We were lucky to catch up with Adam “Dj Jesse James aka Tommy Howard” Murphy recently and have shared our conversation below.

Adam “Dj Jesse James aka Tommy Howard”, thanks for taking the time to share your stories with us today Alright, so you had your idea and then what happened? Can you walk us through the story of how you went from just an idea to executing on the idea

It started with self observation and observation of other fans like myself. I’m a fan of hip hop/rap; from mainstream to underground, I just watched how to engage with fans when it comes to presenting new music to them (whether the artist was notable or just starting out). I literally seen the beginning of marketing music on the internet from day one, 1998/1999. It started out with message boards and soundclick to social media / spotify (etc) we see today. When Napster hit, maaaaan, record labels didnt know what to do or think.
The internet def took away a lot of power from the radio and djs.

Adam “Dj Jesse James aka Tommy Howard”, before we move on to more of these sorts of questions, can you take some time to bring our readers up to speed on you and what you do?

My name is Adam Murphy and I’m the owner of the multi media marketing company MidwestMixtapes/OutDaWoodworks Marketing & Promotions, LLC. I started out in the music business as the manager for StLouis’ group called Lyrikal Warfare. They first appeared on Memphis Rapper’s Kingpin Skinny Pimp’s 2000 album called “Back2DaPlayazBall”. When I met them they had dropped two albums and I executive produced their 3rd album and only retail album “Articles Of War”. This was spring 2003 and i would say by the fall of 2003 the group started parting ways. At this time the internet and internet marketing was in its baby stage. We got such a huge buzz off the internet which turned around and had us traveling throughout the Midwest. The group eventually broke up cause we were all young and had our own ideas on how stuff should go.
One of the guys from the 6 man group wanted to still work with me and we kept going. We eventually ended up in Chicago because fans always compared us to the groups coming out of Chicago such as PsychoDrama, Triple Darkness, The Snypaz, Crucial Conflict, etc. That’s were I met EC Illa. He took me under his wing and showed me a lot of music business that’ll ill never forget and some the same stuff he taught me then I still use to this day. This was late 2003/early 2004. In 2004, MidwestMixtapes.com was created. It was a mixtape site as in artist’s jacked industry beats and made their own songs. This was when 50 Cent came out and his story was mixtapes mixtapes mixtapes mixtapes.
We were your typical mixtape site, but we’ve adjusted over the years into a full blown marketing company. We just kept the name MidwestMixtapes cause I’m based in the Midwest and mixtapes were how artists were discovered. pretty simple

What’s a lesson you had to unlearn and what’s the backstory?

Ive had to learn everybody is not your “fam”, your “bro”, your “people” in the music business. I’ve learned to treat people accordingly. Don’t get me wrong ive met some music people who I’ve come to consider friends but not many.

Let’s talk M&A – we’d love to hear your about your experience with buying businesses

I bought the online cd store called The Tip Cds. It’s no longer around because it was becoming more of a hassle to find the rare cds fans were looking for. The Tip Cds , was owned by EC Illa, who I had mentioned earlier. He took me under his wing, I would say because I understood what he would tell me when it came to fans/consumers. He sold me the online cd store about a couple months after i became owner of MidwestMixtapes.com in 2009.
Why did I buy it, well between artists doing mixtapes for free and then actually selling their actual albums, kind of went hand in hand. I bought it because the money was too good not to do it.

Contact Info:

• Website: www.MidwestMixtapes.com
• Instagram: @MidwestMixtapes
• Facebook: Adam Murphy or MidwestMixtapesDotCom
• Twitter: @MidwestMixtapes
• Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/user/MidwestMixtapesTV2

Image Credits
Image credits go to KC Carter of Hood illustrated Magazine out Lansing, Michigan