By Vincent L. Hall
What I don’t know doesn’t cancel out what I do know!” – Kirk Franklin during a CNN Juneteenth interview.
Let me begin by saying that no one knows music better than my two friends, Jewell Blanton Kelly and Harold Shaun Martin! Both agree that if Kirk Franklin were as tall as he is talented, he would play center for the Golden State Warriors.
Instead, he plays centerstage for God.
Kirk Franklin is the quintessential student, steward, and stylist of God’s word in song. He is undoubtedly the Michael Jackson of gospel music. Everybody loves him today, but Kirk has overcome many trials and triumphs since he released his first work.
“Kirk Franklin and the Family” dropped 30 years ago. Since then, Franklin has amassed 18 Grammys, eight number ones on the Gospel chart, and 36 entries. He is a loving husband and father, a television star, and the brother is always dressed to the nines!
On Tuesday, June 29, 1993, Kirk Franklin made music history without knowing what was about to happen.
His first album was a gospel hit playlist. “The Reasons Why We Sing,” He’s Able,” and “Silver and Gold” set Kirk and this maiden choir on a path that none of them could fathom. Kirk was “Sunday’s Best” before BET aired a show featuring him and some of America’s most remarkable budding talent.
Jewell Kelly, who is prouder of Franklin than any parent could rightfully be, recalls how sensitive he was. Jewell, famous for dropping life lessons and anecdotes in choir rehearsals, knew he was a jewel when he walked into her O.D. Wyatt choir room. “He was a jokester and an overachiever and wanted everyone to like him.”
At some point he confided to his mentor that he faced vile critics and lies about his music and career. Jewell’s advice was simple. “Baby, cry all the way to the bank.”
Kirk goes to the bank regularly, but more importantly, he takes others with him.
When a friend and peer, Erica Campbell of “Mary, Mary,” begin to catch hell from the saints about her “Trap Gospel,” Kirk offered a soothing word. His testimony was a stark reminder of his own journey. WBUR dropped a column that highlighted his comments in June 2015.
“The controversy around the song (I Luh God) is similar to that experienced by another gospel artist who stirred the pot in the ’90s — Kirk Franklin. He shook up the gospel scene with hits like “Stomp” and got strong reactions to his style of music.
“It’s very hard when you hear churches talk about you,” Franklin says. “And some people start to question your heart, and when some people start to question your motives, it could be very hard for you because you’re in your early 20s and you don’t really understand what all the fuss is about, because you’re doing just what’s real to you.”
Franklin’s musings about his past pain are grossly understated. Local and national church leaders demeaned Kirk’s music as heresy, blasphemy, and debauchery.
But Stomp crossed from the gospel to the pop side and probably saved more souls than the “saints” who critiqued him.
Stomp is a celebratory praise, akin to pop star Pharrell’s chart shattering single, “Happy!” Stomp is a lighthearted dish with a side order of spiritual uplift.
Lately, I’ve been going through some things that’s really got me down
I need someone, somebody, to help me come and turn my life around
I can’t explain it; I can’t obtain it
Jesus, your love is so, it’s so amazing
It gets me high, up to the sky
And when I think about your goodness, it makes me wanna
STOMP!
Kirk engaged listeners from the sacrament table to the bar. And whether you had grape juice and a wafer or were “sippin’ some Henny,” he drew your attention to Jesus.
Kirk Franklin has a word for the “saved and unsaved.”
He walks Christianity from the pulpit to the street where it is needed most!
Shaun Martin, who has won multiple Grammys working with Kirk, has always been fascinated with Kirk’s penetrating pen. No gospel artist in history is any greater lyricist.
Some of the “Seasoned Saints” call today’s Praise and Worship songs “7-11 music.” Songs that have seven words and repeat them 11 times. Kirk Franklin writes modern music as rich, reverent, and resounding as old hymns.
There’s a lot about the life of Kirk Dewayne Franklin that we do not know. But that can’t cancel out what we do know.
He is a genius of music and ministry whose legacy in gospel music is unique and significant to the Body of Christ!
