The lines have been drawn in the battle between Scooter Braun and Taylor Swift.
This weekend, Swift slammed Braun for his purchase of her former label, Big Machine Records, which owns the rights to her first six albums. Braun purchased the label and all of its masters for $300M, which means he now owns her catalog of work by default.
Taylor took to Tumblr to criticize the move, saying Braun had been a longtime bully of hers when he managed some of her top rivals like Kanye West.
“I learned about Scooter Braun’s purchase of my masters as it was announced to the world,” she wrote. “All I could think about was the incessant, manipulative bullying I’ve received at his hands for years … Like when Kim Kardashian orchestrated an illegally recorded snippet of a phone call to be leaked and then Scooter got his two clients together to bully me online about it.”
Among those accused bullies was Justin Bieber, who took to Twitter to criticize Swift for calling Braun out. While he later deleted his initial post, Bieber clarified with a followup.
“Scooter has had your back since the days you graciously let me open up for you.,” he wrote in the lengthy post. “As the years have passed we haven’t crossed paths and gotten to communicate our differences, hurts or frustrations. So for you to take it to social media and get people to hate on scooter isn’t fair. What were you trying to accomplish by posting that blog? seems to me like it was to get sympathy u also knew that in posting that your fans would go and bully scooter. Anyway, One thing i know is both scooter and i love you.”
While Bieber’s wife Hailey Baldwin called him a “gentleman” in the comments, model and actress Cara Delevigne seemed to disagree.
“As a married man you should be lifting women up instead of tearing them down because you are threatened,” she wrote.
Demi Lovato also weighed in to defend Braun, whom she recently signed as her manager:
“I have dealt with bad people in this industry and Scooter is not one of them,” she wrote on her Instagram story. “He’s a good man. Personally, I’m grateful he came into my life when he did. Please stop ‘dragging’ people or bullying them. There’s enough hate in this world as it is.”
Meanwhile, Halsey defended Swift, but stopped short of calling Braun out:
Ariana Grande, who is managed by Braun but friendly with Swift, reportedly posted and deleted congratulations to Braun for acquiring the label.
Taylor’s best friend Todrick Hall, who was once signed with Braun, also criticized him:
In addition to those calling him out, megastars like Nicki Minaj, Miley Cyrus, Lana Del Rey, Rihanna and Adele have all reportedly unfollowed Braun.
Still, Big Machine Records still boasts huge country acts like Florida Georgia Line, Thomas Rhett, Reba McEntire, Rascal Flatts, Brantley Gilbert, Lady Antebellum, Jennifer Nettles and Rock and Roll Hall of Fame band Cheap Trick.
