Former Soldier Nikki Stinnette has always relied on music to get her through tough times. When her baby died from heart complications, she listened to music; when her husband, Staff Sgt. William Stinnette of the 62nd Airlift Wing deployed and she was lonely, she listened to music; when she faced obstacles in school, she listened to music.

"For every emotion and situation you face, there's a song to go with it," said Stinnette, who also goes by Nikki ‘Shannon' Keyes. "I realized I wanted to reach people and teach them - spread peace through music."

Therefore, it was no surprise when she turned that love into a career and formed Just My People (JMP) - a company that promotes and connects underground artists across the country.

"I built my own music website and just started plugging and playing little known artists," said Stinnette, a mother of two young children and a business school student who plans on graduating next spring. "Now I travel from city to city promoting clients, business owners call me for talent to do gigs, and I get all-expense paid trips to places like Houston, Chicago, Brooklyn, Tampa and Sacramento to promote folks."

Stinnette got started when mix underground artists, including numerous active-duty Servicemembers, began sending her their rap, R&B and hip-hop music regularly.

"If I liked it, I put (their music, videos and links) up for free on my website," she said. "I also work with 24-7 Hip-Hop Radio and D.J. Bugz (a former Soldier). They play the artist's music and the public votes on if the songs are hot or not. They also mix underground music with established artists and give these newcomers great exposure. The great thing about underground artists is that they tell the truth and you can hear and feel the emotion in their music. They are regular people that you can hang out with and aren't unreachable like celebrities."

Although JMP is still in its infancy stage, it already has sponsors and is launching a magazine, GC (Golf Coast) Tunes, later this month. The cover will feature gold medalist Justin Gatlin and highlight artist Rhett Deroux.

Stinnette's team consists of Deroux - an R&B artist whose song "Going Strong" received 13,000 plays in the U.S. and exposure on mainstream U.K. radio station TuneLove.co.uk; artist "Red" from Houston; "Kurt" from Bodybox (also an Exchange employee on base); magazine owner Bobby Baker; JMP spokesperson John T. and Patrick Jayne (the opening comedian for Kevin Hart).

"Nikki is a really cool lady," said Deroux, who has been singing hip-hop, reggae and R&B for five years. "I'm trying to come up and do something new and different and she has helped me tremendously already. She helped me reach out to other underground artists, got my music played on the radio and in other cities, and I'm entertaining sponsors. I respect what she's doing."

For more information, please visit www.justmypeople.com.