An inno-
cent high school friend was
shot and killed in a freak acci-
dent prompting the teenager
to reedicate his life to Jesus.
Ironically the once hated invec-
tive “Church Boy” would become a
book, and most recently, Hollywood
power house Lions Gate films
optioned that book to make a film
of Franklin’s life that includes some
of the darker parts such as a child
born out of wedlock to the teenage
Franklin. His girlfriend was left
to care for the baby, Kerrion, for
several years.
But there were miles to
go between Riverside and
Hollywood. He took a look at his
life to that point and decided if
God could forgive him, he could
forgive himself. He turned back
to music. First came an album
that flopped but generated a meet-
ing with a producer who heard the
demo and soon writing assigments
for the Dallas-Ft. Worth Mass
Choir, the Gospel Music Workshop
of America’s Mass Choir, the
Trinity Temple Full Gospel Mass
Choir and the Georgia Mass
Choir were his.
Then in 1992, he put his own
choir together, consisting of his
closest singing friends and his
long journey into music histo-
ry began. Rules were broken,
records shattered, a genre
revolution begun and
criticism unleashed.
Of course,
d e c e m b e r 2 0 0 7
Franklin was not the first musician to
meld the sacred and the secular. Ray
Charles had done it in the fifties and Ray
offered an observation about Franklin’s
run-ins with the fingerpointers who
would challenge Franklin’s musicmaking.
“There’s nothing written in the Bible, Old
or New Testament, that says, if you believe
in Me, you ain’t going to have no troubles.”
Unlike Charles, Franklin stayed with
his beloved gospel, instinctively know-
ing it needed opening up to appeal to a
greater demographic and also to generate
increased marketing dollars. Franklin said
it was crucial for gospel “to receive the
same type of respect other types of music
get.” Franklin also believed he could make
music more accessible for a demographic
always appealing to record companies.
Indeed Franklin’s success has helped push
gospel closer to the mainstream while
attracting the crucial under-25 audience.
That’s always been a much sought-after
demographic. For Franklin, more than
commerciality is at work here: “We needed
to get to the spiritual demographic too,
this Jesus message needs to get out to the
young people that don’t go to church.”
Over the last 15 years, Franklin has
succeeded on both fronts. The last tra-
ditional gospel offerings to really tran-
scend categories were Aretha Franklin’s
1970’s Amazing Grace album and Edwin
Hawkins’ “Oh Happy Day.” Any label
executive will tell you in the past the sales
numbers don’t generally support a wide
marketing effort. That’s no longer the
case.
His second album, Kirk Franklin & the
Family Christmas, became the genre’s first
Christmas album to make it to number
one, and his 1996 album Whatcha Lookin’
4 went Gold as soon as it was released.
But 1996 was also the year shock
gripped his fans on November 1st, when
word spread like wildfire that Franklin had
fallen offstage and was dangerously close
to death. Just two days after launching his
third national tour, Franklin fell head first
down into the concrete floor of the orches-
tra pit at the Memphis Cook Convention
Center. and an executive producer of “Sunday
Rumors sped around with the speed of
the internet and postings popped up that
he was paralyzed, he suffered brain dam-
age, his meteoric rise had come to an end.
All, of course, not true.
Some called it a miracle. The results
for Franklin were galvanizing. Six weeks
after the accident, he was strong enough
to hit the stage at the 12th Annual Stellar
Awards Show where he not only walked
According to Zomba
Gospel Label Group’s
Sr.Vice President/GM,
James “Jazzy” Jordan,
all the power of the
label is being focused
behind the marketing of
this new album. “Kirk
Franklin will be sup-
ported like the super-
star he is! We are 1000%
behind this release,”
affirms Jordan, ”and
you can see Kirk every-
where: from TV specials
like BET’s “Sunday
Best” and NBC’s “Clash
Of The Choirs,” to bill-
boards across the coun-
try, national TV spots,
“The Tom Joyner” radio
show and “Yolanda
Adams” radio show-
-just to name a few
places to see and hear
Kirk Franklin. The first
single, “Declaration
(This is It),” is top five at
Gospel radio and claim-
ing the UAC chart! So
we feel great about the
set-up for this special
Christmas gift from Kirk
Franklin.”
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away with honors in five categories, he
gave a great high energy performance.
Then a month later, he left on a 50-city
tour entitled “Tour of Life,” the day
after Christmas. If Lucifer was stand-
ing in the wings waiting on Franklin,
it has been told and retold that Kirk
had a message for him: “I wanted to
make a fool out of the devil,” he said.
“You’re not going to try to take my life
and think I’m not going to praise God.
I’m a living testimony.”
Franklin also got in a little testimony
about his family. He’d married Tammy
Collins from the group Ashanti earlier
in the year, uniting their two children
from previous relationships and with
the accident, his marriage took on
a whole new luster. The couple has
added two more children to their
close-knit family.
He returned in 1998 with The Nu
Nation Project further revitalizing
contemporary gospel, adding R&B
production techniques and wonderful
cameos from Mary J and Bono, earn-
ing Franklin a third Grammy.
Franklin became the first gospel
star whose work was added onto the
soundtrack of the movie “Kingdom
Come” (contributing the single “Thank
You”) and released another album,
2002’s The Rebirth of Kirk Franklin.
It was a rebirth indeed, followed by
two more albums in the next four
years. Hero (2005) and Songs for the
Storm, Vol. 1 (2006), both of which
topped the gospel charts at the time of
their release. Hero went on to win two
Grammys in late 2006
Making gospel music cool, Frank-
lin opened the doors of churches to
new members. He combined gospel
with R&B, pop, rock, and hip-hop and
turned gospel music into a multi-mil-
lion dollar industry. The recipient of
five Grammys, 11 Doves, 34 Stellars,
four NAACP Images, two BET Awards
and a 2006 American Music Award,
Franklin also moved gospel onto an
ever larger stage, serving as the host
Best,” the American Idol-like compe-
tition for gospel talent on BET that
ranked up 1.2 million voters in its lat-
est round.
The Church Boy could have been an
unlikely candidate for the heights that
Franklin has achieved in his lifetime.
But Franklin’s love for His Jesus has
fueled His Music and turned His Fight
into a knockout for God.
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