Mac Miller broke from the independent crowd in late October when he signed a bonkers $10 million deal with Warner Bros. to make rap records and recruit other artists for their label. The Pittsburgh rapper got to bring along his own imprint, Remember Music, but he lost his revered "indie" status.
"It was just time to take the next step, and experience what that's like and what it is and what's gonna happen," he told Fader in a video interview. "I think doing it on an independent level, and taking it as far as we did is amazing.
"It just makes sense for where I'm at right now and where I can possibly go. I would like to see what it's like to have those resources and have that reach. I don't want to solely exist on the Internet - not that I do, but there's a whole world out there of things to do that's not Twitter, that's not Instagram to get the record out. This is the first time I've had a real budget to do things with."
A label deal means Miller is focusing extra hard on the message he's trying to give fans.
"I'm working on the next record," he said. "There was a period in time when I was doing all these things like, 'I've got four albums that are about to drop.' I've made full albums, and been like, that's not it. I had to get myself in a better headspace. Now I'm really trying to focus on what that next statement is and what I want to say to the world now that I have this platform."
Miller will also be able to sign and develop new artists under Remember/Warner Bros.
"Warner is the most independent thinking company I met with," Miller said in October. "It is a partnership and now I can focus on building my label Remember through music and let them handle everything I don't like doing. Nothing will change in how I do things."
