" Lean on Me" and the second single "Revolution" (featuring Rodney Jerkins) were considerable hits, and the album contained a version of a Bill Withers song " Gonna Be a Lovely Day". Blige and Bono of U2 together with Crystal Lewis and The Family. The first single, " Lean on Me", produced by Franklin and pop producer Dan Shea, controversially featured several mainstream artists, including R. The Nu Nation Project was released in 1998. 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. On November 2, 1998, God's Property sued Franklin.
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With production by Houston and Mervyn Warren, the composition was included on the best-selling soundtrack to the movie The Preacher's Wife.
In 1996, Franklin's song "Joy" was recorded by Whitney Houston and the Georgia Mass Choir. It also brought Franklin another Grammy for Best Contemporary Soul Gospel Album, as well as three Grammy nominations. 3 on the Pop charts, and would go on to be certified 3x platinum. 1 on the R&B Albums chart for five weeks, No. God's Property from Kirk Franklin's Nu Nation was No. 1 on the R&B Singles Airplay chart for two weeks, even making it into the Top 40. The lead single, "Stomp", featuring Cheryl "Salt" James (of Salt-N-Pepa), was a big hit, enjoying heavy rotation on MTV and other music channels and charting at No. 1997 brought another album, a collaboration with the vocal ensemble God's Property, aptly named God's Property from Kirk Franklin's Nu Nation. The album was certified 2x platinum and earned Franklin his first Grammy Award for Best Contemporary Soul Gospel Album. Two years later, after releasing a 1995 Christmas album entitled Kirk Franklin & the Family Christmas, the group released Whatcha Lookin' 4 in 1996. It was the first gospel music album to sell over a million units. 1 on the Billboard Top Gospel Albums chart for 42 weeks. It spent almost two years on the gospel music charts and charted on the R&B charts, eventually earning platinum sales status. In 1993, the group, now known as "Kirk Franklin & The Family," released their debut album, Kirk Franklin & The Family. In 1992, Vicki Mack-Lataillade, the co-founder of fledgling record label GospoCentric, heard one of their demo tapes and was so impressed she immediately signed up Kirk & The Family to a recording contract. In 1992, Franklin organized "The Family", which was a seventeen-voice choir, formed from neighborhood friends and associates.
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Professional background Choirs (1992–2000) This led to Biggham hiring Franklin, just 20 years old at the time, to lead the choir at the 1990 Gospel Music Workshop of America Convention, an industry gathering. Impressed, Biggham enlisted him to lead the DFW Mass Choir in a recording of Franklin's song "Every Day with Jesus".
He also co-founded a gospel group, The Humble Hearts, which recorded one of Franklin's compositions and got the attention of gospel music legend Milton Biggham, musical director of the Georgia Mass Choir. Īfter the shooting death of a friend, at age 15, Franklin returned to the church, where he again directed the choir. He continued under her tutelage and ultimately became the pianist for the choir. Kirk Franklin studied music with Jewell Kelly and the Singing Chaparrals at Oscar Dean Wyatt High School. He was accepted, but later he had to deal with a girlfriend's pregnancy and his eventual expulsion from school for bad behavior. ĭespite his strict religious upbringing, Franklin rebelled in his teenage years, and in an attempt to keep him out of trouble, his grandmother arranged an audition for him at a professional youth conservatory associated with a local university. Rose Baptist Church adult choir at eleven years of age. He did join the church choir and became music director of the Mt. Kirk excelled and was able to read and write music while also playing by ear.Īt the age of seven, Franklin received his first contract which his aunt turned down. Gertrude recycled aluminum cans to raise money for Kirk to take piano lessons from the age of four.
A native of Fort Worth, Texas, Franklin was raised by his aunt, Gertrude, having been abandoned as a baby by his mother.