G. Franklin’s latest single, The Calmest, brings fresh energy to The Nati’s hip hop scene, striking a balance that feels personal and timeless. Unlike much of today’s music, which can feel rushed or hollow, this track lands with a realness that goes deeper than the beat—a vibe that harks back to the days when hip hop was all about storytelling, struggle, and survival.
Coming up in Alaska’s hard cold, G. Franklin found his way into music through family—the kind of stuff that’s lived. Pops, aunties, church choirs: the roots are thick. From those first glimpses of Snoop on MTV to afternoons studying Biggie’s unstoppable flow, his voice grew out of places where resilience is currency and music means survival. His verses, back then and now, play like pages torn out of a diary you weren’t supposed to find – candid, a little raw, but always magnetic.
Drop into his discography and you can hear that same thread running through. “Fnsb” and “Soul Money” both capture Northern winters, side hustles, and the pull of family—soul money, not just dollars. He rhymes about moral choices, the way power and pain shape a man—finding clarity in chaos, learning to stay upright in a world that rarely gives second chances. On his new single, he’s perfecting the art of staying calm, carrying lessons from the past, and proving you don’t have to be the loudest in the room to be the realest.
“The Calmest” has a certain laid-back confidence, that slow-burning intensity where every word lands with purpose. The production balances smoothness with grit, echoing his Substantial Mind Music brand—thoughtful, but never dull. G. Franklin is at a point where peace doesn’t look like staying out the way, it looks like controlling the room, claiming space, and letting craft speak volumes. Every bar suggests that his break from writing over the last year wasn’t a stumble—it was fuel for sharper focus, giving new depth to what he’s saying now.
When G. Franklin tells you he wants people to feel his truth, it isn’t about pity or posturing. It’s about giving listeners a sound that’s worth doubling back for—a track you catch in the late hours or on a long drive, where a line hits differently because you know it comes from somewhere honest. He doesn’t need to scream his story, because it’s laced through every verse and every quiet pause in the beat. It’s indeed an approach that stands out in a busy lineup of up-and-coming and established acts.
“The Calmest” grabs you not just with technical skill but with what flows beneath it: an undercurrent of survival, self-checks, and the hard-won wisdom of losing time but finding yourself again. G. Franklin is the kind of artist who helps you work through your own distractions, who believes—against the odds—that music can be both a lifeline and a way forward. There’s no fake heroics here, just a call for focus, purpose, and musical honesty people can hold onto.
If you haven’t heard G. Franklin yet, “The Calmest” is the doorway. Cool, sure of itself, never soft, always purposeful. With another single on the way in December, this drop is a quiet tide pulling forward a new chapter for Cincinnati hip hop—and for anybody hungry for something substantial in a scene that too often rewards the surface over the soul.
Follow G.Franklin on social media:
https://www.facebook.com/Gfdeuce
https://music.apple.com/us/artist/g-franklin/1438459478