The best of Mission Man covers 16 years of learning about life, improving as a musician, as a person, and as a lyricist. In some ways, it’s in reverse chronological order. That is, the newest songs are the first 5. They are from the album Mission Man is currently working on, entitled “31 Hours Til What?” The title reflects the uncertain nature of life, and as with all of his works is very personal.
Mission Man was born Gary Milholland, January 19th, 1979. A friend, Cleveland “B.J.” Fuller, told him to “kick a rap” one day on the way to playing a little basketball. Gary freestyled for thirty seconds, that freestyle became his first song, “Inventor,” and he took his first step in a lifelong relationship with music. His first album, “Intro To My Mind,” was written in 3 and a half weeks, and recorded in 3 and a half hours, and “The Best of Mission Man” includes 4 tracks from his debut CD. At the time, Mission Man was only a lyricist and an emcee. His beats were created using a Yamaha PSR-510 keyboard that his father gave him when he took up rapping in 1992. His brother paid for the release of “Intro To My Mind,” and Gary has been grateful to both his father and his brother every day since for the resources to create his music.
In 1998, while Gary was recording a friend’s demo, he came across a few problems. Ultimately, his friend Rob told him, “It may work for you what you do, but it doesn’t work for music.” Mission Man was stunned and insulted for a moment, and then realized that Rob was right. He needed to learn how to play instruments to truly express himself fully in his music. Rob gave him a quick 30 second lesson on guitar, a basic finger exercise, and Gary has taught himself everything else along the way. To this day, Mission Man has not learned musical theory, and musical theorists will find this immediately apparent, but he has learned to apply his emotions and turn those into tremendously self-expressive music.
In addition to guitar, Mission Man also plays the drums (mostly on a digital drumkit, the Yamaha DTXPress), bass, keyboard, creates some sound effects, emcees, and produces his own music. Since he’s human, his timing will never be as perfect as the beats from “Intro To My Mind,” but his intensity and passion come through much more clearly now, and his music continues to grow.
The songs on this collection are a combination of Mission Man’s most popular, such as “Chillin’ at the Papa,” and “Playin’ a Little Basketball,” his most recent, including the first 5 songs from “31 Hours Til What?” and his most personal, meaningful, and passionate, including “Wonder What I’d Be” and “My Heroes.” Two songs are completely freestyled, “Inventor” and “Birthday Song.” Mission Man is responsible for the creation of every song, from lyrics to instruments (or for 4 of the songs on here, finding a beat in a machine) to production (except for those same 4 songs, produced at Apple Barn recording studios in Liberty, KY by Richard Easterling). The only exception is “Prime Time Players.” That track features a guest drummer, one Mr. Eli Roth. Mission Man says “Thanks Eli, for playing some sweet drums on that track!” and to all of the fans who have made a difference in Gary’s life, he would like to say “Thank you for everything!”
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