Timing is everything. Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania-based Rostrum Records can attest to that. When Wiz Khalifa released his debut street album Show and Prove in 2006, there was a spattering of attention. When he droppedDeal Or No Deal three years later, he began beeping on Hip Hop’s radar, with close to 6,000 first-week units sold on an independent label. Around that time, Rostrum signed another Steel City native in Mac Miller, who quickly followed the Wiz blueprint of constantly recording and looking for crowds to perform for.

Less than two years later, Wiz Khalifa is one of 2011′s biggest stars. He has a gold album in Rolling Papers at a time when superstars frequently fall short of the feat. Meanwhile, Miller and Rostrum released On And On And Beyond, a digital EP in the last week of March that sold over 10,000 first-week units. Rostrum artists have a self-made success rate that is astonishing the industry.

Many can argue how pivotal the Internet has been in promoting Wiz and Mac. However, with close to a decade in collective performing experience, chances are that these emcees have rocked a stage in your town in the last three years. Although both artists may represent a changing sound in Hip Hop, they may have more in common with the road warriors of the 1980s than the reclusive acts of the last decade. HipHopDX wanted to look closely at this formula and spoke to the pair’s booking agent Peter Schwartz of The Agency Group, and Wiz’s longtime road manager Will Dzombak. These two men can tell you first-hand that this movement may have been supported by likes, retweets and views, but it was born with a stage.

HipHopDX: Will, when and how did you get the tour manager position?

Will Dzombak: When I was 19. I was working with Wiz [Khalifa] for like a year then, and we went on a summer tour that we’d put together ourselves, just Wiz and I. In the middle of that, it probably became official. That was the summer of 2008.

DX: Peter, when did you discover the talents of Wiz and Mac?

Peter Schwartz: I discovered their talents… I was introduced to Wiz by a friend around early November 2009, it was someone who was working on the Deal Or No Deal album and was like, “You gotta check this guy out, he’s incredible,” and I ended up meeting Wiz and his manager Benji [Grinberg] at my office. We had a good meeting; then he was playing Highline Ballroom in New York City the next night and I went to the show to see him live in action and he really blew me away and that was a moment where…you know we’d already said that we were gonna work together, but having seen the show I was extremely fired up and excited and knew there were some really incredible. There was something really special with Wiz happening in that venue. It was exciting, I could tell it was something special happening.

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