Arrow-right Camera
The Spokesman-Review Newspaper
Spokane, Washington  Est. May 19, 1883

Rapper Mineo comfortable being ‘Uncomfortable’

Andy Mineo’s new album is titled “Uncomfortable,” and it’s a descriptor the New York-based rapper wears as a badge of honor.

“Being comfortable all the time probably isn’t helpful for your soul or for your progression as a person,” Mineo said during a recent phone interview. “Innovation and creativity aren’t going to happen without risk. And that’s uncomfortable, because risk is … well, it’s risk. It’s chancy. You put a lot on the line, and I just wanted to say on the album that that’s OK.”

The 28-year-old, who performs at the Knitting Factory on Friday, is a hip-hop up-and-comer whose lyrics frequently mine themes of Christianity and spirituality. Christian hip-hop is still something of a niche genre, and few (if any) faith-based rappers have broken through to the mainstream. But Mineo’s music doesn’t preach so much as it does radiate hopefulness, and it wouldn’t sound out of place on a Top 40 radio station.

“I think hip-hop has always been about authenticity. Since my faith has always been an authentic part of my life, it naturally made its way into my music,” Mineo said. “People sing and rap and make music about things they care about, and that’s what I’m doing. It’s me being authentically me. It’s not a gimmick.”

He admits, though, that remaining genuine, both through his music and in real life, is sometimes a challenge in the music business.

“It’s an industry, and when industry’s involved and there’s a demand for music, a lot of times it becomes a science project,” Mineo said. “A lot of times, the art form loses its authenticity in the midst of trying to be successful or make a hit record. It’s a fine line to walk.”

When discussing his stylistic influences, Mineo rattles off all the usual suspects: Dr. Dre, Eminem, Snoop Dogg, Too Short. He says he first became interested in producing his own music as a kid, when he and his friends started writing their own Weird Al-style parodies of contemporary rap hits.

“We started recording ourselves on computer microphones,” Mineo said. “Then I used birthday and Christmas money to get better equipment.”

He later studied audio technology and sound design at the City College of New York, and he was signed to Christian label Reach Records in 2011.

“I graduated from college and went right to being a professional rapper,” Mineo said. “I didn’t get a degree in that.”

“Uncomfortable” is Mineo’s second studio album, and he describes it as a document – of the world right now, of his current position as a rising presence in hip-hop, of his musical and personal worldview.

“I was working through a lot of things,” he said. “My comfort with commitment and being married, racial and social issues, politics – industry politics and government politics – working through doubt in faith. My work is usually reflective of where I am at the time in my life, and I think ‘Uncomfortable’ is an honest reflection of that.”

The music itself represents a stylistic leap forward for Mineo, who says he deliberately wanted to push the boundaries he’d set for himself on his 2013 debut LP “Heroes for Sale.”

“I didn’t want to create something I’d already made before,” he said. “It’s me getting away from my pop sensibilities and creating interesting song structures and interesting pieces of music. … I think this album is a lot less commercial. It’s a more cohesive body of work, as opposed to (being) just a collection of singles. You’ll notice that a lot of the songs tie together and flow into each other and connect as if they were a story.”

Mineo’s Spokane show will be among his first West Coast tour dates since “Uncomfortable” dropped last September. His current live show reflects the thematic continuity of the album: Through video clips and spoken word interludes courtesy of the rapper Propaganda, Mineo says he wanted to craft a musical portrait of his life up to this point.

“There’s a lot of high energy,” Mineo said. “It’s a full 75-minute story, visually and aurally. … It’s a production, man. It’s not just 15 guys jumping around onstage with microphones.”