Kirk Franklin had a simple answer when The Baller Alert Show asked how he felt about Druski’s viral skit mocking pastors: “Let’s stop giving him content.”
The gospel legend sat down with hosts Ferrari Simmons, BT and Kayla at the Nagel Law Firm Studios for an interview that turned into a church service by the end, complete with laughs, tears and a prayer.
The Druski question came up as the hosts talked about megachurch pastors pulling off in Bentleys while members of their congregations struggle to get home. Kirk called it “a very painful reality.”
“When people ask me how did I feel about the Druski skit about the pastors, my response is, let’s stop giving him content,” he said. “He had to get that from somewhere. He’s only mirroring something he saw.”
Kirk didn’t hold back on church culture either. He said the Bible’s idea of judgment is meant to bring people back, not push them out. “In the Bible, judgment was to be able to lovingly address something to win you back, not to push you away,” he said. “The way that we judge within Christian culture in the West is that it’s always condemning.”
He gave an example from his generation. A single young woman who got pregnant would have to stand in front of the church and confess, and if she sang in the choir, she had to sit down until the baby came. “Can you imagine that young lady having to stand up in front of the church and confess her sins while the [expletive] that got her pregnant on the organ? He’s still playing,” he said. “That’s traumatic.”
His fix was simple. “They need to get rid of one of them Bentleys,” he said, “and we gonna raise the money so this baby is gonna go to college.”
When one of the hosts shared that judgment pushed him away from church growing up, Kirk apologized directly. “I’m very sorry for experiences that you and many others have had,” he said. “Please don’t give up on God because of that foolishness.” He compared it to police: just because there are bad officers, “don’t start running red lights.” He also shouted out pastors he says are doing it right, including Philip Anthony Mitchell and Charlie Dates.
The conversation turned personal when Kirk opened up about his childhood. He was adopted at 4 years old by a 64 year old widow named Gertrude, who was born in 1908 and had a fourth grade education. “I didn’t have a mama. I didn’t have a daddy. I didn’t have siblings,” he said. “I was a kid that was never told I was good. Never.”
A beat up piano in the front of the house became everything to him. “That was my friend. That was my girlfriend. That was the love of my life,” he said. “Music was the first thing that told me it loved me. That’s how I met Jesus, through music.”
He was honest that the hurt from his biological parents hasn’t gone away. “Forgiveness is free, but trust is earned,” he said, adding that the issue with his mother and father will “probably forever be a burden and a cross that I have to carry for the rest of my life.” He said that’s why he overdoes it with affection as a father. “I’m always kissing on my sons,” he said. “They’re like, ‘Bro, you got to stop all this kissing.'”
The hosts also asked about the backlash when he put GloRilla on his latest record. Kirk said critics didn’t know her story. “Her whole family’s background is church,” he said. She knows more about gospel music than the average Joe.” He said people need to stop trying to “micromanage people’s process.
He also used his time on the mic to put the culture on to other gospel artists. I want the culture to know there are other gospel artists outside of me,” he said, naming Chandler Moore, Jonathan McReynolds, Darrel Walls, Tasha Cobbs Leonard, Maverick City Music, Lecrae and Pastor Mike Jr. “It’s hot on the block.
The emotional peak came when the hosts broke down talking about the grandmothers who prayed for them. Kirk told them their tears were “very masculine” and asked to pray over the room.
“Black men have forgotten how to shed tears,” he said. “We can’t let you see it because it has been used against us so much.” He told men who keep it bottled up that it has to go somewhere. “That liquid from them eyes is healing ointment,” he said. “That anger with your girl, that rage that you feel is because that liquid healing ain’t coming out.”
Then he prayed. “This room right now has turned into a sanctuary,” he said. “This is a church.”
Kirk said that’s the whole point of what he does. “I want the culture to be able to go, ‘Yo, man, they still talking about God,'” he said. “The tracks are hot, production is hot, presentation is fire, and they for real about that life.”
