Macklemore saw a wave of success after his album with Ryan Lewis, The Heist, dropped and debuted at #2 on the Billboard charts. Does this mean he'll be looking to sign with a major label now? Not necessarily, the rapper says.
The Seattle native spoke to MTV News about the possibility of a linking up with a major deal, and although he's fielding offers, it's going to have to be the right one.
"We've talked to a lot of labels and we talked to some legends in the game in terms of labels," Macklemore said. "I had some great conversations, but right now, we're doing it ourselves and that's what makes the most sense for this project."
He discussed that for his next project, it might be nice to have support in a certain way, but he doesn't want a label grabbing all his tour money. "With the next project, we're open to discussion but we're not open to a typical 360 deal where they're gonna take a percentage of your merchandise and a percentage of your touring," he continued. "That's the way labels make money nowadays, they take all these other things because they can't really make money off of CDs."
As he continues, he confirms that signing a deal right now won't happen. "We got it to this point doing it ourselves and we wanna keep that creative control, we wanna be able to move when we wanna move, we don't wanna get caught up in label politics. So as long as we're in control of our brand, maybe we can work with labels who can offer us some services. But in terms of signing a deal, not right now, no."
Finally, Macklemore shares advice and credits his success to developing a fan base, "It comes down to building a fan base for yourself and that takes time," he said. "If the people really mess with you, then over time the media has to come to you. And once the media comes to you and sees what you're doing, then all of a sudden the flood gates open, but the work has already been done. It was something that happened organically. It wasn't a co-sign outta nowhere, from someone trying to make money off of us, it was us building on a fan base that connected on a person level with our music."