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Updated 15 hours ago
Every once in awhile a star will rocket out of Pine or Wexford or Mt. Lebanon into the pop music firmament. And everyone from the neighborhood will say something like, “I always knew she'd be a star.”
It's safe to say that not a lot of people saw hip-hop putting Pittsburgh on the map, though.
Benjy Grinberg was one of the few who did.
After a short career with Arista Records in New York, he decided to start a small record label, Rostrum Records, in his hometown, Pittsburgh.
“While I was (at Arista), I was discovering records and looking for new artists, and being groomed to be an A&R (artists and repertoire, who mostly do scouting and artist development) person,” Grinberg says. “I always had an entrepreneurial spirit. I wanted to work with the artists I wanted to work with.
“I sort of went out on a limb and started my label. I was also writing music at the time, and I wanted more time to write more music. The label side of things took off faster than the writing career. I basically didn't write at all in the past few years.”
Long story short, the mostly unknown new label signed two totally unknown rappers from Grinberg's alma mater, Taylor Allderdice (now Pittsburgh Allerdice) in Squirrel Hill. Wiz Khalifa and Mac Miller would quickly become two of the biggest names in hip-hop, and successfully cross over into the pop realm as well.
Now, Rostrum is a bi-coastal label, with offices in Los Angeles, where Grinberg spends most of his time, and on the South Side.
“We still have an office in Pittsburgh,” Grinberg says. “Our main office for the last two years is in L.A. Once we started signing new artists, a lot of them are out here, and a lot of resources are out here. It made sense to do that.
“We still have Pittsburgh in our hearts. I was just there for four months, for the birth of my first child. We wanted to make sure he was born in Pittsburgh. We come back every month or two. We still record a lot of music there, and it's a big part of our identity. We're always looking out for Pittsburgh artists.”
It is a little bit hard to pin down Rostrum Records, musically speaking. They've got several flavors of hip-hop, some rock bands, some quasi-pop-stars-in-the-making.
Grinberg tries to keep an open mind, and not get too concerned with sticking to a particular musical niche.
“Independent labels are mostly genre specific,” Grinberg says. “I wanted to work with artists and music that I was excited about. To me, my guideline is not, ‘Is this hip-hop or pop music?' It's ‘Can we help in this situation? Can we take this artist to a new level if we get involved?' That's the test, not whether it fits a genre.”
The movement of music online has hurt a lot of record labels, as their old business models — based on units (CDs mostly) shifted — have been upended. Many artists are skipping out on the use of a record label entirely.
“I think it depends what kind of artist you are, how high you're reaching,” Grinberg says. “To me, record labels are as essential as they've ever been. There's so many things an artist has to do, so many ways to find an audience. You need a team. You can certainly put out a record by yourself. If you really want to go further, it's very helpful. … It's not impossible without a label, but they're the anomaly, not the rule.”
Rostrum is still in growth mode, even after its two main cash cows have moved on.
“All companies go through different phases. For us, we had a lot of success with Mac and Wiz and that was a big part of our story,” he says. “Over the last year or two, we've been signing our next wave of artists. We bought a New York-based independent label and took over their catalog. We're hiring more people. We have 13 people; soon 14, maybe 16 or 17 by the end of the year.
“We'll have more albums come out this year than we ever have. I'm not trying to become a huge label. I want to be able to focus on each artist. A lot of bigger labels have dozens, or even hundreds of artists, and it's hard to focus on them.”
This month happens to be particularly busy. Rostrum is currently getting a singer from New York City named Vali ready for a big push.
“We released Vali's new single, which I'm really excited about — ‘Ain't No Friend of Mine,' ” Grinberg says.
“Mike Taylor, we just put out an EP. He's releasing a song called ‘Electric Church.' He's like soulful pop. It's mostly streams (streaming music). Streams are picking up, social (media) numbers are picking up. Early feedback from radio stations and other sources indicate that, ‘Hey, people are enjoying this song.'
“Another is a band with Pittsburgh roots called Teammate. We put out their single, ‘Damage.' Their debut album will come out in the middle of February.”
To be fair, owning a record label isn't all champagne and private jets. Wiz Khalifa sued Grinberg and Rostrum for $1 million in “unpaid monies,” according to reports in Billboard. Grinberg claims it has been settled.
“It's behind us now,” he says.
Grinberg is working with Pittsburgh Allderdice High School to build a recording studio for students. He hopes to have it completed in a month. He was also invited to teach a master's level course in artist development at Carnegie Mellon University.
If Grinberg has learned anything about the music business, it's about the value of persistence.
“It took seven years to really get off the ground,” Grinberg says. “Any time along that journey, I could have said ‘Eh, this is too difficult,' and given up. I really believed in what we were doing, and the artist we were working with, and the need for what we're doing. If you think you're going to start a company and a week later be this big success — well that's great if it does. But usually, you have to stick it out.”
Mike Machosky is a Tribune-Review contributing writer.
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