Davido Joins Kirk Franklin's Choir for "Hope In You" — Out Today

(ReggaeVibeMedia.com) — Davido did not just show up to Kirk Franklin's album listening session in Atlanta on October 12. He stepped up, performed a verse, and folded himself into the choir like he had been rehearsing with them for weeks — and today, Friday, October 30, the world hears the result. "Hope In You," the collaboration previewed that night, is out today on Franklin's 14-track album "I Am What I Am."

The guest list tells the story of what Franklin is building. Alongside Davido, the album features GloRilla, Jelly Roll and Tobe Nwigwe — four artists who rarely share a playlist, let alone a gospel record. GloRilla has already worked with Franklin on "Rain Down On Me," and Jelly Roll has built much of his recent audience on songs about redemption and faith. Tobe Nwigwe, the Houston rapper whose music leans into his faith and family, gives the project a West African thread alongside Davido that runs deeper than a single feature.

For Davido, this is a different kind of crossover. The Lagos star has spent years taking Afrobeats to stadiums and international charts, with hits like "Fall" and "Unavailable" finding audiences far beyond Nigeria. A gospel collaboration with one of the genre's most recognizable figures puts him in front of church audiences in the United States who may never have streamed an Afrobeats record — and shows a side of himself that rarely makes it onto his own albums. Franklin, for his part, has spent decades pulling gospel toward hip hop, R&B and pop, from the God's Property era through his guest turn on Kanye West's "Ultralight Beam." The title "I Am What I Am" reads almost like an answer to the critics before they even speak: a choir and a club beat can coexist.