Key Takeaways
- Kirk Franklin defended GloRilla against religious critics who claimed she was not “holy enough or churchy enough” to collaborate with him on “This Time.”
- Franklin said the backlash left him heartbroken after GloRilla shared her discomfort with being judged for her apparance on the song.
- The pair previously won the 2025 BET Award for Best Gospel/Inspirational for “Rain Down On Me.”
Kirk Franklin was disheartened by anti-secular criticism spurred by GloRilla collaborating with him.
While on the Tuesday (Oct. 27) episode of Big Boy’s Neighborhood, the gospel artist, who collaborated with the Memphis rapper on songs “Rain Down On Me” and “This Time” addressed the flack that GloRilla has gotten for working with him. In 2025, GloRilla and Franklin accepted a BET Award in the Best Gospel/Inspirational category for “Rain Down on Me.”
“It's been breaking my heart some of the ridicule that some of the religious have given her, [saying] that she's not holy enough or churchy enough to be able to do a song,” Franklin said about their “This Time” collaboration.
“She's a young girl and she's a big hip-hop star. It ain't like Kirk Franklin bringing Glo a new bag that she can't get on her own,” he continued.
Franklin described the song as “niche gospel” and for a “specific community of people that believe that monotheistic ideal.”
Franklin also shared that Glo expressed her discomfort with being criticized for her appearance on “This Time,” which the 20-time Grammy winner said brought him “heartbreak.” The gospel artist, who’s worked with rappers including Ye and Lil Baby, said he’s personally brushed off judgement about his rap collaborations “a long time ago.”
“You’ve got to be a miserable group of people to spend almost half a century trying to police who can and who can't talk about Jesus,” he said.
GloRilla has spoken about growing up in a religious household and being banned from listening to hip-hop, although it didn’t stop her from stealing CDs by Lil Wayne and Drake.
“We’d steal the CDs and download all the songs onto the PlayStation. That was the only way we could listen to other music. We probably wouldn't have known nothing other than gospel music if it wasn't for us being bad,” the rapper told GQ about her nine siblings.
