“I’m a Christian. I’m a husband. I’m a father.”
Growing up, Mission’s family never went to church so he did not know much about Christianity. When he was nine years old, his best friend invited him to church. “The more I went the more curious I got about what was going on.” He answered altar calls many times, but did not really understand the meaning of it.
He stopped going through the motions and started taking his faith seriously when he became a father at age seventeen. “I really cried out to God when I needed Him most when I had to become a man overnight.”
He and his wife got married at age eighteen, after they had their baby. At age 23, they had a divorce but have since remarried. “A part of us getting divorced was my selfishness in music. Me putting her last and me putting God last.” Mission now wants to put Jesus and his family and friends above his own desires.
Mission’s new album is called All of You None of Me. He wanted to talk about clichés that people avoid, but are actually important. “All of You None of Me is simple [saying to] decrease flesh, decrease yourself, and allow more of the Lord in, more in our actions, more in our decisions.” He wants people to know that living for God is ultimately important above their own desires.
“God needs to rule in our lives way more and we need to remove ourselves completely out of the way.”
The album artwork features an image of Mission with photos of people comprising his face. The photos include his wife, mother, grandmother, and friends, as well as an image of Jesus.
All of You None of Me has been in the works for the past two years. “Where I was at the moment is where I was writing. If it was a happy song, I was happy at the time. If it was more of a depressed song, I was depressed at the time.” The project was primarily produced by his fellow #RPSMG members BrvndonP and K. Agee.
The album has nineteen tracks in total; sixteen songs and three skits. “Its raw, its authentic so I didn’t want to tone anything down just because people think its long.”
“Young Bull” is one of Mission’s favorite songs from the album, and was released as a single in August. It speaks about his humble beginnings growing up under a single mother.
“My mom, she did the best she could and I remember her telling me, ‘Son, everything is gonna be cool, just keep your head on straight, get what you need to get done.’ She always said ‘God’s gonna make everything right.’ That’s why I said, ‘Always look to God cause you know He’s got pull.”
He says it is a liberating song and he wants to pass down his mother’s attitude to his four children. “The little boy in the video is actually my son.”
The fifth track is called “Boat Life” and was inspired by the story in the Gospel of Matthew when the disciples were on a boat out in the storm. Jesus appeared to them walking on the water, and called out to Peter to join him. Peter stepped out of the boat and started walking towards Jesus, but then he became afraid and began to sink.
“I just want people to know don’t doubt. Always believe in God, always trust Him.” He said that if God is with you, you have no need to doubt that failure will occur.
Derek Minor is featured on “Well Done,” which is about how Satan tries to deceive us but despite that we must stay true to following God. “Satan has all these oppositions against us to keep us from the end goal which is Heaven. Once we get to Heaven I want God to say, ‘Well done.’” He wants people to know that regardless of the circumstances they face, the ultimate goal for the Christian is to go to Heaven and bring as many people with them as possible.
“D.A.B. (Dodged a Bullet)” tells a story of a day when the teenage Mission had friends who were going to rob a house. They wanted him to join them on their robbery, and he got a bad feeling in his gut and decided not to go.
He was skipping school that day, so Mission’s school called his mother to tell him that he was skipping. “I got away. I dodged a bullet in that sense for not robbing a house and not going to jail, but I didn’t get away with ditching school cause my mom found out and she ended up going upside my head.”
With the song, he said that God will give you a warning to stay away from evil if you listen and pay attention to Him. His friends who robbed the house were caught by the police, and one of them was shot in the leg during the incident.
“Dear Dad is actually a really heavy song for me because growing up without a father, I kind of kept it a hunnit. I didn’t hold back on how I felt. I said exactly what I felt.”
Mission felt hurt and pain due to the absence of his father, and had always wanted to get to know him. Despite the sadness of the song, he “said how I thank God for you not being in my life because it made me a better man. It made me work harder.”
“Skeletons” is the most emotional song on the new album. After Mission and his wife divorced, they eventually got back together. Before they got remarried, they had sex and she got pregnant. “Me and my wife, we had an abortion. I touch on that on the first verse. That goes on another part of me on my selfishness and my selfish desires who talked her into getting an abortion, so really it would be five kids.” He is very ashamed of what he did, and feels a deep sense of remorse for the deed. “That was very emotional for her. I’m letting you into the skeletons of my closet.”
In the second verse of the song, he spoke about his friend Don who was obese and died at a young age.
“I could’ve went to the hospital and seen him, but I was like “I’ve got time,” but by the time I had time it was too late. He ended up passing.”
Outside of music, Mission’s passion is to watch, play, and coach basketball. He coaches a high school team who won a championship last year. “We started basketball practice about three weeks ago. We’re heading in, getting ready for the season. I love playing basketball. I love coaching. I love the kids.”
You can follow Mission on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram.
You can get All of You None of Me on iTunes, Amazon, and Google Play.
