Kirk Franklin’s I Am What I Am pairs seven studio recordings with seven live performances, bringing gospel voices and cross-genre collaborators into the same project.
Kirk Franklin has released I Am What I Am, a double album that gives equal space to contemporary studio production and live gospel. Released October 30, the project brings guests from several musical backgrounds into a format built around two distinct seven-song sections.
The studio sequence opens with Jelly Roll on “Free Me Tonight” before moving into collaborations with GloRilla, Davido and Tobe Nwigwe. Those appearances sit within a section that also includes Franklin-led recordings, establishing the album’s collaborative range before the transition to its live half.
The second section begins with “Someday” and continues through seven live performances. Karen Clark Sheard joins Franklin on “Thank You For Everything,” while Tim Rogers appears on the closing “Time.” Their contributions give the live sequence its own guest voices rather than simply repeating the studio lineup.
Franklin and Clark Sheard’s official live video offers a direct introduction to that side of the album. Released on his official artist channel in September, it accompanied the song’s earlier rollout. The performance embedded below belongs to this release cycle, making it a useful starting point before listening to the full collection.
In an Associated Press interview published on release day, Franklin discussed the scrutiny surrounding his collaborations beyond gospel. He described a deeper motivation behind artists choosing to work with him, rather than treating those appearances as purely commercial arrangements. That perspective gives the mixed guest list context without reducing the record to a debate over genres.
The project arrives through Uptown Records, working with Fo Yo Soul and TRIBL Music Group. Franklin’s release announcement identifies it as his fourteenth full-length solo album and emphasizes its two-part structure. The studio and live sections present different recording approaches within one release, rather than two unrelated albums issued together.
Listeners browsing Apple Music’s current edition may see 21 items rather than 14. That package includes the 14 audio recordings followed by seven music videos. The distinction explains the larger platform count without changing the announced balance of seven studio songs and seven live songs.
Before the album arrived, Franklin performed the Clark Sheard collaboration at the 41st Stellar Gospel Music Awards, bringing the song to television audiences. Its earlier release, the accompanying video and the complete October album now form a connected rollout: listeners can move from that individual performance into the wider studio-and-live program.
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