ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1997, Roanoke Times
DATE: Tuesday, February 4, 1997 TAG: 9702040049
SECTION: EXTRA PAGE: 1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: CHRIS NEWTON ASSOCIATED PRESS
When Kirk Franklin was 11 years old, he sat in the old oak pews of Mount Rose Baptist Church long after the morning's sermon, revamping traditional gospel music with a certain flair and vibrancy.
It was his hobby.
Now his ``heavenly hip-hop'' sits atop the gospel and R&B charts, redefining a sound that he says hasn't changed since its conception the days of slave trade in the United States.
``We're doing it our way,'' the 26-year-old Franklin said. ``If it's different, well get used to it, because it's music inspired by God and it's here to stay.''
Franklin, whose album ``Whatcha Lookin 4'' has sold more than 750,000 copies and went to No. 1 on the gospel album chart, was hospitalized with head injuries after falling into an orchestra pit backstage during a Nov. 1 concert in Memphis, Tenn.
The fall caused Franklin to postpone a concert date in Roanoke. Now recovered, he will take the stage Wednesday night at the Roanoke Civic Center auditorium.
Franklin knew early on the direction he wanted to steer his life.
As a boy, he paid for his music classes with money he got from collecting soda cans in an inner-city Fort Worth neighborhood. By age 11, he was appointed minister of music at Mt. Rose, almost causing a mutiny by some of the elders in the choir.
Forming a small group of singers, Franklin went on the road in the early 1980s. But his sound didn't catch the attention of a big label until Vicki Lataillade, owner of GospoCentric Records, heard his music and signed Franklin as the fledgling record company's first artist.
``I told him I didn't want gospel music to remain status quo; I wanted to make it for everybody,'' Lataillade told the Fort Worth Weekly.
GospoCentric had trouble producing enough records to sell to all of Franklin's fans, who for years had seen the young star on small tours.
Now, Franklin and his choir, some of whom sang with him at Mt. Rose, have scheduled a 19-city national tour.
The tour began Oct. 31 in Kansas City and had been slated to end Dec. 1 in Asbury Park, N.J., but was interrupted by Franklin's accident.
His first album, ``Kirk Franklin and the Family,'' is nearing double platinum and was the first gospel album to debut with 1 million copies sold.
The biggest news about Franklin's new album is that it debuted at No. 3 on the R&B charts, demonstrating its drawing power among young listeners.
Al Wash, Franklin's tour promoter, says the tour show ``rewrites the book'' on gospel music.
``Franklin came to us and said, `We want lights, we want big sound, we want special effects' - and now we're putting on a show like no one else in gospel ever has,'' Wash said.
Franklin's music takes the Southern base of gospel - a methodic back-beat, combined with high-pitched alto and tenor lead voices - and adds modern R&B rhythm.
This is not your father's gospel choir.
``We want people to see that gospel music is not haughty, it's not fake and, above all, it's not boring,'' Franklin said.
Franklin makes sure his 12-person choir knows there are no rules.
Each time the singers go through a refrain, it sounds a little different - not just an amen here and a hallelujah there, but a true emphasis on improvisation.
``The song is still the song, but sometimes your voice just goes where the spirit leads it ... and that's OK," Franklin said. "I always tell the choir it's not about you or about me, but about God and the music.''
The style probably owes part of its origin to the laid-back spirit of the choir's rehearsal.
The scene at Franklin's choir practice is more like a family barbecue than a formal rehearsal, with band members and singers slowly trickling in from across the city.
Franklin and his choir members have sung together for almost seven years.
The eldest singer is affectionately named ``Mama,'' a big woman with a booming voice that matches her stature. ``I suppose I help everyone keep their heads on straight,'' said Jessica Phillip, 44.
The choir, most of the members dressed in jeans and sneakers, gather at a local high school in preparation for the tour.
The first few minutes are spent in what one member calls ``family reunion.'' When the hugs stop, the practice begins.
But the music starts long before practice begins as band members hum and strum everything from classic gospel anthems to popular R&B hits from TLC and Montel Jordan.
But when Franklin arrives, he immediately gets the group organized and ready for a three-hour practice.
It's no accident that the group rehearses at an urban school. Franklin desperately hopes his music will have an impact on disadvantaged youth.
``It's not just good time music," he said. "It's so much more than that.
``People need to know that there are kids out there killing each other in the streets. Any way that we can get the word to those kids that there is another way - God's way - we have to try it.''
Franklin knew the street life all too well. Abandoned by his teen-age mother at age 3 and raised by an aunt in Fort Worth, he regularly dodged drugs and gang violence as a child.
``The bottom line was that I didn't have to be here today,'' Franklin said. ``I could have just as easy been dead on a street corner. Just a memory.''
People who don't traditionally listen to gospel should not overlook heavenly hip-hop, Franklin said.
``Our music transcends race,'' he said. ``Our music is about sending the only message that can save the lives of our youth - white, black and otherwise - the message that God loves them and has a plan for them.''
LENGTH: Long : 111 lines ILLUSTRATION: PHOTO: KRT. Kirk Franklin's doing ``heavenly hip-hop'': ``Ifby CNBit's different, well get used to it,'' he says, ``because it's music
inspired by God and it's here to stay.'' color.
* In concert:
Kirk Franklin and The Family will perform Wednesday at 8 p.m. at
the Roanoke Civic Center auditorium. For tickets, call 981-1201 or
Ticketmaster.