Mac Miller is ready for the second stage of his career, and considering the first four years of his career, he’s in a pretty favorable position. Using free mixtapes (K.I.D.S., Best Day Ever, Macadelic) to build one of the more reputable independent artist fan bases in all of hip-hop, Mac Miller was able to achieve major commercial success despite not having the backing of one of America’s tyrannical major record labels. Free of the big-stick decision making of a Jimmy Iovine, or a L.A. Reid, Mac Miller’s first two albums–Blue Slide Park and Watching Movies With The Sound Off–both sold at least 100,000 copies in their respective first weeks, and Blue Slide Park debuted at #1 on the Billboard 200 when it was released in 2011, an almost unheard of achievement for a rapper signed to an independent label in the internet era. His out-of-the-booth activities did much to help his case, including a record-setting reality show on MTV, and extremely successful tours, including his latest string of shows–The Space Migration Tour–which also helped to shed light on similarly talented, young, independent artists such as The Internet, Chance The Rapper and Vince Staples. Despite maintaining he and Rostrum Records have nothing but love for each other, Mac has decided to move on and enter the second phase of his incredibly entertaining journey. While there’s no news or indication that he’ll be signing to another label any time soon, should he decide to, we decided these 5 labels would be best suited to house a talent as immense and versatile as Mr. Mac Miller.
-Khari Nixon (@KingVanGogh)
