Kirk Franklin

Signing to record label

In 1992, while still working with established choirs, Franklin sought to establish "The Family", which featured 15 to 17 in the choir, who were neighborhood friends and associates.^[8] The same year, Vicki Mack-Lataillade, the co-founder of GospoCentric Records label, heard one of their demo tapes and was so impressed she immediately signed the choir onto the label.^[10]

In 1993, the choir, billed as "Kirk Franklin & The Family", had their debut album, Kirk Franklin & The Family, to be released.^[11] It spent almost two years on the gospel music charts and charted on the R&B charts, eventually earning platinum sales status. It remained at No. 1 on the Billboard Top Gospel Albums chart for 42 weeks. It was only the third gospel music album to sell over a million units after Aretha Franklin's Amazing Grace and BeBe & CeCe Winans' Addictive Love.^{[citation needed]}

In May 1994, new material was recorded "live". Nearly two full years later, after the release of a 1995 Christmas album entitled Kirk Franklin & the Family Christmas in late 1995, the delayed Whatcha Lookin' 4 was released in April 1996, with notable studio edits and few-added studio tracks. The album was certified platinum and earned Franklin his first Grammy Award for Best Contemporary Soul Gospel Album.

In 1996, Franklin's song "Joy" was recorded by Whitney Houston and the Georgia Mass Choir. With production by Houston and Mervyn Warren, the composition was included on one of the best-selling gospel album of all time, soundtrack to The Preacher's Wife.

Also in 1996, GospoCentric had established its sublabel B'Rite, in partnership with Interscope Records. It was in 1997, when the collaboration with the choir God's Property, aptly named God's Property from Kirk Franklin's Nu Nation, was released. The lead single, "Stomp", appeared in its "Original Mix", alongside its widespread "remix", in which the latter of the two featured Cheryl "Salt" James (of Salt-N-Pepa). The remix was considered a crossover hit, enjoying heavy rotation on MTV and other music channels and charting at No. 1 on the R&B Singles Airplay chart for two weeks, even making it into the Top 40. God's Property from Kirk Franklin's Nu Nation was No. 1 on the R&B/Hip-Hop Albums chart for five weeks, No. 3 on the Billboard 200, and went on to be certified 3× platinum by the RIAA. It also brought Franklin another Grammy for Best Contemporary Soul Gospel Album, as well as three Grammy nominations.

The Nu Nation Project was released in 1998.^[12] The first single, "Lean on Me", produced by Franklin and pop producer Dan Shea, featured the mainstream artists, R. Kelly, Mary J. Blige and Bono of U2, with Contemporary Chrstian singer Crystal Lewis and The Family. "Lean on Me" and the second single "Revolution" (featuring Rodney Jerkins) were considerable hits, and the album contained a version of the Bill Withers song "Gonna Be a Lovely Day". The Nu Nation Project went on to top the Billboard Contemporary Christian Albums chart for 23 weeks and the Billboard Gospel Albums chart for 49 weeks and brought Franklin his third Grammy.

Also in 1998, Franklin had made a guest appearance on the hit television sitcom Sister, Sister.^{[citation needed]}

On November 2, 1998, God's Property sued Franklin. The lawsuit, filed in Los Angeles Superior Court, alleges that Franklin induced God's Property founder Linda Searight into signing an "onerous and one-sided" contract with B-Rite Music.^[13]

In 1999, Franklin disbanded the Family, after the acclaimed The Nu Nation Tour. He would shortly record, Kirk Franklin presents 1NC, later on in 1999, which would be released in August 2000. The titular ensemble, is the One Nation Crew, in the form of acronym.

In May 2000, a select amount of the singers of The Family filed a multimillion-dollar lawsuit for their work on The Nu Nation Project against Franklin and GospoCentric Records, in connection to royalties and for "unbalanced" treatment during the success and mainstream attention that God's Property received.^[9]

In 2001, the soundtrack Kingdom Come was released after periods of production. The soundtrack featured 1NC, with collaboration with gospel artists Mary Mary, Trin-i-tee 5:7, Crystal Lewis, Kurt Carr, alongside others, and as artists outside of primarily Gospel music, being Az Yet, Jill Scott, Tamar Braxton, Shawn Stockman of Boyz II Men and others.

On January 16, 2010, at the 25th Annual Stellar Awards show taping in Nashville, Tennessee, certain members of The Family and God's Property reunited briefly on stage to perform songs made popular by them in the 1990s.^{[citation needed]} More available members of The Family and God's Property, would reunite in 2023 for The Reunion Tour, which also featured The Clark Sisters, Tye Tribbett, and Israel Houghton. The two choirs would also record a video for Silver and Gold during that same time of The Reunion Tour.

Solo artist (2000–present)

In June 2000, a live recording of new material was done at Lakewood Church, and after over a year of production, The Rebirth of Kirk Franklin was released in February 2002. It topped the Gospel Albums chart for 29 weeks, was No. 1 on the Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Albums chart and was certified Platinum. The album featured collaborations with Bishop T.D. Jakes, Shirley Caesar, Willie Neal Johnson, TobyMac, Crystal Lewis, Jaci Velasquez, Papa San, Alvin Slaughter, and Yolanda Adams. One Nation Crew, did sing on the record, however, with several additional background vocals in addition, which formed the billed "Vocals of Life".

In 2004, while GospoCentric had been purchased under Zomba Label, Kirk Franklin launched the new recording label, called Fo Yo Soul Entertainment, in partnership with the two labels.^[14][15]

On October 4, 2005, Hero was released in the United States. The album was certified Gold on December 2, 2005 (2005-12-02), and Platinum on December 14, 2006 (2006-12-14), by the Recording Industry Association of America.^[16] It reached No. 1 on both the Billboard Top Christian and Top Gospel albums. The first single, "Looking for You", was a hit, as was the follow-up "Imagine Me", which made it onto the R&B charts. At the 2007 Grammy Awards, Franklin won two Grammys for Hero. Additionally, Hero was the 2007 Stellar Awards CD of the Year.^[17] In 2005, Franklin appeared with his wife on The Oprah Winfrey Show to discuss how he ended his pornography addiction.^[18] In 2010,^[19]

Franklin's 10th album, The Fight Of My Life, was released in the United States on December 18, 2007 (2007-12-18). The album debuted on the Billboard 200 at No. 33 with 74,000 copies sold in the first week.^[20] It reached No. 1 on both the Billboard Top Gospel and Top Christian albums charts, and also peaked at No. 7 on the Billboard Top R&B/Hip-Hop Albums Chart.^[21][22] The first single, "Declaration (This is It)", was released on October 23, 2007 (2007-10-23), and peaked at No. 35 on the Billboard Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Songs Chart.^[22] The album features guest appearances from Rance Allen, Isaac Carree, TobyMac, Da' T.R.U.T.H., Doug Williams (singer) and Melvin Williams (singer). The song "Jesus" was released as the album's second single in 2008 and was sent to Urban AC radio on July 15, 2008.

In January 2010, after Haiti had an earthquake, Franklin got an ensemble of gospel artists together to sing the song he wrote, called "Are You Listening". They included Yolanda Adams, Jeremy Camp, Shirley Caesar, Dorinda Clark-Cole, Natalie Grant, Fred Hammond, Tamela Mann, David Mann, Mary Mary, Donnie McClurkin, Bishop Paul S. Morton, J. Moss, Smokie Norful, Marvin Sapp, Karen Clark-Sheard, Kierra Sheard, BeBe Winans, CeCe Winans, and Marvin Winans.^{[citation needed]}. The song was released as a single, released when Zomba Gospel was renamed Verity Gospel Music Group, named after the then-"relevant" Verity Records. The same year, Kirk Franklin commenced the publishing of The Blueprint: A Plan for Living Above Life's Storms, a book in which he recounts the family difficulties experienced during his childhood, and how he got out of a sexually active life and an addiction to pornography. Franklin's 11th release titled Hello Fear, was released on March 22, 2011, also on the same label.^[23] The album featured Marvin Sapp, Mali Music, Marvin Winans, John P. Kee, and Rance Allen. The first single, "I Smile", peaked at No. 85 on the Billboard Hot 100, making it his first appearance on that chart in 6 years.^{[citation needed]}

Franklin served as the host and co-executive producer of the BET original series Sunday Best and the musical co-host of GSN's The American Bible Challenge with Jeff Foxworthy.^[24] The opportunity of being host of Sunday Best, had been intertwined with Kirk Franklin beginning signing artists onto his label, Fo Yo Soul Recordings, and he had signed notable acts including The Walls Group and artists including Tasha Page-Lockhart.^[25] These two, had received 10 Stellar Award nominations at the 30th Stellar Awards.^[25] The Walls Group won seven awards, while Page-Lockhart won three of her own, and Franklin won two more for his label.^[25]

In September 2015, Franklin announced his 12th studio album, Losing My Religion, which was released on November 13, 2015. The first single off the album, "Wanna Be Happy?", was released on August 28, 2015.^[26][27][28] It was at this point that Vinson Cunningham referred to him as a hype man when writing for The New Yorker.^[29]

Franklin contributed to Tori Kelly's Hiding Place album, released on September 14, 2018. They had intended to collaborate on one song, but it turned into a larger project.^[30]

On January 25, 2019, Franklin released his single "Love Theory" and official music video for the song. "Love Theory" served as the first single from his 13th studio album, Long Live Love.^[31][32] Franklin released his second single, "Just for Me", in April 2019.^{[citation needed]} His third single, "OK", was released in May 2019.^{[citation needed]} Long Live Love was released on May 31.^{[citation needed]}

In February 2019, it was announced that BET's gospel music reality competition, Sunday Best would return from a four-year hiatus, with Franklin reprising his role as host.^[33]

After Trinity Broadcasting Network aired the 2019 GMA Dove Awards on October 20, 2019, Franklin commented that his acceptance speech was edited to remove comments he made in relation to the killing of Atatiana Jefferson by a police officer. He stated that he was boycotting the award show going forward as it was not the first time they had edited his acceptance speech to remove "reflections on police violence against Black Americans". GMA president, Jackie Patillo, apologized to Franklin and GMA made an unedited version of the speech available but stated that it was an unintentional action and that they were attempting to reduce the running time to meet a two-hour time-slot. Several other artists supported Franklin's boycott.^[34][35]

In 2021, he was among the inaugural inductees into the Black Music & Entertainment Walk of Fame.^[36]

On May 21, 2021, Franklin and American rapper Lil Baby released the song "We Win" for the soundtrack to the 2021 film Space Jam: A New Legacy.^[37]

On October 14, 2023, Franklin released his 13th studio album, Father's Day.

In 2024, Franklin was a headline act in the Fun in the Son festival held in Jamaica.^[38]

On December 7, 2025, Franklin had new live recording for his upcoming release. On December 17 of the same year, it was announced that he was to receive the Black Music Icon award at the fourth annual Recording Academy Honours on January 29, 2026, presented by The Recording Academy's Black Collective, the event taking place during the week of 68th Annual Grammy Awards.^[39][40]

Kirk Franklin & The Family

• Kirk Franklin and the Family (1993)
• Kirk Franklin & the Family Christmas (1995)
• Whatcha Lookin' 4 (1996)

Kirk Franklin's Nu Nation

• God's Property from Kirk Franklin's Nu Nation (1997)
• The Nu Nation Project (1998)

Kirk Franklin and 1 Nation Crew

• Kirk Franklin Presents 1NC (2000)

Kirk Franklin

• The Rebirth of Kirk Franklin (2002)
• Hero (2005)
• The Fight of My Life (2007)
• Hello Fear (2011)
• Losing My Religion (2015)
• Long, Live, Love (2019)
• Father’s Day (2023)

Kirk Franklin & Maverick City Music

• Kingdom Book One (2022)