INTERVIEW: Kirk Franklin Talks 'I Am What I Am,' Church Culture, GloRilla, Tobe Nwigw, Family, Christian Faith + More

Charlamagne Tha God (0:03)

The Breakfast Club. You want to finish or y'all done?

DJ Envy (0:08)

Morning, everybody. It's DJ Envy, Jess Hilarious, Charlamagne Tha God. We are The Breakfast Club. Long LaRose is here as well. We got a special guest in the building.

Charlamagne Tha God (0:17)

Making all this secular music, pissing off all this gospel folk. Oh, Lord.

Kirk Franklin (0:21)

Ladies and gentlemen, Kirk Franklin. Welcome.

SPEAKER_4 (0:24)

Good morning. That is so good.

How are you feeling?

Kirk Franklin (0:28)

What's up, beautiful people?

SPEAKER_4 (0:30)

Good morning, black man.

Charlamagne Tha God (0:31)

How are you, sir?

Kirk Franklin (0:32)

You know, since I'm the OG, I got to say, you know, and I am the OG.

Charlamagne Tha God (0:35)

You are the OG.

SPEAKER_4 (0:35)

Yes, you are. We know you.

Kirk Franklin (0:37)

That's our last.

Charlamagne Tha God (0:37)

Yes, sir.

Kirk Franklin (0:38)

I'm just very proud. I'm very proud of what's been curated with you guys, man. Just seeing like, you know, like I came here 10 years ago. My first time on Breakfast Club was 10 years ago. Wow. And just to see how it's just evolved.

Oh, OK. I'm a little short, I got to get close to the mic.

SPEAKER_4 (0:56)

Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.

Kirk Franklin (0:57)

And just seeing how it's evolved and just how you've just created this space that is unique, man, it is very impressive.

SPEAKER_4 (1:03)

Thank you, brother.

Kirk Franklin (1:03)

Just the pride I see in how you guys have diversified it. And it's become such a juggernaut, just not only within our culture, but, you know, just within American culture.

SPEAKER_4 (1:14)

Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Okay.

DJ Envy (1:17)

Well, congratulations to you in your first single that you put out.

SPEAKER_4 (1:20)

Yes.

DJ Envy (1:21)

Amazing single.

SPEAKER_4 (1:22)

Yes.

DJ Envy (1:22)

We loved it from the door. This time is the name of it.

Kirk Franklin (1:25)

Yeah, man, I was very humble to see how much love you were giving it.

DJ Envy (1:28)

Yeah. Yes.

Kirk Franklin (1:29)

Really.

DJ Envy (1:30)

You know what?

It was when we first heard the record, we just thought it was an amazing record, right? We didn't think about it being a gospel song or a religious song. We just said it's a dope song and a dope song should be played.

Charlamagne Tha God (1:41)

And you sampled a dope record.

SPEAKER_4 (1:43)

They sampled the original.

DJ Envy (1:44)

They sampled the original of Charly Lowe. They sampled where Charly Lowe got it from.

SPEAKER_4 (1:47)

Yeah.

Kirk Franklin (1:47)

1976 record. It's 1976 by a band called Mandrell.

SPEAKER_4 (1:51)

Oh, wow.

Kirk Franklin (1:52)

Yes. It's a song called Children of the Sun. And so RIP to Charly Lowe, though, he did sample it first.

And then I went back and sampled it.

So this song is an original record from the 70s. You know that's what we call you. We call you Holy Lowe. I heard that. And not only that, and then they show me that you text about the record. I'm telling you, man, I was just really humble. And I saw you at the crib dancing to the record. And, you know, and of course, you came and blessed me with your presence.

And I think that privately, all gospel artists, privately, all gospel artists, they pray that their body of work stands on it just being good work, and not categorized. And I think sometimes we can't publicly say it. It's because it looks like that our motive and our intent is to be something else. You know, like I'm a proud gospel artist. Like, you know, I do music that talks about my Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. That's what I do. But I want my content and I want my stuff to be quality. You know what I mean? Like, you know, like one of the biggest examples I have is that when two girls, like if a girlfriend called a girl and said, girl, I got some tickets to this movie that's going to be premiering tonight. And she said, oh, girl, come on, let's get cute. We're going to do red carpet, woo, woo, woo, woo. And then the other girlfriend says, what kind of movie is it? And then our other girlfriend says, oh, it's a Christian movie. Well, we already know what her other girlfriend's going to do. She's going to do this.

SPEAKER_4 (3:16)

Oh, naturally. Right.

Charlamagne Tha God (3:18)

Let me change my outfit.

Kirk Franklin (3:20)

Yeah.

SPEAKER_4 (3:21)

Right, right, right.

Kirk Franklin (3:23)

Like there's no cap in that. The reason why is because the expectation is not as high.