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. 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, a industry gathering.
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. He was under her tutelage for music direction as she allowed him to be the pianist for the choir.Īfter the shooting death of a friend, Franklin returned to the church, where he began to direct the choir once again. 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 behavioral problems. Rose Baptist Church adult choir at the age of twelve.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. He joined the church choir and became music director of the Mt. He received his first contract offer at the age of seven, which his aunt turned down. Kirk excelled in music, being able to read and write music, while also playing by ear. Gertrude collected and resold aluminum cans to raise money for Kirk to take piano lessons from the age of four. Variety dubbed Franklin as a "Reigning King of Urban Gospel".Ī native of Fort Worth, Texas, Franklin was raised by his aunt, Gertrude, having been abandoned as a baby by his mother. He is known for leading urban contemporary gospel choirs such as The Family, God's Property and One Nation Crew (1NC), and has won multiple awards, including twelve Grammy Awards. Kirk Dewayne Franklin (born January 26, 1970) is an American gospel musician, singer, songwriter, choir director, and author.
0 kommentar(er)
