Kirk Franklin Says He Refused Kanye’s Anonymous Beats Offer
Written by adamraymitchelleve@gmail.com on October 31, 2026
Kirk Franklin is sharing a story that says a lot about how he moves. In a conversation with Nessa on HOT 97, the gospel legend recalled the day after Thanksgiving in 2014, when Kanye West came by his home with his father and cousin after driving in from Oklahoma. Franklin joked that his guests cleaned out the Thanksgiving leftovers, but the visit turned serious when the talk turned to music.
West offered to produce beats for Franklin, but with one condition: he wanted to do it anonymously, without his name attached, so he would not upset the Christian community. Franklin shut the idea down on the spot. “No, we not doing that,” he recalled telling West, explaining that taking the music while hiding the man would send the wrong message: that your gift is good enough, but you are not.
The two did not leave it there. Franklin and West later worked together out in the open, most famously on “Ultralight Beam,” the opening track of West’s 2016 album The Life of Pablo, and Franklin joined him for the Saturday Night Live performance of the song alongside Chance the Rapper and a gospel choir.
More than a decade later, Franklin is still making the same point about who gets welcomed into gospel music, and he is still crossing the lines some listeners draw. His new album, I Am What I Am, arrived October 30, and it pairs him with GloRilla on “This Time,” a collaboration he has defended the same way he defended working with West.
Your Station, Your Music, Your Culture.
Photo: CL Holly / Wikimedia Commons (CC BY 2.0)
