Heroes For Sale - Andy Mineo

"emphasise the need we have for God in many of the songs while also conveying a very personal tone"

Andy Mineo is a Christian hip-hop artist who came out with first album "Heroes for Sale" in April 2013 and is the sequel to his mix tape "formerly known" and features various other Christian artists such as Lecrae and Trip Lee.

"Heroes for sale" is based around the idea of the brokenness of human heroes and tries to emphasise the need we have for God in many of the songs while also conveying a very personal tone. Andy has stated that the main concept is "we make heroes out of a lot of things... what I really wanted to do is show the brokenness of heroes that we create and that we try to be in order to show that there is ultimately one true hero" and this is exemplified in some of his lyrics for example

"I am just another rapper called to point you out to the cross/ and that's exactly where I'm headed, I'm just another beggar pointing you to where the bread is" – Superhuman

Andy's music is very personal and expresses struggles he's had with his life and uses these to show the perfection of God when we compare them to our own heroes. The album starts with Superhuman stemming from the start of the hymn "Come Ye Sinners Poor and Needy" which really sets the tone for the album being extremely personal as a whole which manages to blend many different styles and balance these while still keeping the core message.

The album takes a small break from its personal and almost dark tones without losing the meaning to the album in "The Saints" and "Uno Uno Seis" which focus more on the brotherhood and people involved in Christ as well as giving some truly stunning lines delivered with pace such as "I'm so rich and I ain't talking bout cheddar/ but I bank on Christ go and talk to the teller cause the cheques that I cash I'll be cashing forever".

However, "Heroes for sale" does stick with the raw and personal theme which is kicked into overdrive in "Bitter". The song starts with what appears to be a voicemail from his father and sets the tone for the song and focuses on dealing with rejection and bitterness through forgiveness. Andy gives advice on dealing with this saying "If Jesus forgave me and washed away my sins when I didn't deserve it then I can forgive him" all the while acknowledging he will struggle to find it without God.

The final trilogy of songs "Still Bleeding", "Tug of War" and "Death Has Died" are undoubtedly the "high" points of the album being so well crafted lyrically but dealing with huge problems. The focus of "Still Bleeding" being the importance of Words and how much they can hurt and Andy refers in passing to Proverbs 18:21. "Tug of War" deals with the struggle many Christians and certainly new Christians face in terms of having to give everything over to God and how hard that can be. The final song on the album "Death Has Died" seems to say tragedy comes so easily and far too often but God will one day come and fix all those as "He'll wipe every tear from our eyes"

"Heroes for Sale" overall is a great album and with the raw emotional input and transparency of how it is presented gives the songs that much more of an impact but even when the emotional impact is disregarded (which I highly discourage) the songs are still great to listen to and with a wide variety of styles and song tones Andy provides a refreshing change of pace.

Amazon.co.uk