The rise of MMG begins with label founder Michael Tolle. When we speak, the 39-year-old father of two is in his car. Due to a power outage where he lives in Tucson, Arizona, he’s charging his phone and blasting the AC, working as much as he’s able to and escaping the heat.

“I went to Starbucks thinking I could get some Internet there, but they were closed... I drove halfway through the city thinking the power would be on somewhere else, and it was off too. I got gas, [so I figured I’d] use the car,” he says. “I need to get one of those Chevys with Wi-Fi.”

Tolle chuckles when he brings up the new Chevy, but you get the sense that he’s only half-kidding. He would probably drive around in a Wi-Fi wired car all day if necessary. For years, he ran MMG virtually alone. Now, even with the aid of creative director Austin Hart and a group of regularly contracted freelancers, he still works 12 hour days. Approving album artwork and music videos, strategizing with Hart and publicists, listening to test pressings, searching for and signing new artists, conversing with artists already on the label – there’s always something Tolle needs to do. More importantly, he wants do it all.

“Part of the American dichotomy is this idea that you have work and you have a life. Everyone is so excited to get out of work. You can’t drag me away from it. My life is my work.”

While the impetus for his tireless grind largely stems from his passion for the music, Tolle undoubtedly learned the value of hard work from his large Midwestern family. His father was a professor of civil engineering at Carnegie Mellon and Ohio State before working for the U.S. Department of Transportation. His eldest brother directed Nirvana’s “Smells Like Teen Spirit” music video and clips for artists like The Smashing Pumpkins and Green Day. His younger brother is a comic book artist whose done artwork for companies like HBO.

Tolle’s interest in rap also came from home. Gifted Ice-T’s Power from his older sister when he was in middle school, he was an immediate convert. The local record store was church, record release day his weekly sacrament. From Public Enemy and Wu-Tang to Ras Kass and DJ Quik, he bought all he could afford.

“[Rap] was empowering. You could find out deep stuff. At the same time, you could party and smoke a blunt. You didn’t have to give up being a teenager,” Tolle says of his initial attraction to the genre. “It really merged worlds. It felt like all of culture started to blend together and our generation didn’t care so much about race or the things that had divided [us] before.”