Artists
Kirk Franklin
"I can look over my life and career now and see both seasons of success as well as struggles and pitfalls," says Kirk, "and God has allowed it all. It's all done with the purpose of the Lord drawing you closer to Him-getting you closer to where He wants you to be. And it can be painful sometimes until you reach the point where you can see it's all been for a purpose, and that's a true moment of awakening and rebirth.
"No artist can honestly say they don't care if their work is promoted and taken to the people in an effective way or not," he continues. "Of course I want my label to employ all the resources they have-in the honorable and Godly ways in which they always operate-to make this album heard. The difference is that I have a sort of `been-there-done-that' attitude now, but that's not cynical or arrogant. It's only to say that I've been blessed with some very high highs, some very low lows, as well as some in-betweens to go with them. I see myself getting off the merry-go-round of worrying about whether I can top myself, or striving for commercial gain above all else. The rebirth concept and images of me as a boy are very significant. That's youth. That's innocence. That's the boy who loved the Lord and sang to Him purely out of love before ANY other considerations came into the picture. I'm not rejecting the realities of marketing and business. I, personally-Kirk-am going back to that place of purity that that little boy lived as a natural matter of course."
Kirk has always been celebrated for weaving seemingly disparate musical influences-R&B, modern rock, hip-hop, pop, jazz, traditional gospel-into a seamless fabric, creating his own singular style and sound that truly transcends any and all boundaries of genre, race, denomination or societal background. And while the consistency of his growth in broadening the very definition of "gospel music" has never waned, The Rebirth of Kirk Franklin reaches levels of self-realization and brilliance surpassing all that has preceded it. And that is saying… a lot.
