Josh Berg, the engineer of Mac Miller, revealed why the late artist chose not to sign with JAY-Z‘s Roc-A-Fella imprint.
In a recent GQ feature about the creation of Miller’s Faces, which hit streaming services for the first time last week, Berg explained that Miller was determined to earn success without the need for a co-sign from Hov. “He didn’t sign to Roc-A-Fella because he was like, ‘I’m not gonna have it be that I needed the Jay-Z feature to get famous, for people to validate me and then people think it’s about that validation,’” Berg shared. The late rapper briefly touched on this topic on the Faces cut “Here We Go” where he raps, “Tryna be a legend by tomorrow/They say I can’t, I’m determined to prove ‘em wrong though/I’m not perfect but they ain’t either/I did it all without a Jay feature.”
2014’s Faces marked Miller’s final mixtape under his real name and was released between Watching Movies With the Sound Off and GO:OD AM. “A lot of the time, you have storytellers in rap, you have people who can tell stories or a person who can tell you their story, but it’s very rare that you have a person who can paint a picture for you. And painting a pretty picture doesn’t mean that it makes you feel pretty,” Thundercat, a collaborator and close friend of Miller, said to GQ.
Elsewhere in music, Kanye West performed “Runaway” and “Flashing Lights” at a Venice wedding.
