Mac Miller's Custom Fisker Karma

This feature is a part of Complex's "Man of Next Year" Week.

Both Henrik Fisker's and Mac Miller's dreams began simply, with the tip of a pencil hitting a piece of paper. Pent-up creativity flowed into the blank space, allowing their expressions to take shape. For Mac, that meant fitting words and stories into rhythmic patterns. For Henrik, it meant translating organic forms from nature into luxurious, eco-friendly automobiles.

The Karma, the car that Complex has awarded Mac as part of winning the Man of Next Year competition, is a rare instance of building something unique from the ground up. Henrik and his partner Bernard Koehler started Fisker Automotive in 2007 with the goal of creating an entirely new kind of car, an extended-range electric vehicle with luxury and style. Blending cutting-edge tech with artistry, Fisker put the designer in the driver's seat and let the engineers figure out how to make it work. In 2011 the Karma went into production nearly identical to the drawing board, a feat rarely accomplished in these days of cutbacks and frustrating limitations.

Mac has taken a similar path with his music. Without conforming to the major label structure, he's been able to build an empire using his ideas, his team, and creating his music the way he wants it, without compromise. His innovative approach to the game has paid dividends, hence the MoNY title, and the one-of-one customized Fisker that goes with it. It's only fitting that the Man of Next Year would drive an equally original car, one that will take Mac to the future right now.

Written by Tony Markovich (@T_Marko)

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Long before he dreamed up the Fisker Karma, Henrik Fisker was already a giant in the game. After being turned down for job at Volvo, the student who used to sketch cars on the backs of his notebooks enrolled in Pasadena's Art Center College of Design. After graduating he went on to begin as a designer at BMW Technik GmbH.

With a little bit of luck, and the willingness to work through a holiday, Fisker wound up heading the team responsible for the Z07 concept car, which turned into the sultry James-Bond famous Z8 Roadster. He went on to get a job for Aston Martin and worked on the designs of the Aston Martin DB9 and V8 Vantage, which also appeared Bond movies. Before launching Fisker Automotive in 2007, he and his partner Bernhard Koehler started Fisker Coachbuild, LLC and built two concept cars, the Latigo CS and the Tramonto. All of this culminated into Fisker's most beautiful creation yet, the Karma.

As an independent musician, Mac Miller has chosen a path here he gets to decide where he goes. He's not restricted to one sound, or even one genre of music. Basically, he doesn't have to answer to anybody. In a way, that's the direction that Henrik Fisker wanted to take with the Fisker Automotive brand.

Cars today are usually placed into "classes," "segments," or "markets," classifying them and boxing them in. Hybrids have been victimized the most by this idea. Henrik wanted that to change, pulling sports car performance, powering it with a hybrid powertrain, and sculpting an exterior that would win both staring contests and beauty pageants against 95 percent of cars sold today. All this while crafting an interior that can give four people a high-quality experience.

After all the hopes, dreams, and visions that went into Henrik Fisker's company, there was one unexpected moment that sparked him to launch Fisker Automotive, LLC. That moment came when environmental activist/matinee idol Leonardo DiCaprio rolled up to the Academy Awards in a Toyota Prius. Leo was making a statement by driving such a modest car to Hollywood's biggest night, but it spoke to Henrik in a different way.

"I saw him getting out of the Prius, and I thought there's got to be a market for an environmentally friendly car which goes beyond the Prius," Fisker told Top Gear. "That was my first inspiration."

It makes sense. Why should celebrities be restricted to awkward-looking autos when they could be spending their riches on a high-end hybrid? As Rihanna put it, "All I see is signs, all I see is dollar signs."

The aim of hybrids and electric cars is to provide transportation that's less harmful to the environment and that conserves our precious resources. Why, then, do so many electric cars and hybrids continue to use materials that leave the earth as an afterthought?

The Karma interior can be fitted with leather from humanely killed cows or eco-friendly suede, and it uses wood trim that was already laid to rest by mother nature—either found on the ground in western U.S. forests, plucked from the remains of California wildfires, or recovered from the bottom of Lake Michigan. Where'd your cold, hard plastic dashboard come from?