Kirk Franklin’s “This Time” feat. GloRilla: The “Dey Know” Horns and “What That Mean?”

Kirk Franklin’s “This Time” brings the horns that once rang out in Atlanta clubs into the heart of gospel. Released on September 25, 2026, the track runs 2 minutes and 46 seconds and features Memphis’s GloRilla.

It is an advance single from Franklin’s 14th solo album, I Am What I Am, due October 30, and it came out through Uptown Records. On September 8, Franklin announced a partnership with Uptown that also involves his own label, Fo Yo Soul, and TRIBL Music Group.

Those Horns Were Ringing Out in Atlanta in 2007

For many listeners, the opening horns probably bring Atlanta to mind before gospel. The phrase comes from Mandrill’s 1972 track “Children of the Sun.”

Shawty Lo built his 2007 single “Dey Know” around that phrase, and it went on to reach No. 31 on the Billboard Hot 100. It became the signature solo hit for the D4L member. The message was simple: everybody in the city knows who I am.

Over those same horns, the choir sings with the conviction of having made it through hard times. This time, things will be all right, they repeat.

God is watching over you, so put your burdens in his hands instead of carrying them alone. It is an invitation to raise your hands.

The choir carries most of the track. This is no rap song with a choir added on. It moves a horn sound made familiar by rap into the center of gospel.

This is hardly Kirk Franklin’s first encounter with hip-hop. On the 1997 remix of his gospel record “Stomp,” he brought in Salt of Salt-N-Pepa. In 2016, he carried a moment of prayer into Kanye West’s “Ultralight Beam.”

This time, he folds a horn phrase from Atlanta rap into a single from his own album.

Kirk Asks What “B&B” Means

GloRilla gets one verse, between two hooks. It is short, but several exchanges with Kirk Franklin are tucked inside it.

GloRilla, too, starts by asking God for help. She trusts that guidance is there even when things go wrong, and declares that nobody can outpray her. From there, she turns to the life she is living now.

‘Cause I could be in the dirt right now, instead I’m on the beach

She could easily have ended up in the ground. Instead, she is on a beach.

GloRilla goes on to say she is chilling in her “B&B,” and Kirk Franklin cuts in: “What that mean?” She says she is “in her bag”—slang for making money and being on top of her game. She is blessed and favored, and she adds that she may have just landed on an album title. iHeart read the line as a hint about the direction of her next album.

He cuts in elsewhere too. “What’s gon’ happen?” “But what?” Franklin asks in the gaps, and GloRilla answers.

It follows the call-and-response of a pastor and congregation, while he does the work of a hype man on a rap record. Those exchanges make GloRilla’s verse sound like a testimony delivered during a sermon.

At the end of the verse, she describes the devil working overtime, and says he still hasn’t won. She also says the blessings are still coming. Applying the phrase “work ethic” to the devil is a distinctly rapper-like turn of phrase.

Can a Church Song Borrow from Street Rap?

In release week, social media posts collected by The Shade Room showed both welcome and pushback. Some said using a Shawty Lo sample was classic Kirk. Others said they could not get into the new song.

Franklin previewed the track on September 22, before release, on iHeart’s “Joe and Jada.” According to iHeart’s write-up of the show, he also talked about the criticism he has received from some religious figures for praying backstage with Usher and Chris Brown.

This is GloRilla and Kirk Franklin’s second collaboration. “Rain Down on Me,” from her 2024 album Glorious, featured Franklin and Maverick City Music, among others, and debuted at No. 1 on Billboard’s Hot Gospel Songs chart. GloRilla grew up in Frayser, Memphis, and sang in her church choir, something HIPHOPCs also touched on in its Memphis edition of Rap Atlas.

• Rap Atlas US: Memphis — 15 Acts, Records and Collaborations
• Atlanta Rap Atlas: 18 Acts, Records and Creative Networks

In both “Dey Know” and “This Time,” those horns carry the feeling of having survived this far. Shawty Lo expressed it through the name he had made in the streets. Franklin’s choir sings of coming through the fire. GloRilla says she is on a beach instead of in the ground.

What stayed with me longest was Kirk Franklin asking, “What that mean?” A 56-year-old gospel giant sounds as though he really is asking a rapper in her twenties to explain her slang. When the answer comes, he is probably laughing.

The church and the club don’t have to hear those horns the same way. Through its call-and-response, this song makes room for that difference from the start. It is a shame it ends after just 2 minutes and 46 seconds.