Heroes for Sale reverberates with bold messages and infectious beats, yet in an unusual move, the album opens with the classic hymn I Will Rise and Go to Jesus. "I loved it so much that I decided to sample it and use it to open up the album," Mineo says. "So my album opens with a traditional hymn, which is very rare for a hip hop album, but I think that opening hymn embodies everything that I wanted to say on this project: ‘I will rise and come to Jesus, I'm broken, sick, wounded. All I need is grace.' Those are the kinds of lyrics you'll hear on that opening hymn and I think it's a perfect set-up for the rest of the album." The ethereal sounds of the hymn give way to Superhuman. "Anytime someone gets a microphone we exalt the person speaking and often times we look at them as some kind of super human," Mineo says. "We look at pastors that way. We look at basketball players that way, anyone who has a platform. So on the first song of the album I reveal a whole bunch of my struggles. I say, ‘Hey, listen, though I have a microphone and though I might be exalted in some platforms, I'm not a super human. I'm just a fallen, broken person who needs grace.' We put on these masks and I really wanted to tear some of those down and create some vulnerability on this project. That's a lot of what that song is about, just saying I'm not that great, but my God is.The Saints is a party anthem that samples the old classic When the Saints Go Marching In. I was backstage with Trip Lee and KB and I was working on my album and I said, ‘Hey I want you guys to get on this song,' Mineo recalls of enlisting his two pals for the horn-laced production. The song is all about what the world should look like when the saints are there. The first single, AYO, is a potent number that showcases Mineo's in-your-face skills. "It's an anthem, a fun party song. It has a big memorable chorus," he says. "It's really just a call to say, AYO! We're enjoying our lives. We're enjoying our freedoms.' We're inviting people to come and see what this is all about. This life in Christ! It's a feel good song that a lot of people can enjoy and it's an open invitation for people to check us out." - reachrecords
