Gary Milholland

Let's start with what Mission Man is doing now. Currently, Mission Man is expanding his following in southwest Ohio (Cincinnati, Dayton, Columbus), and in random spots throughout the country (Michigan, New York, California) and looking to play a lot more shows. Mission Man has also finished recording a fifth album, entitled "Antis Trype" which is antistereotype with some letters removed. His most popular song is "Chillin' at the Papa" which has officially found a home on "Antis Trype."

Mission Man recently organized and promoted Playing For A Cure, which took place on September 27th, 2004. All proceeds were to benefit the American Cancer Society, as that date was the 10 year anniversary of when his mom passed away from cancer, and the show was very heavily promoted. 30,000+ flyers were distributed, and the show was covered in CinWeekly, CityBeat, and a cable talk show in Northern Kentucky. Ticket giveaways were also setup with two major commercial stations, and one major indie station. Since the event took place on the Monday immediately after the Midpoint Music Festival, the turnout was very low, so there were no proceeds to benefit the ACS. However, Mission Man honored his mom's memory by dedicating 3 months of his life to a tremendous cause.

Mission Man released "A Different Kid," in April 2004, and finished a freestyle album in January, entitled "Put Down The Pen." He is hard at work on his new CD, "Antis Trype" to be released in January of 2005. He has begun booking a CD release tour, and the first show booked is January 27th, 2005 at Radio Down in Covington, KY.

Mission Man, aka Gary Milholland, starting rapping in 1992 in Orlando, FL. A friend of his, B.J. Fuller told him to "kick a rap," and after hesitating a few times, he did. He memorized that 30 second freestyle, and turned it into "Inventor," which is now the last track on his first CD, "Intro To My Mind." He also learned to play (well, maybe use is a better word) the keyboard for the beats he needed, at the same time he learned how to rap.

Gary chose the name Mission Man because he was (and is still) on a mission to change the way people think about hip-hop. At the time, Gangsta rap was very popular, and when Gary told people he rapped, that's what people thought he meant. He wanted to show that rap, first and foremost, is about self-expression.

Mission Man has done that, with varying degrees of success. He books all of his own shows, and has performed in cities from Jacksonville, FL to Cincinnati, OH to Philadelphia, PA and a few places in between.

After he released "Intro To My Mind" in 1996, he wrote a ton of lyrics, and started teaching himself how to produce in 1998. After two albums that were never really released to teach him production techniques, in 2000 he set "Out Of The Shadows" out on the public. For "Out Of The Shadows," Mission Man also learned how to play the drums, bass, and guitar. He started playing Guitar and bass in 1998, and the drums in 1999. "Out Of The Shadows" really turned out to be another learning process more than an album that Mission Man is proud of.

After several years of teaching himself production, and learning from his mistakes, Mission Man started working on "A Different Kid." The album didn't have a title until it was almost halfway done. That title came from a co-worker. Gary gave the instrumental version of "Open Eyes" to a coworker, and he said "Gary, you're a different kid." That comment was the most appropriate thing anyone has ever said about Mission Man and his music. On "...Kid" you'll hear many things that make this statement true. From "Prime Time Players" the rap/rock follow-up to "Playing A Little Basketball" to "New Future" the spacy sounding song about freedom from the pressures of life, and many things in between. The dynamic range of influences make this CD extremely eclectic, and with 64 minutes of material, quite long. Those 64 minutes spanned 4 years of life for Mission Man. 4 years of working full-time and going to school full-time, only to be greeted by the worst economy for recent college graduates in over a decade, in 2002. The CD was completed in November of 2003, and released in April, 2004.

After "A Different Kid," was finished, Mission Man was on a creative streak, and decided to do a freestyle project album. In the next two months, he put together a 9-song 45 minute freestyle album, called "Put Down The Pen," with a couple of songs that are a ton of fun to listen to.

Currently, Mission Man is working on his fifth release, "Antis Trype," which is short for "Anti-sTereotype." With the experiences of all of his previous albums, Mission Man is really working on creating some great material. Since he's not on a major label, he doesn't feel pressured to get it done by a certain date, and forcing creativity often yields bad results. As of June 9th, 2004, there are 3 songs completed, and many more with lyrics written.