Kirk Franklin and GloRilla reunite on gospel-rap single ‘This Time’

Kirk Franklin and GloRilla have reunited for ‘This Time,’ a new gospel-rap single released September 25. The record places Franklin’s choir-led sound beside a verse from the Memphis rapper and will appear on his forthcoming album I Am What I Am. Apple Music’s release page credits Franklin as performer, songwriter and producer, with GloRilla—credited under her legal name, Gloria Woods—among the songwriters and featured vocalists.

The production carries a familiar piece of Southern hip-hop history. ‘This Time’ interpolates Mandrill’s 1972 recording ‘Children of the Sun,’ the same musical foundation heard in Shawty Lo’s 2007 Atlanta anthem ‘Dey Know.’ That connection is reflected in Apple Music’s songwriting credits, which include Mandrill members alongside Franklin, GloRilla and producer Maxwell Stark. The result is not a cover of Shawty Lo’s record; it repurposes recognizable musical material for a contemporary gospel song.

Franklin and his choir frame the track around perseverance, economic pressure and gratitude after surviving difficult seasons. GloRilla enters near the end with a verse that connects her public confidence to prayer and deliverance. She also appears to tease a possible phrase connected to her next project, but she has not announced an official album title. The confirmed release here is Franklin’s single, not a formal reveal of GloRilla’s second album.

The song is the latest preview of I Am What I Am, scheduled for October 30. Reporting around the release describes the project as Franklin’s first double album: 14 songs divided evenly between contemporary gospel and traditional gospel. That structure gives the veteran artist room to work in the hybrid space he helped popularize while also foregrounding the church-rooted choral language that has remained central to his catalog.

‘This Time’ is the pair’s second released collaboration. Franklin and Maverick City Music previously appeared on ‘Rain Down on Me,’ from GloRilla’s 2024 debut album Glorious. That record won the Dr. Bobby Jones Best Gospel/Inspirational Award at the 2025 BET Awards. Their return to the studio therefore builds on an established partnership rather than using gospel as a one-off stylistic detour.

For Franklin, the crossover is consistent with a career spent placing gospel in conversation with R&B and hip-hop. The Recording Academy credits him with 20 Grammy wins and has recognized his influence on modern Black music. His work has repeatedly used contemporary drums, rap features and pop structures without treating the choir as decoration. ‘This Time’ follows that pattern: the recognizable rap reference opens the door, but the record’s focus remains testimony and communal uplift.

GloRilla’s participation also fits themes already present in her music. Her debut album included ‘Rain Down on Me,’ and she has discussed faith as part of the life behind her harder-edged records. On the new song, she does not abandon the clipped delivery and self-possession that made her a rap star. Instead, those qualities sit inside a gospel arrangement, allowing the collaboration to sound like a meeting of two established voices rather than one artist being absorbed into the other’s genre.

The release arrives at a moment when Black gospel and hip-hop continue to share audiences, musical vocabulary and artists, even as debates about the relationship between sacred and secular music remain active. ‘This Time’ does not resolve that tension, nor does it need to. Its more immediate achievement is specific: Franklin and GloRilla have turned a Southern rap touchstone into a record about making it through, while setting the stage for an album designed to hold contemporary and traditional gospel side by side.