Andy Mineo is in a good place—a fact that might surprise anyone who has wondered why one of Christian hip-hop’s most compelling voices has been relatively quiet these last few years. But as it turns out, he wasn’t lost or gone. He was recalibrating.
“I’m doing actually fantastic,” Mineo says. “A lot of cool things are cooking. My wife is in her third trimester, we’re getting ready to have a baby, I’m working on a bunch of new music and I’m figuring out the right partners to release it with. It just feels great.”
Mineo’s last album, Never Land II, dropped in 2021. After a couple of tour cycles, he found himself at a crossroads. His contract with Reach Records had ended, and for the first time in his career, he had the chance to step back and reevaluate everything. He wasn’t just making music anymore—he was trying to understand the industry itself.
“When I came into this, I was a kid signing contracts I didn’t understand,” he explains. “I just wanted to make sure that the second half of my career, I actually understood what I was getting into—how royalties work, how streaming works, how partnerships should work.”
That education took longer than expected. He sat through countless meetings, restructured his team and hired a full-time studio engineer. He was methodically putting the pieces together for what comes next. The music industry, he says, thrives on “secrecy and ignorance,” where artists are left in the dark while others benefit from their lack of knowledge.
“Ownership is another big piece,” he says. “For centuries, artists had zero percent ownership in their own work. The entire industry was built to benefit the owners of the music, not the people who made it.”
For an artist as independent-minded as Mineo, learning the business was as essential as creating the art. He wanted control over his work, not just in how it sounded but in how it reached people. And when he finally started making music again, the process felt more focused.
“Before, I’d go in the studio and just make whatever I was inspired by at that moment,” he says. “Now, I have a clearer idea of what I do well and who I want to collaborate with. I used to resist structure because I didn’t want the creative process to feel like a formula, but now I see how having a framework actually makes the music better.”
Part of that framework includes bringing more people into the process. For years, Mineo created in isolation, recording with headphones on, locked away at his laptop. Now, he has a team—a full-time collaborator in the studio, people to bounce ideas off of, a community of creatives helping to shape his vision. That support system has freed him up to make some of the best music of his career.
It’s also given him the space to embrace another passion: pickleball. “To say I’m a big pickleball fan would be a gross understatement of the level of infatuation I have with the game,” he laughs. “I play all the time. I even have some ideas for integrating it into my tour.”
Mineo has also leaned into another longtime love: comedy. His recent Instagram sketches, including the viral “Does This Sound Like Drake?” bit, have been a reminder that his creative instincts extend far beyond music.
“Making a fan is like making a new friend,” he says. “You share your interests. And comedy has always been something I’ve loved. So we started releasing sketches as part of the new rollout. And people are responding to it.”
Mineo isn’t just posting random bits—his sketches are carefully crafted, borrowing from classic sports ads and sitcom-style humor. “We were inspired by the old ‘This is SportsCenter’ commercials,” he says. “I love sketch comedy, and I wanted to incorporate more of that into how I engage with people. It just makes sense—if you like my music, chances are you’ll like the kind of humor I like too.” His comedy chops add a new layer to his artistry, making his return feel even more dynamic.
That rollout kicked off with For Promotional Use Only, a project that served as a reintroduction—not just to his music but to the experience of engaging with an Andy Mineo release. Fans weren’t just getting a handful of new tracks; they were getting an interactive website, retro visuals and a whole new aesthetic. The project was filled with samples, nostalgic references and an overarching theme: Can God use crooked things to make straight paths?
“I think sometimes in Christianity, we have this us-versus-them mentality,” he says. “Like, only Christians can do good things, and non-Christians don’t. But life isn’t that simple. Christians do awful things. Non-Christians do amazing things. God has a way of using people, situations and even art that doesn’t explicitly talk about Jesus to create something meaningful.”
That kind of thematic depth has always been part of Mineo’s music. Even when he’s making an upbeat banger, there’s always something deeper beneath the surface.
As for what’s next? New music, for one. And lots of it.
“I’m hoping to drop multiple projects this year,” he says. “We’re also looking at pop-up events, touring and maybe even bringing back my special. There are so many things I want to do, and now I finally have the right team to execute them.”
Mineo isn’t just back—he’s building something bigger, more intentional, more exciting. And if you still don’t believe he’s back? Just wait until the pickleball tour.
