After Kirk Franklin co-founded a gospel group,
The Humble Hearts; it was in 1990, when one of the compositions done under Kirk Franklin, had received attention of gospel music figure Milton Biggham, who was choir director of the
Georgia Mass Choir. Biggham expressed his impressment, which led to Kirk Franklin leading the DFW Mass Choir in a recording of Franklin's song "Every Day with Jesus". This also 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. 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. In 1993, the group, billed as "Kirk Franklin & The Family", had their debut album,
Kirk Franklin & The Family, to be released 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. 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 would go 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. 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 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. 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. In 1999, Kirk 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. Also in 2000, a select amount 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 momentum that God's Property received. On October 4, 2005,
Hero was released in the United States. The album was certified Gold on , and Platinum on , by the
Recording Industry Association of America. 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. In 2005, Franklin appeared with his wife on
The Oprah Winfrey Show to discuss how he ended his
pornography addiction. In 2010, Franklin's 10th album,
The Fight Of My Life, was released in the United States on . The album debuted on the
Billboard 200 at No. 33 with 74,000 copies sold in the first week. 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. The first single, "
Declaration (This is It)," was released on , and peaked at No. 35 on the
Billboard Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Songs Chart. 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. 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. 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. These two, had received ten
Stellar Award nominations at the 30th Stellar Awards. It was at this point that
Vinson Cunningham referred to him as a
hype man when writing for
the New Yorker. Franklin contributed to
Tori Kelly's
Hiding Place album, released September 14, 2018. They had intended to collaborate on one song, but it turned into a larger project. On January 25, 2019, Franklin released his single "Love Theory" and official music video for the song. "Love Theory" served the first single from his 13th studio album,
Long Live Love. Franklin released his second single, "Just for Me", in April 2019. His third single, "OK", was released in May 2019.
Long Live Love was released on May 31. In February 2019, it was announced that BET's gospel music reality competition,
Sunday Best would return from a 4-year hiatus. Franklin will reprise his role as host. 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 2-hour time-slot. Several other artists supported Franklin's boycott. In 2021, he was among the inaugural inductees into the
Black Music & Entertainment Walk of Fame. 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. On October 14, 2023, Franklin released his 13th studio album, ''
Father's Day''. On December 7, 2025, Kirk Franklin had new live recording for his upcoming release. On December 17 of the same year, it was announced that Franklin would 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 takes place during the week of
68th Annual Grammy Awards. == Personal life ==