Kirk Franklin Releases His First Double Album: Done Defending His Cross-Genre Collaborations
American gospel music icon Kirk Franklin released his new album "I Am What I Am" on October 30. It is his 14th studio album and the first double album of his 33-year career, released via Uptown Records and now available on streaming platforms.
The 14-track project is split across two discs: seven studio recordings on the first, and seven songs recorded live in a church with a choir, a band and a live audience on the second. The label says the structure presents two sides of Franklin: the gospel legend and the genre-bending musician.
The guest list crosses genres. Opener "Free Me Tonight" begins with a spoken-word passage by Jelly Roll that nods to Phil Collins' "In the Air Tonight"; the focus track "Hope In You" features Nigerian Afrobeats star Davido; "It Gets Better," with rapper Tobe Nwigwe, addresses mental health — Franklin says he has had his own journey with anxiety and depression and wanted to make space to talk about it. On the live disc, he performs "Thank You For Everything" with Karen Clark Sheard of the Clark Sisters, a song that has become the fastest-growing record at Gospel radio and that he performed at the 41st Annual Stellar Gospel Music Awards.
The lead single "This Time," featuring Memphis rapper GloRilla, was released on September 25 and reached No. 1 on Billboard's Hot Gospel Songs chart — his record-extending 10th No. 1 on that chart. The song's official music video is out on the KirkFranklinVEVO channel.
Franklin told the Associated Press he is tired of defending his musical decisions. He drew criticism on social media for praying with Chris Brown and Usher before a concert because they asked him to, and he has stood by working with GloRilla despite her explicit lyrics. "We as believers sometimes become judge and jury," he said. On the GloRilla collaboration: "You start trying to play in other people's sandboxes, it is going to come with scrutiny."
"I've been trying to explain myself for the last 33 years," he said at the album listening party, adding that the record is meant to let people know he hears everything that is being said: "This is my humanity." The album's title comes from that idea.
Franklin, 56, is a 20-time Grammy winner. He told the AP he has no plans to slow down: "The hole that I came from was so deep that whenever I'm around light, I never get tired of feeling the sunlight."
Source: GSM · USA (original Chinese edition)
Photo: 图：福音歌手 Kirk Franklin 2017 年在 JoyFest 音乐节舞台上演唱。CL Holly 摄，CC BY 2.0，经 Wikimedia Commons。 / Gospel singer Kirk Franklin performing at JoyFest in 2017. Photo by CL Holly, CC BY 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons.
