About Jimmy

Jimmy's Story

Jimmy Rector was only nine when he got his first story published. Fear being conquered by laughter has been a continued theme in Jimmy's life's work. 

“I remember laughing so hard after being worried the whole time, I’ve always wanted to be the laughter or joy at the end of the stressful day. People need that.”

That early experience and some others contributed to a lifelong quest to entertain, inspire, and heal people’s pains with laughter, and music. 

It’s a journey that’s led him through a series of professions, all uniquely tied together. This has led him to his latest project, Super Duper Big Deal Productions, and SDBD’s latest movie, “Crap Artist: The Real JR Williams Story.”

Creativity in a small town.

There was always enough food in the Rector household when Jimmy was growing up in a small town in the midwest, but creativity was a far fetched idea.

When Jimmy and his friends found a class in high school that honored their silly video making style, his life was changed forever as he was introduced to the Adobe Creative Suite.

At 15 Jimmy and his friends were writing, filming, starring in, editing, producing, and releasing a weekly TV show that aired on local cable. 

During this stint, they released a music video where everyone was performing a song by the band Attack Attack, but with Rock Band video game instruments. This video got around 250,000 views that week, and was what you would consider viral in 2008.

This event was the first time the friends realized that you could be creative from a small town, and reach the world. The friends also realized that you would see scrutiny, as the local newspaper forum was claiming that the school worshiped the devil…

College 4.0 GPA Dropout.

As that class and high school itself came to an end, it was time to go to college. Jimmy had currently never gotten a grade below an A, and was sitting near the top of his class with honors in Math and Science, as well as awards in Creative Writing.

After feeling the pressure of college and the expectations of what a “math honor student” should do, Jimmy decides to go to Northwest Missouri State University to join a band. 

2 Weeks into Calculus III his freshman year, Jimmy couldn’t stand listening to the monotone boring teacher, that alongside already knowing the information convinced Jimmy to walk out of that class and never look back.

The next year Jimmy changed schools, and took a music class where he learned how to play the recorder. After realizing how slowly he was learning, and how little he gained from such an investment, Jimmy dropped out, got his money back for that semester and became a full time drummer. 

Session drummer turned Drum Maker and Marketer.

Quickly after being picked up by a drum company from Chicago, Jimmy had went from session drummer, to artist relations manager, to marketing and sales. Jimmy rebuilt the brand, website, and online presence, and attracted some of their ideal brand partners.

In just a few years as he helped grow the company from a basement project to a global brand, making drums for Imagine Dragons, Guitar Center, appearing on Craftsman’s “Made to Make” marketing campaign on the NFL Network, and even having their drums chosen over the house drum kit at the one and only Fame Studios in Muscle Shoals, AL. 

At this point Jimmy was 19 at the drums were in about 20 stores around the world.

Although the brand and community of the company was thriving, the business wasn’t able to hold on.

A game-changing turn of events.

Before the company folded, Jimmy endured the loss of his brother Joey. Joey was his older brother, best friend, business partner, and really one of the few people Jimmy felt truly believed in him.

During the celebration of his life there were 400 people in a barn on the family property, and one of them was the award winning Blues Bass Player of the Year, Willie J. Campbell. 

Jimmy jammed with him, felt what the music was doing to the crowd, as well as himself, and never turned back.

Florida 3 year vacation with music.

A year later Jimmy moved to Florida, became a full time musician, and defeated the small town myth of being creative for a living. 

While in Florida Jimmy unwrapped his new congas, despite never playing them before, and ended up playing around 250 shows his first year, spending more time on stage than in the rehearsal room. 

The stage became his comfortable place, as he toured the south was region of the US with many different bands. He went on to play over a thousand live shows, and recorded on 10 albums.

Just playing the festivals didn’t satisfy his brain, which is why Jimmy was also throwing events. At this point Jimmy had been throwing events and touring since he was 15, and had 11 music festivals under his belt. 

Jimmy’s art and animated posters had led him to work with brands like Carlos Santana, Oteil Burbridge, Dwight Yoakam, Michael Franti, and Weedie Braimah, as well as venues like Red Rocks, Spirit of the Suwannee Music Park, Brooklyn Bowl, and more.

Throughout this musical stint Jimmy was also able to share the stage with Jaimoe (Allman Brothers Band), Eric Krasno, John Medeski, Jason Hann (String Cheese Incident), Joe Marcinek, and more.

In April of 2020 Jimmy was set to be a part of the biggest festival of his career yet. Jimmy did the animated art, he was set to perform, and created the entire marketing plan, and the media for that plan.

This festival included Phil Lesh 80th birthday celebration as well as Grammy Award Winning artist the Black Pumas.

This was the beginning of 2020.... 

Live Entertainment Industry Halts.

The Pandemic took him by surprise. All of a sudden 90% of Jimmy’s income was put to a complete halt as live events were cancelled across the nation due to the pandemic. 

No more posters, no more gigs, no more marketing gigs for festivals… hmmm.

It was also at this same time that Jimmy had gotten the “Okay” to perform at his first open mic in Austin, TX, where he had just moved to pursue character development through Stand-Up Comedy.

The day after he got the okay, the open mic was cancelled, and Jimmy was at a turning point.

No music, no comedy…

time to move back home and write some scripts.

Fearless Execution.

Since the beginning of the pandemic Jimmy has decided to get back in touch with his video production roots, and tie it all together with everything he’s learned over the past 16 years of media, music, art, and marketing.

Jimmy is focusing on finding a unique middle ground between music, comedy and movies, by approaching character development in a way that hasn’t been done before through the medium of Internet Documentaries that blur the lines of reality.

What’s to Come.

In 2023 Jimmy is focusing on building the creator community inside of the Super Duper Big Deal Discord, Finishing Crap Artist, and making music videos and music with Anthill Cinema, and collaborating with Oteil.

Anthill Cinema released 10 albums and just released "Live at Suwannee Hulaween".

Jimmy just performed with Oteil & Friends at The Caverns in Pelham TN, and has also joined a band that will announce spring of 2024.

Jimmy also continues to do graphic design freelance work with other creative individuals.

JI

"Stay Creative"

-Jimmy