Throw Yo Hands Up

Kirk Franklin's “Throw Yo Hands Up” is an upbeat praise track that opens with a mock warning that it contains intense musical progressions crossing cultural lines and is for spiritually mature audiences only. Franklin shouts out friends and young believers, including TobyMac of dc Talk, who joins him on the track.

The first verse is addressed to God directly, saying he is needed, loved and worthy, and asks everyone to help. The chorus is the title line, repeated with the crowd answering to get their hands up. In the second verse Franklin says he was a sinner, God forgave him, changed him and saved him, and he asks everyone to help him praise. A spoken section dedicates the song to young white and Latino brothers and sisters of all colors and nations, and calls on listeners from the East Coast, the West Coast and the South to open their mouths and praise. The rap passage with TobyMac recites that God so loved the world that he gave his only Son so that whoever believes should not perish but have everlasting life. The track mixes testimony, call and response and Scripture over a hard dance beat, and it was meant to reach teenagers who were not at home in a traditional choir setting. It works at youth rallies and in workouts, wherever a group wants a high-energy praise song.

The verse spoken in the rap is John 3:16. Clapping hands and shouting to God is Psalm 47:1, and salvation by grace is Ephesians 2:8.