In Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, in 2003, Rostrum was a Los Angeles-based independent record label. There are a variety of musicians in Rostrum such as DC. Amongst the artists included are The Bird and The Bird, The Bird and The Bee, The Don, Mod Sun and Cornelius and The Bird and the Bee. For the last seventeen years, Rostrum has sold millions of albums and tens of millions of songs, always looking for new opportunities for their artists to make their music come out of them and to build permanent relationships with the public. Artists from Rostrum were nominated for a total of eleven Grammy Awards.
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Rostrum and Wiz Khalifa
In 2004, when the rapist introducing a mixtup of young Pittsburgh artists piqué his imagination, Wiz Khalifa first caught Grinberg’s eye. When Benjy Grinberg saw the 16-year-old artist for the first time, he immediately realised that he wanted to work with him. “You could not see that he was a diamond in the rough if he had not completely grown up, and that he could become exceptional with some polishing, coaching and backing,” Hitquarters later told him. Soon afterwards, Khalifa signed with the label and started to develop artists for seven years. Two albums have been released by Wiz Khalifa’s Rostrum label: Show and Prove in 2006 and Deal or No Deal in 2009.
Both began a series of free mixtapes, which soon attracted a lot of Khalifa, to build on the momentum of Deal and No Deal. On 14 June 2010, the best-known mixtape by Wiz Khalifa was “Kush and Orange Juice.” On Twitter the mixtape became the number one trend topic with the hashtag kush and orange juice, and with Khalifa’s dedicated fans base “Kush and Orange Juice Download” ranking No. 1 in the trendy search trends of Google. In the beginning of 2010, Mac Miller signed Rostrum Records. Grinberg met Mac Miller with Wiz Khalifa at the ID Labs in Pittsburgh.
Rostrum and Miller
Grinberg started giving Miller tips but was not really interested in getting engaged with his career until Miller started to work on the K.I.D.S. mixtape where, as he later told HitQuarters, he saw a maturation of his sound and an attitude towards the musique. Miller had started receiving attention from a number of register labels at the time, but because of his closeness and his friendship with Wiz Khalifa he chose Rostrum. In August 2010, the K.I.D.S. label was released. Children, a 1995 film, inspired the mixtape. Miller’s first album, the Incredibly Dope Tour, which sold out every venue, was a great success in late 2010.
After graduation, Grinberg travelled to New York City to look for a job. Grinberg began formally with music three months after his journey to NYC as Antonio “LA” Reid’s assistant. Following his success at Arista Records, Grinberg wanted to try his hand to find and produce his own artists. Grinberg’s emphasis on artist formation is attributable to the success and resilience of Rostrum.
The label was also awarded to the magazine Vibe ‘Top 5 Labels to watch in 2012’ and the magazine XXL ‘Top Rising Indie label in 2011.’ Grinberg was ranked #23 on the annual Power 30 list in the September 2011 edition of The Source magazine. In 2013 Grinberg was named “40 under 40” by Billboard. He is also included in the voting process of the Grammy Awards.