Mike Pennino

Behind the Music: Mike's Story

Mike Pennino is a New Jersey native who moved to North Carolina after his junior year of high school. Hip-hop was not a major part of Mike’s life until High School when he got introduced to Eminem’s track “Lose Yourself.” After hearing that song, he started to take in as much hip-hop as possible. He never knew how big of a role hip-hop would play in his life. After graduating high school, Mike chose to take a year off from college in order to gain in-state tuition and start college in the fall semester of 2011. It was during that year off from school, Mike’s life would change and take a new route. In his free time that year, Mike would go online to find new music on websites like Youtube. One specific day of searching for new music, he stumbled upon something unexpected. He saw a playlist of “Christian Hip-hop.” He was really intrigued and decided to listen to it for himself. He found artists like Lecrae, Da Truth, and Trip Lee. Their music sparked an interest in Mike to learn more about this Jesus they were passionately rapping about. Mike decided he was going to read the New Testament section of the Bible for himself in order to learn more about who this Jesus is and why Jesus says what He said in the Bible.

As he read, he started to notice a scary truth. Mike had grown up believing that him and God were tight because he was catholic and he was a good kid. Yet what he read in the Bible was that he was separated from God because of the sin in his life. The worst part was that he couldn’t fix it no matter how hard he tried. The verse that hit him the hardest was John 14:15 where Jesus says, “If you love Me, you will keep My commandments.” It was after reading that verse that Mike fully realized how sinful he was because his actions showed he didn’t love God like he claimed. So one night as Mike was wrestling with this issue, he cried out to God saying, “I quit trying, You fix me”. God had won Mike’s mind and next was his heart. And that’s what God did a month or two later. One day in his room it finally clicked. "Oh! That's why Jesus died for me!" Mike had come to the place where he recognized he needed Jesus in order to be completely forgiven of his sin and have a personal relationship with God, so Mike surrendered and gave his life to Jesus. Mike’s life would never be the same.

Mike became a Christian during that summer of 2011. In the fall of 2011, Mike started attending UNC at Pembroke. During the first semester, Mike ended up slowly plugging into Christian ministries in the day, while hanging out with the wrong crowd going to parties at night. No one ever called him out on his hypocrisy, except for God. Mike slowly and gradually started feeling the growing conviction because of his sinful lifestyle. It was at the end of the fall semester that God brought Mike to a place where he finally repented from the party lifestyle and continued to learn what it meant to follow Jesus.

During the winter break, Mike wrote what would eventually become his song “Nothing Compares” and continue to write songs in order for God to use him like God used other hip-hop artists to bring him to Jesus. Mike would continue his college career at UNCP following Jesus, growing as a Christian, making his mixtape “Absolute Reality”, making connections with all kinds of people, and studying religion, philosophy and sociology. Mike graduated from UNCP in May 2015 and got a summer internship job with Vertical Church. The summer internship ended in August and God blessed Mike with a year long church-plant internship with Vertical Church. On February 26, 2016 Mike released his first mixtape Absolute Reality. During the fall of 2016 Mike was able to do a second year of interning with Vertical Church. The following fall, Mike joined on staff at Vertical Church as the director over the college ministry (ECHO). Soon after Mike was ordained and made the college ministry pastor. In the meantime, Mike has been working on future music to release, while performing and ministering at many different places from concerts, bars, schools, church buildings, etc.

Mike can honestly say that he is extreme grateful for having Jesus in his life and that he is excited to see what the future holds as he follows (and tells others about) the Absolute Reality who saves people from their sins and loves us all unconditionally, Christ Jesus. 

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On October 22nd, 2021, Mike released his first album Between You And I. The goal of the album is to get personal with the listeners about his life and faith. He raps about topics such as God, faith, mental health issues, suicide, temptations, the world around us, etc. Mike pulls no punches when it comes to sharing the good, the bad, and the ugly in life. He wants his music to help people. To help people have a relationship with the LORD, help people overcome their struggles, help people heal, and help people become who they were made to truly be. His goal is to help people experience the glory of Jesus.

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His goal is to help people experience the glory of Jesus.

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