Why did you open Offbeat, what’s the back story?

I always wanted to have a store and people told me that I know a lot about music so I should have a record store. I thought no, that wouldn’t work. They said well, you know a lot about comics so you should have a comic book shop. I was like no, I don’t see that working. I ended up being a part of the Mississippi Black Leadership Institute where we had to do a project that affected the community. A lot of my classmates were getting doctors, lawyers, aldermen, councilman, etc. They were planning to later run for office, open practices, buy buildings and that was their thing. I was a youth justice organizer for the ACLU and I didn’t want to run for office. I was into politics, but I didn’t want that to be my goal for helping the community, so I decided to open OffBeat. OffBeat is an alternative art store that focuses on records, comics, designer toys and serves as an art gallery for young minority artists

How did you come up with the name OffBeat?

Everything that you see at OffBeat is a form of art, it’s really a form of off beat art basically. When people do comics, somebody has to storyboard, draw, ink, color and edit the script before it’s put into publication and printed. The toys have to be sketched out then finalized and then there is a 3D model of it so it is sculpted and then painted. Music is pretty self-explanatory, but a lot of people still don’t consider hip hop, electronic music and in some cases jazz a form of art. That’s why I call this place OffBeat.

Where do you purchase your items that you have for sale?

I buy wholesale. For everything here, I go through companies and buy it wholesale. The comics, I usually buy from a company that has pretty much cornered the market in comic books. For the used records, I normally buy people’s collections. I carry new records too so I curate everything specific so it’s not the same as you see in major stores. For the toys, I go to the International Toy Fair in New York and I meet with vendors there and those are the same distributors that major stores buy from.

Do people come in OffBeat from all over the state?

Yes, we have people that are visiting the city to stop in. We have people from England to California who have heard about the store and want to stop in and shop.

What is your most enjoyable memory of OffBeat?

My most enjoyable memory would probably, well there are too many. We had a fundraiser and it was great to see everyone from the community rally around and support it to help out. The fundraiser was to help pay ASCAP Fees, to allow us to play music in the shop.

What is your most enjoyable memory from Midtown?

My most enjoyable memory of Midtown is going to be MidFest.

What is your favorite thing about BAM and how do you think it benefits you and OffBeat?

The activeness with trying to bridge the gap between the community and the businesses and that was a big concern of mine. Many people were talking about gentrification in the area, and I feel that if I’m here, I can get involved and help put a stop to that. Just getting people that live here onboard with BAM and knowing that the board is trying to work together with the community to actively get some of these issues addressed and resolved.

If Midtown were a superhero, what superpower would it have?

I believe the superpower would be akin to what the Green Lantern does. Being able to create anything since this is an art district with a lot of creativity and creative people. You can get a painting here, you can get a glass sculpture, you can get wood, you can get home-brewed tea. It’s the creativity and the innovation that comes out of Midtown that would be its superpower.

How do you see Midtown being different in five years?

What I would like to see in Midtown is a café. That’s the only need that I see, everything else is here. I don’t ever see it being like a big retail district, I see it being like this cool little-hidden treasure of Jackson. I think a good spot to get a good sandwich would be beneficial to the area.

What do you do in your spare time?

I practice deejaying, I play video games with my son and I listen to my record collection to see what I will play for my next vinyl set. That’s really it because I don’t have a lot of free time.

What do you have coming up for OffBeat?

We plan on doing a Black Friday where we will have a special record store day where we’ll have sales on records and offer exclusive releases that other retailers won’t be able to get because we are an independent record store. We’re getting ready for the Holiday Studio Tours and getting ready for next year. Trying to start up a producer/beat making workshop for an after school program for kids. Hopefully, we will launch this by the middle of next year if not the beginning of the year.

Is there anything else interesting you would like to add about OffBeat or yourself?

I do an event here at OffBeat called Sunday Night Slow Jam, where I play all vinyl. I will be starting it back up once a month since it is football season. After that, it should go back to bi-weekly. We also host Significant Saturdays every first Saturday in conjunction with daniel johnson of Significant Developments. It’s a community project for kids. We do art projects in the mornings, Saturday morning cartoons on the projector and he plays children’s funk records. I also have a collaboration with Lucky Town Brewery in Midtown for a cider that I have coming out. I can’t consume Lucky Town Beer so I wanted to come up with something that I could enjoy. I also noticed that when OffBeat would host events that serve alcohol, the ladies were always requesting something other than regular beer. I think this would be a great option for them as well so I want to cater to that. It is a hard apple cider with a natural spice and orange peel flavor. A good flavor for the Fall and Winter. I plan to introduce a small batch of 22 oz. bottles at our Black Friday event in November and see how it goes.

For more information on Phillip Rollins and OffBeat, visit the website www.offbeatjxn.com. You can also visit his social media sites: Facebook: facebook.com/objxn; Twitter: @offbeatjxn; Instagram: @offbeatjxn

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