This year as a full brand, we’re celebrating our 25th Anniversary, since we launched our first urban entertainment website T M H Entertainment.
The CEO of Urban Bridgez Group Aries, brought T M H Entertainment online after graduating for Music Business at McNally & Smith College for Music in 1998.
Since as early of the age of four, Aries first love has been music! If you listen to the stories told by his mother and older brother, they’ll share with you how Aries use to make music with his mouth around then if none wasn’t playing. As a child his mother Emma would always play the latest music and buy the latest records for her collection.
Fast-forward years later it was Aries who was buying the latest music releases and recording music off of the radio on cassettes.
As a kid Aries played around with the singing aspect of music, thinking he could and would be a recording artist one day. From being a member of a group he put together in second grade which he named “The Kiseyes” (Kiss-Ease), to recording multiple solo demos years after & even receiving a call from an A&R; of Michael Jackson’s now defunct MJJ label to come to California to meet; Aries missed that meeting and shortly realized singing wasn’t the path he wanted to go, but music business as a whole was!
After graduating from Central High School in Saint Paul, MN, Aries enrolled at McNally & Smith (formally Music Tech) and majored in you guessed it…music business!
“I learned a lot from the staff who also work in the industry. I learned the ins and outs of the music business including marketing, publishing, production, you name it. My free time was spent in the computer lab, where I first got interested in websites and online promotion!” Aries happily remembered. Computers was always an interest to Aries when he was in grade-school and all the content on the computer was green without a mouse. His desire to learn the development of computers, laid the path to his future success.
During that period Aries was an assistant manager of Sam Goody (Musicland Group), in downtown St. Paul, MN and later in Atlanta, GA. Aries was promoted the youngest assistant manager ever, in the district at age 18. After working for the retail giant for two years part-time while finishing high-school.
Aries was constantly praised by the store and district managers for knowing the music and how to find it. Before smart phones, people would come in the store and sing parts of songs to Aries to see if the store had it. Aries would know the tune more than likely and be able to help the customer. That gift along with his passion for promoting led to him being in charge of store endcaps. The space where posters and retail items are placed to promote an album.
As a teen, Aries would make promotional pics by hand, for upcoming album and concert releases. He would post in his room and at school in his locker. His friends would learn from Aries before radio, what was new and coming out. To the point, he would get phone calls from friends and friends of family, asking him what tape or CD they should purchase?
Aries also helped elevate and help local hip-hop & R&B artists sell their CD’s at the location. By doing consignment with the artists, it helped them sell their independent releases in the major chain that was Musicland Group. Unlike today it wasn’t two or three clicks to get your music on a major retail platform, you had to hustle!
His ear for music is undeniable, which led him to an internship at WRNB digital radio, now Black Music America. Owned by Pete Rhodes and his wife Kim, it’s a Minneapolis based, black owned, interactive music company. Who at the time were one of the first literally to have a digital radio station on cable network.
Aries was assistant music director. A job that Aries was born to do and loved every minute of. His job, listen to all the new releases coming in (there were mostly over 80 a day) and decide which ones should be added to the playlist. The playlist was digital, so Pete would add the songs and they would generate and be added to the playlist.
During that time Aries flourished in his role and happily remembers a funny submission. “I will never forget when “My Baby Daddy” came out by B-Rock and the Bizz. They sent a case and the radio singles were wrapped in diapers,” Aries laughs. “I thought that was the most brilliant marketing ever at that time! Of course the song went on to be a huge smash. I still have that promo single.”
During that time Aries also interned for LaFace Records for a short time.
In 1998 Aries D. launched The Music Hall (T M H), a message-board named after the home-made mixtapes given to family and friends when he was younger. The name was also shared for Scrapbooks, Aries made of entertainment stories as a teen.
The online message-board is where people came to discuss the music industry as well as the artists involved.
T M H rapidly grew to a full-fledge entertainment website in 1999 named T M H Entertainment.
The site featured news, media, contests and reviews. The only thing the website was missing was exclusive interviews with recording artists. Something Aries had dreamed about doing since his early teens, when he use to host a weekly top 20 show for his mixtapes which he had subscribers who would pay monthly & receive approximately 6 mixed tapes per month. So to be able to interview an actual recording artist would be just what T M H needed to really stand out from other un-branded e-zines.
The following year, an opportunity arose for the site to interview singer Nate Dogg.
When the interview was published on the website, requests began pouring in from various record labels to have their artists interviewed for the site.
Aries went on to interview singers Brandy, Deborah Cox, Ann Nesby, RL, New Edition, Jon B, Tamela Mann and Ciara, rappers Nelly, Kurupt and The Eastside Boys, actor/comedian Katt Williams (who T M H designed his first official website) and a host of others for T M H Entertainment‘s E-zine.
T M H eventually expanded in the realms of fan-sites by creating sites especially designed for promoting artists new projects. Aries worked day in and out creating sites online viewers would notice.
After opening a fan-site for Faith Evans, he was determined to meet someone from Faith’s camp to let them know of the site. Faith happened to be visiting Aries home in the Twin Cities for a concert. With his driven nature in overdrive, his dream came true when he met Todd Russaw, Faith’s manager and then-husband. He gave him the site information and in return was invited to Faith’s after party.
This chance meeting eventually led to phone calls placed to Aries to create Faith’s official site for her third album, “Faithfully.”
In 2001, Faith Evans first ever official website faithfullyfaith.com debuted in time for the release of the album. The site was designed and maintained by T M H Entertainment. That wasn’t all, T M H also had creative and full control of the site. In English terms, not even Bad Boy Entertainment, could go in and access or modify the site content without T M H Entertainment‘s permission.
T M H had its first major project under their belt and little did Aries know, more was on the horizon.
“Shanice World,” another fan-site created by Aries, was visited by Shanice’s family whom he became acquainted with via the message board. The success of Shanice’s fan-site led her assistant to invite Aries to meet Shanice while she was on tour with *N’Sync. His chance on her final night on the tour in Atlanta. Aries interviewed Shanice for the site and the two became friends.
T M H Entertainment went on to develop a plethora of websites for artists such as Janet Jackson, Lil’ Mo, Mint Condition, official fan-sites for recording artist Monica through J Records and R&B group 702 through Universal/Motown.
Usher World a fansite created by Aries was later named his official site, the reason for “the one and only official site” after Usher’s management took over the name. “I hate to brag, well I actually I don’t” Aries laughs, “but we started the world.com’s. The first one to my knowledge was Shanice World, then we did Monica’s World, Usher World, Kandi’s World, Lil Mo’s World, etc. then all of these official sites started being named world sites.
In 2002, a chance came after Aries had moved to Atlanta, GA to attend the Lil Jon, Krayzie Bone and Mystikals “I Don’t Give a Fu**” video shoot. The video was shot at Club 112, little did Aries know he would be given the opportunity to be in the video. That experience taught him some of the ins and outs of video shoots, something that had always been one of his favorite pastimes.
As he embraced his success with open arms, a tragedy nearly caused him his life. In June of 2003, Aries was in an automobile accident on Highway 94 West in St. Paul, MN. He lost control of his car causing it to flip numerous times and crash, ending up on 94 East upside down! The car was totaled and he had a broken femur. Anyone who saw the car after the accident was shocked to know the only person in it survived. “I was introduced to God at an early age by my Grandmother, so I knew the power of prayer. Since I survived the accident, God had another plan for me,” says Aries. After months of therapy and determination, he made a full recovery. Till this day, he still has a metal rode in his leg from his operation.
In 2005, Aries and business partner Jason Richards decided to take T M H in a new direction. They both decided to re-invent their mission and provide more services than fan-sites.
Urban Bridgez Group was then born with a mission to tackle multi-media, marketing and management.
Aries credits his industry friends and family for advising him to branch out to cover more projects. “I’ve been blessed to have three industry mentors, who helped develop me in this industry. Craig Rice, Todd Russaw and Sonja Norwood. You can’t pay for that kind of knowledge! They’re legends in the industry and they all encouraged me to do more things, never get stuck doing one. They saw additional talents in me, before I did at times.”
Aries went on to say; “That along with the support from my mother and brother early on, molded me into who I’ve become. They’ve all left these little nuggets for me, that I never forget.”
Stay Tuned For Our UB Anniversary Feature Tomorrow!
And Stay Tuned This Weekend For Additional Anniversary Features: The Websites + Multimedia, The Interviews and The Legendary T M H Forum.