''Hero'' is the eighth album by

Kirk Franklin Kirk Dewayne Franklin (born January 26, 1970) is an American songwriter, choir director, gospel singer, and rapper. He is best known for leading urban contemporary gospel ensembles such as The Family, God's Property, and One Nation Crew (1NC) a ...

, released October 4, 2005 on

GospoCentric Records GospoCentric Records was an Inglewood, California based Gospel music record label, started as an independent label by Vicki Mack Lataillade and Claude Lataillade in 1993. The label rose to prominence in the 1990s, largely on the runaway success o ...

. ''Hero'' was certified as

Gold Gold is a chemical element with the symbol Au (from la, aurum) and atomic number 79. This makes it one of the higher atomic number elements that occur naturally. It is a bright, slightly orange-yellow, dense, soft, malleable, and ductile met ...

by the

RIAA The Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) is a trade organization that represents the music recording industry in the United States. Its members consist of record labels and distributors that the RIAA says "create, manufacture, and/o ...

on and

Platinum Platinum is a chemical element with the symbol Pt and atomic number 78. It is a dense, malleable, ductile, highly unreactive, precious, silverish-white transition metal. Its name originates from Spanish , a diminutive of "silver". Platinu ...

on .RIAA official website
/ref> In 2007 ''Hero'' won the

Grammy Award for Best Contemporary Soul Gospel Album The Grammy Award for Best Contemporary R&B Gospel Album was an honor presented at the Grammy Awards, a ceremony that was established in 1958 and originally called the Gramophone Awards, to recording artists for quality gospel albums incorporating ...

and " Imagine Me" won the

Grammy Award for Best Gospel Song The Grammy Award for Best Gospel Song is an honor presented at the Grammy Awards, a ceremony that was established in 1958 and originally called the Gramophone Awards, to recording artists for quality songs in the gospel music genre. Honors in sev ...

Synopsis

Produced by Franklin and

J. Moss James Moss (born September 22, 1971), better known by his stage name J. Moss, is an American gospel musician, composer, producer and arranger. Early years Born and raised in Detroit, Michigan, James Moss went to Cass Technical High School, the ...

, the album features songs with several

urban contemporary gospel Urban/contemporary gospel is a modern subgenre of gospel music. Although the style developed gradually, early forms are generally dated to the 1970s, and the genre was well established by the end of the 1980s. The radio format is pitched prima ...

and R&B artists including

Dorinda Clark-Cole Dorinda Grace Clark-Cole (born Dorinda Grace Clark; October 19, 1957) is an American Grammy Award-winning gospel singer, songwriter, musician, talk show host, and evangelist. Clark–Cole is best known as a member of family vocal group The Clark ...

Tye Tribbett Tyrone "Tye" Tribbett (born January 26, 1976) is an American gospel music singer, songwriter and keyboardist. He is choir director and founder of the Grammy-nominated and Stellar Award-winning gospel group Tye Tribbett & G.A. (short for 'Greate ...

, Marvin Winans (member of the Winans),

Stevie Wonder Stevland Hardaway Morris ( Judkins; May 13, 1950), known professionally as Stevie Wonder, is an American singer-songwriter, who is credited as a pioneer and influence by musicians across a range of genres that include rhythm and blues, Pop musi ...

Yolanda Adams Yolanda Yvette Adams (born August 27, 1961) is an American gospel singer, actress, and host of her own nationally syndicated morning gospel show. She is one of the best-selling gospel artists of all time, having sold over 10 million album ...

, and Moss himself.

Track listing

Personnel

''*Note: Personnel listing from Hero album liner.

Vocalists

*Ashley Guilbert * Nikki Ross *Daphanie Wright * Anaysha Figueroa *Faith Anderson *Erica Davis *Jana Bell *Charmaine Swimpson *

Isaac Carree Isaac Thompson Carree III (born April 28, 1973) is an American gospel musician. He started his music career, in 1990, with the Gospel legend John P. Kee, yet his solo career commenced in 2011, with the release of ''Uncommon Me'' by Sovereign Age ...

*Eric Moore *

Jason Champion Jason Lamar Champion (born May 1, 1973) is an American gospel musician. He started a music career in 1992 with Men at Large. He left the group in 2007 due to a "newly blossoming relationship with Jesus Christ." In 2008, he signed to EMI CMG, r ...

*Anthony Evans *

Myron Butler Myron Demond Butler (born July 27, 1974) is a gospel musician, record producer, singer-songwriter, music director, vocalist, organist and pianist. Most notably, he is known as the leader of the gospel choir, Myron Butler & Levi. Since 1997, he' ...

Instrumentalists

*Kirk Franklin - Keyboards, Minimoog, Piano, Drum Programming *Terry Baker - Drums *

Shaun Martin Shaun Martin is an American composer, arranger, producer, and multi-instrumental musician. Martin is a member of the jazz fusion band Snarky Puppy, as well as music director for Gospel music star Kirk Franklin, and former Minister of Music at Dal ...

- Keyboards, Drum Programming, Minimoog, Programming, Drums *Jerome Harmon - Keyboards, Hammond B3 *Braylon Lacy - Bass Guitar *Doc Powell - Lead Guitar, Acoustic Guitar *Ernie G - DJ, Keyboards, Programming *Jason Bell - Lead Guitar *Sheila E. - Percussion, Percussion Color *Chris Godbey - Programming *Vidal Davis - Percussion, Additional Instruments *Andre Harris - Percussion, Additional Instruments *Ryan Toby - Percussion *Jason Boyd - Percussion *Humberto Ruiz - Trombone *Lee Thornburg - Trumpet *Paul Cerra - Saxophone *Dave Monsch - Baritone Sax *Jamie Hovorka - Trumpet

Orchestra

*Assa Drori –

Violin The violin, sometimes known as a ''fiddle'', is a wooden chordophone (string instrument) in the violin family. Most violins have a hollow wooden body. It is the smallest and thus highest-pitched instrument (soprano) in the family in regular ...

*Agnes Gottschewsky –

*Armen Garabedian –

*Elizabeth Wilson –

*Sally Berman –

*Brian Benning –

*Irma Neumann –

*Berj Garabedian –

*Robert Brosseau –

*Shari Zippert –

*Kazi Pitelka –

Viola The viola ( , also , ) is a string instrument that is bow (music), bowed, plucked, or played with varying techniques. Slightly larger than a violin, it has a lower and deeper sound. Since the 18th century, it has been the middle or alto voice of ...

*Jorge Moraga –

*Renita Koven –

*Karie Prescott –

*Cecilia Tsan –

Cello The cello ( ; plural ''celli'' or ''cellos'') or violoncello ( ; ) is a Bow (music), bowed (sometimes pizzicato, plucked and occasionally col legno, hit) string instrument of the violin family. Its four strings are usually intonation (music), t ...

*Dan Smith –

*Miguel Martinez –

*Earl Madison –

*Frances Liu –

Contrabass Contrabass (from it, contrabbasso) refers to several musical instruments of very low pitch—generally one octave below bass register instruments. While the term most commonly refers to the double bass (which is the bass instrument in the orchest ...

*Nicholas Phillippon –

*Katie Kirkpatrick –

Harp The harp is a stringed musical instrument that has a number of individual strings running at an angle to its soundboard; the strings are plucked with the fingers. Harps can be made and played in various ways, standing or sitting, and in orche ...

* Gary Foster –

Flute The flute is a family of classical music instrument in the woodwind group. Like all woodwinds, flutes are aerophones, meaning they make sound by vibrating a column of air. However, unlike woodwind instruments with reeds, a flute is a reedless ...

*Sheridan Stokes –

*Vince Trombetta, Jr. –

*Larry Caplan –

*Don Shelton –

Clarinet The clarinet is a musical instrument in the woodwind family. The instrument has a nearly cylindrical bore and a flared bell, and uses a single reed to produce sound. Clarinets comprise a family of instruments of differing sizes and pitches ...

*Jeff Driskill –

Alto Clarinet The alto clarinet is a woodwind instrument of the clarinet family. It is a transposing instrument pitched in the key of E, though instruments in F have been made. In size it lies between the soprano clarinet and the bass clarinet. It bears a grea ...

* Phil Feather –

Bass Clarinet The bass clarinet is a musical instrument of the clarinet family. Like the more common soprano B clarinet, it is usually pitched in B (meaning it is a transposing instrument on which a written C sounds as B), but it plays notes an octave bel ...

Oboe The oboe ( ) is a type of double reed woodwind instrument. Oboes are usually made of wood, but may also be made of synthetic materials, such as plastic, resin, or hybrid composites. The most common oboe plays in the treble or soprano range. A ...

*John Mitchell – Eb Contrabass Clarinet/

Bassoon The bassoon is a woodwind instrument in the double reed family, which plays in the tenor and bass ranges. It is composed of six pieces, and is usually made of wood. It is known for its distinctive tone color, wide range, versatility, and virtuo ...

*David Duke –

French horn The French horn (since the 1930s known simply as the horn in professional music circles) is a brass instrument made of tubing wrapped into a coil with a flared bell. The double horn in F/B (technically a variety of German horn) is the horn most ...

*John Reynolds –

*Loren Marstellar –

Baritone horn The baritone horn, or sometimes just called baritone, is a low-pitched brass instrument in the saxhorn family.Robert Donington, "The Instruments of Music", (pp. 113ff ''The Family of Bugles'') 2nd ed., Methuen, London, 1962 It is a piston-val ...

*Chuck Koontz –

Tuba The tuba (; ) is the lowest-pitched musical instrument in the brass family. As with all brass instruments, the sound is produced by lip vibrationa buzzinto a mouthpiece. It first appeared in the mid-19th century, making it one of the ne ...

Brent Fischer Brent Sean Cecil Fischer (born July 13, 1964) is an American composer, arranger, bandleader, bass guitarist and percussionist. The son of noted composer, arranger, and keyboardist Clare Fischer, Brent Fischer made his recording debut with his fa ...

–

cymbal A cymbal is a common percussion instrument. Often used in pairs, cymbals consist of thin, normally round plates of various alloys. The majority of cymbals are of indefinite pitch, although small disc-shaped cymbals based on ancient designs soun ...

Timpani Timpani (; ) or kettledrums (also informally called timps) are musical instruments in the percussion family. A type of drum categorised as a hemispherical drum, they consist of a membrane called a head stretched over a large bowl traditionall ...

Notable Singles

''Hero'' featured the singles " Looking for You" and "Imagine Me". "Looking for You" was released as a single on September 20, 2005 in the U.S. and was a top-five hit on the ''Billboards

Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Songs The Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Songs chart ranks the most popular R&B and hip hop songs in the United States and is published weekly by '' Billboard''. Rankings are based on a measure of radio airplay, sales data, and streaming activity. The chart had 100 ...

chart.

Charts

''Hero'' peaked at No. 13 on The ''Billboard'' 200 chart on , It also reached No. 4 on the ''Billboard''

Top R&B/Hip-Hop Albums Top R&B/Hip-Hop Albums is a music chart published weekly by '' Billboard'' magazine that ranks R&B and hip hop albums based on sales in the United States and is compiled by Nielsen SoundScan. The chart debuted as Hot R&B LPs in the issue dated J ...

chart.

Weekly charts

Year-end charts

Awards

In 2006, the album won a

Dove Award A Dove Award is an accolade by the Gospel Music Association (GMA) of the United States to recognize outstanding achievement in the Christian music industry. The awards are presented annually. Formerly held in Nashville, Tennessee, the Dove Awards ...

for Urban Album of the Year at the

37th GMA Dove Awards The 37th Annual GMA Dove Awards, also called the 37th Annual GMA Music Awards, were held on April 5, 2006 recognizing accomplishments of Christian musicians for the year 2005. The show was held at the Grand Ole Opry House in Nashville, Tennessee, ...

. The song " Looking for You" also won a Dove Award for Urban Recorded Song of the Year.37th Annual GMA Dove Awards Nominations & Winners
on About.com; Jones, Kim

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Hero - Kirk Franklin 2005 albums Kirk Franklin albums Albums produced by Dre & Vidal