Christianity & Culture with Kierstyn St. John

Maverick City Music and Kirk Franklin collaborate with explicit rap artist GloRilla

• Kierstyn St. John of Zoetic • Season 1 • Episode 10

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Rap artist GloRilla just released her album "GLORIOUS". In this video, I talk about why she is likely not a Christian although she claims to have faith, I talk about the album and how utterly depraved the lyrics are, and I talk about why Kirk Franklin and Maverick City Music should have never collaborated with her on a track for the album. The Christian music industry is corrupt, and this proves my point even further. 

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Kierstyn St John:

Christian artists, averick City Music and Kirk Franklin collaborated on a gospel song that sounds great, except it's a song on one of the most explicit albums of the last decade. So what is this horribly explicit album that Maverick City Music and Kirk Franklin collaborated on? It's the new album, glorious, by the rap artist Glorilla, and I had not heard of her before this point, but I definitely know her now. So who is she? Okay, so, glorilla. Her full name is Gloria Hallelujah Woods. She's a rapper from Memphis, ennessee. She's 25 years old and a song of hers named FNF let's Go went viral in 2022. By the way, if you're wondering what FNF stands for, it stands for F word a n word free. So yeah, this is who this person is.

Kierstyn St John:

Is Gloria a Christian? Well, first of all, I don't make a practice of judging people on whether they're a Christian or not, but I'm going to say no, she isn't saved. And some people might be saying, how can you even say that? How can you judge her so harshly? Matthew 7, 15 through 20 says beware of false prophets who come to you in sheep's clothing, but inwardly they are ravenous wolves. You will know them by their fruits. The fruit is rotten here, as we will see. But does she even consider herself a Christian? That's actually a good question, because personally I don't. But does she even consider herself a Christian? Well, kind of yes.

Kierstyn St John:

She doesn't come out and say explicitly that she is a Christian, but she constantly is talking about her faith and, as you will see, one of the 15 songs on this album is a gospel song, a collaboration with both Kirk Franklin and Maverick City Music, and so Relevant Magazine has an article about it where Glorilla is in an interview and she says this" both my mom and dad were Christians and we were in church all the time. The article goes on to say that Glorilla shared with the interviewer that she still holds her faith close to her, even if her music may not seem that way. She says I always have to put God first in whatever I do. You know what I'm saying. She said I just don't let too much negativity get to me. She also shared that she and her mom are so close and that they pray for one another.

Kierstyn St John:

Okay, Glorilla, you aren't putting God first, at least not in your public career, in your public witness. You're not putting him first in your music career, because if you were, you wouldn't have fourteen horribly explicit songs on the album that you just released. You wouldn't have lyrics like the ones that I'm about to read, and so, before I start reading the lyrics off of this album, I think it's important to show what her cover photo on Spotify looks like. She's obviously extremely scantily clad in this cover photo. Does this look like somebody who is trying to follow God or does it look like somebody who is trying to follow their flesh? Right, and now I'm going to read some of the lyrics off of this new album. I don't want to do this, but I think it's important, because if Christian artists are collaborating on this album, right, and if Glorilla considers herself a person of faith, we should see if her lyrics convey that or if they don't.

Kierstyn St John:

The first lyrics that I'm going to read-- if you have kids around, I would recommend skipping this part of it. I'm going to try not to say curse words, but it's just so explicit. So this song is called Let Her Cook. I got my own cake. You ain't gonna make me wait either. My n-word ever cheat on me. I bet we break even. Uh, b-word, your N-word still my N-word bet he can't leave me. H-word Woo, woo, woo, woo. Early bird, get the worm. Ah, ah, ah ah. Give me euphemism for oral. I don't want your, I can't. Even I, yeah, can't teach these H-word the game. No, these B-word tender, let them learn. Oh my gosh. There are people who are not Christians. They are obviously not Christian artists and their music is significantly cleaner than this. Like this is so bad.

Kierstyn St John:

The second song I'm going to read from what you Know About Me. One of these songs I think she collaborates with Sexy Red on, I think it might. Hair face a word. Breasts, woo. I uh yeah. Hair face a word. Breasts, uh, woo, I uh yeah. Female body part drive him crazy, cdc, he a dog for the female body part. And you know I got the treat. Private entry through the club. F word word a fee A B word play with gang tonight. Her face going on a T, bad B word. You know I'm thick as Coachella, you won't ever catch me slipping. I ain't no effing Cinderella, stupid B word. First of all, what does any of this mean? Like it's just such bad lyric writing, even minus the profanity, but the profanity just makes it a whole nother level. I don't have to tell you that these lyrics are horrifically bad, like Sodom and Gomorrah.

Kierstyn St John:

Levels of depravity in these lyrics and the point that I'm going to make about this is this this is the logical conclusion to years and years of people saying, well, I'm a Christian, but I'm not a Christian artist. We've heard that over and over again. We heard it a lot from so-called Christian rock bands in the 2000s where they would say, well, we're Christians, but we're not really a Christian band, and personally I always thought that was obscenely ridiculous. I've said it before and I'll say it again If you claim to be a Christian and you are a public musician, you are a Christian musician. You are a Christian artist.

Kierstyn St John:

You don't get to choose to keep your Christianity out of your artistry, to keep them separate. You don't get to choose to hide your light under a bushel separate. You don't get to choose to hide your light under a bushel. You forfeited that choice when you chose Jesus. Jesus died for you. He died for you to proclaim his glory in everything you do. That includes your music.

Kierstyn St John:

To claim the name of Christ and then purposefully release explicit, sexually immoral songs is blasphemous. And I'm going to speak straight to Glorilla and she's gotten a lot of blowback for this Good. Of course I don't wish like death threats on her or anything like that. But this blowback is deserved because if you're going to talk about your faith in God constantly and then you have 14 songs on an album that sound like this, it is incredibly hypocritical to do so. And so I'm going to say to Glorilla if you claim to have faith, if you claim to pray for your mom, if you release a gospel song, it's gospel style, it doesn't share the gospel.

Kierstyn St John:

Unfortunately, like you do on this album and you collaborate with other Christian artists. You need to repent album and you collaborate with other Christian artists. You need to repent, remove this album, publicly apologize and start making songs that are actually a witness for Christ, like some of us are trying to do. I'm a Christian artist and I make sure that every single one of my lyrics is God-honoring the best that I can, and she's not going to do that. Probably I hope she does, I wish she would, but I don't think she will.

Kierstyn St John:

And this is why I say that Glorilla is not a Christian, should not be treated like a Christian, shouldn't be collaborating with other Christians. Glorilla, either you're a Christian and you should write songs about God, or you're not a Christian and you can put out filth like this whenever you want. Okay, I pray for your soul. I hope you do choose Jesus, but you have to choose him fully, okay, and Christians need to start calling things blasphemous again. Okay, paul did, god certainly did. We've lost that. We've lost the ability to discern because we're so scared of looking judgmental that we never want to say that something is blasphemous.

Kierstyn St John:

This album should never be promoted by any Christian, any Christian organization, any Christian record label, any Christian awards show. It shouldn't be listened to by Christians. In my opinion, it is incredibly sexually immoral. It is a work of the flesh. But we are already losing in that regard because so-called Christian artists Maverick City Music, kirk Franklin and another Christian artist named Kiera Sheard collaborated with this woman on a song on this album.

Kierstyn St John:

So, like I said, okay, there's 15 songs on this album, 14 of them are horribly explicit and one of them isn't, and thank goodness at least for that. But that song is the song that Maverick City Music and Kirk Franklin are collaborating with Glorilla on. So I want to get into that a little bit, because I've already talked about how I think it is super hypocritical for somebody to claim that they have faith in God, like Leroy does, and then come out with an album like this. It's just so bad. But what about the collaboration I mentioned? So Kirk Franklin, maverick City Music and Kiera Sheard are Christian artists.

Kierstyn St John:

Maverick City Music is a famous worship team. Okay, what on earth are they doing on an album like this? And don't give me the well. Jesus ate with sinners. Yeah, he was witnessing to them. Here's a question for you Is this a good witness, or is this mixing light with darkness, christ with Belial and believers with unbelievers? Have you forgotten that Christians are supposed to be set apart for God? Okay, we'll get into the song that they collaborated on in a second, and I don't believe that this song is a good witness either.

Kierstyn St John:

But regardless, I want to read some scripture, because we need to bring scripture into this. Romans 2.12, one of my favorite verses of all time. Sorry, romans 12.2,. Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind that, by testing, you may discern what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect. Is this album good and acceptable, or is this conforming to the world? By collaborating on an album, no-transcript, you are. I mean, you have to promote the album, to promote your song right. So this is actually an endorsement of this album by these artists.

Kierstyn St John:

1 John, 2, 15 through 17, says do not love the world or the things in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him. I don't think we could be clearer about that, for all that is in the world the desires of the flesh and the desires of the eyes and the pride of life is not from the Father. That is in the world the desires of the flesh and the desires of the eyes and the pride of life is not from the Father, but is from the world. And the world is passing away, along with its desires, but whoever does the will of God abides forever, going back to well.

Kierstyn St John:

Maverick City Music and Kirk Franklin are trying to witness. You can only kind of make that argument to me if you can show me a clear gospel message in this song that they collaborated on, which is called Rain Down. If it's such a great witness, we certainly need the gospel presented clearly. Okay, so is it. Is the gospel presented clearly? I don't have time to read the entire song. You can go look at it for yourself, but no is the answer. Okay, so I'm going to read one of the verses.

Kierstyn St John:

This is the verse that Glorilla sings, or raps on this song Rain Down, feeling like I'm God's favorite, and that's the best feeling ever. Rain down on me, father God, I won't use an umbrella. Forgive the ones who play with me. Apparently they don't know better. At times I don't know who to trust. I randomly rebuke the devil.

Kierstyn St John:

Okay, it's hard to talk about my blessings. They be saying I'm acting cocky, always and forever humble. They just don't want to see me pop it Five feet and I'm praising you with every inch up in my body. No, you're not, so I pray you. Watch my back, along with those who say they got it. Watch over my family, lord, and watch over all my partners. And, even though he hate me, lord, watch over my baby father. Watch over my haters. They the ones that make me go the hardest. I just want us all to win. I want us all to prosper. Thank you, lord. You ain't have to do it. What is it, glorilla? What is it you mean? He didn't have to die, he died for you.

Kierstyn St John:

She doesn't specify it could have been worse than what it was. So I'm grateful, lord. I don't think she's talking about his sacrifice on the cross, because I don't think that could have been worse than what it was. So this is not a clear gospel message. Honestly, it's incredibly narcissistic. Okay, she says, feeling like I'm God's favorite, always and forever humble. They just want to see me pop it. What the heck? This is not the true gospel. This is not the gospel. This is a prosperity gospel at best, but it is not the true gospel. So what are my final thoughts?

Kierstyn St John:

I'm deeply, deeply saddened by this collaboration. I'm not super surprised. There's been other things that have happened with Kirk Franklin that I've talked about, and with Maverick City Music, so I'm not super surprised. But I am deeply saddened because I think this is more damaging than it is good for the kingdom of God. I pray for Glorilla's soul, and at this point I pray for Kirk Franklin's soul too, because he's obviously using the name of God to further his own career and fame at this point.

Kierstyn St John:

Maverick City Music this is a tragedy. This is not a worship song. This is not a song that a worship team should be collaborating on. Every person involved needs to repent of this. It's so bad. They won't, but they should.

Kierstyn St John:

And if you are a Christian and do not understand what is wrong with this? You are seriously lacking in discernment. You need to spend more time in the word. It should be very obvious why this is not a good idea, why this is, in fact, unequally yoking yourself to unbelievers. I've said before that is not just about marriage, it's about things like this too.

Kierstyn St John:

And finally, the Christian music industry, which, unfortunately, I am a part of, is dead. It is rotten to the core. It cannot be reformed. Something new must come up from the ground and eventually supersede it. It has become absolutely, utterly corrupted with sexual immorality. When you talk about people like Flamie Grant and Grace Semler, who are coming up, as well as things like this, mainstream Christian artists collaborating on an album that is so explicit, it is unbelievable.

Kierstyn St John:

And what I would say to you guys?

Kierstyn St John:

Well, what do we do about it? Do we just sit here sad about it? No, support and promote Christian artists like us but not just us who actually care about bringing glory to God, who actually care about bringing others into the kingdom, who are trying to use our talents for him, not for ourselves. Okay, we don't get the accolades and the fame and the notoriety that Glorilla does, but that doesn't matter, because I want to stand before the Lord knowing that, yes, I wasn't perfect.

Kierstyn St John:

I'm not perfect, okay, I'm not saying that I am, but that I loved him with all of my heart, soul, mind and strength, that I gave him everything, including my music, my creativity, my talent, because that's what he deserves. He deserves that and more Support. Artists like that, who truly, truly love the Lord. Again, they're not going to get, unfortunately, even within the mainstream Christian music industry, they're not going to get the accolades that they should, or their music's not going to be promoted to the level of some of this stuff, and that's why it's more important that we have a groundswell of a movement of people who really care about the faith of these public Christian artists. Okay, guys, that's going to be it for me today. Thank you and God bless.