Eric Heron: The college graduate rapper from San Antonio, Texas basking in the Afterglow

Tony Cummings reports on the rapper Eric Heron who has just released his debut full-length album.

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Rapper Eric Heron may only have just released his debut full-length album but it's not for nothing that one website recently called the emcee from San Antonio, Texas, "one of the hardest working artists in hip-hop." Since his emergence in February 2015 with the free EP 'Enticing Lights' this most skilled and articulate of rappers has released three EPs and eight singles with his 'Dawn' EP containing two tracks - "Be Me" and "Dawn ftg Abiv & Whatuprg" which have begun to be heard on Radio Hayah. Now with his 'Afterglow: The Somewhat Complicated Story' album, released on 22nd December, things are looking bright for the graduate wordsmith.

Talking about 'Afterglow: The Somewhat Complicated Story' Heron said, "Life is all about perspective: some instances it feels really easy, other times incredibly difficult. Life isn't always black and white, most of the time it's just somewhat complicated." The son of two parents who emigrated from Cuba, Eric was instilled with the values of hard work and diligence from a young age. Eric was born in Miami but spent most of his childhood and teenage years in San Antonio, Texas. The two things that dominated his family life was his drive to excel at baseball and his parents' desire for him to enter the priesthood of the Catholic Church.

Eric continued to be enthusiastic about baseball particularly when his brother was drafted to play ball with the Milwaukee Brewers, but wasn't interested in church. It wasn't until college that he began to enjoy music. A track by rapper KBE made a major impact on the student and he began to think of God in a new way. His reading of the theologian and apologist Ravi Zacharias convinced him of the truth of the Gospel but the college scene with its daily temptations of available women and alcohol-fuelled partying brought their share of conflicts to the young man who was now endeavouring to make his first rap recordings.

This year Heron has made steady progress and his 'Dawn' EP has gathered over 200,000 streams and the single and video from 'Afterglow: The Somewhat Complicated Story', "Bet (ftg Lawre)" is picking up plenty of views