Kirk Franklin

Kirk Dewayne Franklin (born January 26, 1970) is an American songwriter, choir director, gospel singer, and rapper.

He is best known for leading urban contemporary gospel and Christian R&B ensembles such as The Family, God's Property, and One Nation Crew (1NC) among many others.

He has won numerous awards, including 20 Grammy Awards.

Variety dubbed Franklin as a "Reigning King of Urban Gospel", and is one of the inaugural inductees into the Black Music & Entertainment Walk of Fame.

A native of Fort Worth, Texas, Franklin was raised by his aunt, Gertrude, having been abandoned as a baby by his mother.

Gertrude recycled aluminum cans to raise money for Kirk to take piano lessons from the age of four.

Kirk excelled and was able to read and write music while also playing by ear.

At the age of seven, Franklin received his first contract which his aunt turned down.

He did join the church choir and became music director of the Mt. Rose Baptist Church adult choir at 11 years of age.

In his teenage years, Franklin rebelled against his strict religious upbringing, 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.

He was accepted, but later he had to deal with a girlfriend's pregnancy and his eventual expulsion from school for bad behavior.

Franklin studied music with Jewell Kelly and the Singing Chaparrals at Oscar Dean Wyatt High School.

He continued under her tutelage and ultimately became the pianist for the choir.

When he was aged 15 he witnessed the death of a friend by shooting, after which Franklin returned to the church, where he again directed the choir.

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.

Impressed, Biggham enlisted him to lead the DFW Mass Choir in a recording of Franklin's song "Every Day with Jesus".

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.

In 1992, Franklin organized "The Family", which was a 17-voice choir, formed from neighborhood friends and associates.

In 1992, Vicki Mack-Lataillade, the co-founder of fledgling GospoCentric Records label, heard one of their demo tapes and was so impressed she immediately signed up Kirk & The Family to a recording contract.

In 1993, the group, now known as "Kirk Franklin & The Family", released their debut album, Kirk Franklin & The Family.

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.

Two years later, after releasing a 1995 Christmas album entitled Kirk Franklin & the Family Christmas, the group released Whatcha Lookin' 4 in 1996.

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 the best-selling gospel album of all time, soundtrack to The Preacher's Wife.

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 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. 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 Albums chart for five weeks, No. 3 on the Pop charts, and would go on to be certified 3× platinum.

It also brought Franklin another Grammy for Best Contemporary Soul Gospel Album, as well as three Grammy nominations.

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.

The Nu Nation Project was released in 1998.

The first single, "Lean on Me", produced by Franklin and pop producer Dan Shea, featured several mainstream artists, including R. Kelly, Mary J. Blige and Bono of U2 together with 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 a 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.

In 2000, members of The Family filed a multimillion-dollar lawsuit for royalties for their work on The Nu Nation Project against Franklin and GospoCentric Records.

This saw the end of the "Kirk Franklin & The Family" records, as Franklin continued with his newer group One Nation Crew, releasing Kirk Franklin Presents 1NC.