In Taylor Swift’s Tumblr post about Scooter Braun’s acquisition of Big Machine (including her masters), Taylor accused Braun of orchestrating a campaign of “incessant, manipulative bullying,” which included Justin Bieber posting an Instagram screencap of himself chatting with Scooter and Kanye West, shortly after the “receipts” were dropped by Kim Kardashian. So now Justin Bieber is part of The Scandal of the Summer too. Justin was one of the first to speak out after Taylor did her thing on Tumblr. He posted the above Instagram (an old photo of himself and Tay) with this message:
Hey Taylor. First of all i would like to apologize for posting that hurtful instagram post, at the time i thought it was funny but looking back it was distasteful and insensitive.. I have to be honest though it was my caption and post that I screenshoted of scooter and Kanye that said “taylor swift what up” he didnt have anything to do with it and it wasnt even a part of the conversation in all actuality he was the person who told me not to joke like that..
Scooter has had your back since the days you graciously let me open up for you.! 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. I feel like the only way to resolve conflict is through communication. So banter back and fourth online i dont believe solves anything. I’m sure Scooter and i would love to talk to you and resolve any conflict, pain or or any feelings that need to be addressed. Neither scooter or i have anything negative to say about you we truly want the best for you. I usually don’t rebuttal things like this but when you try and deface someone i loves character thats crossing a line..
“He was the person who told me not to joke like that…” The portrait we’re getting of Scooter Braun from his clients and from Scott Borchetta is that Braun always took pains to keep it classy on a personal and professional level between himself and Taylor. Scooter didn’t want to piss her off, and yes, some of his clients did piss her off regularly, but he hoped that Taylor would have the maturity to separate him from his clients’ actions. That came back to bite him in the ass, didn’t it? I also sort of agree with Justin – and with Yael Cohen, who said the same thing – that by posting that essay on Tumblr, Taylor knew what she was doing and she was purposefully riling up her fans. The plan for Taylor was to drop that post, sit back and wait for millions of fans to rally to her defense and confirm her victimhood. Instead… something else seems to be happening.
Photos courtesy of Backgrid, Instagram.
Ok so I was all set to hear something idiotic but after reading this I hate Justin Bieber slightly less… pretty sure if she contacted him per his request though he would want them to all hold hands and pray together and then go to church.
Agreed and I feel like I need more factual information all around in this story. Record companies and the industry are notoriously evil so I have absolutely no qualms believeing that Taylor could have been screwed out of her catalog. Honestly my first thought when I read it was that it’s most likely true but considering the woman we’re talking about I’m definitely holding judgement.
That’s bieber? When did he… grow up?
Even if the messages coming out are by request the tone is there. Be an adult. You can’t bully your way through this. You’re not the victim in this situation.
Done and done.
I don’t think any of them are innocent. You don’t get to be successful at the level these guys all are without a serious dose of self obsession and doing right by you always.
I’m sure there are plenty of victims and transgressors and many people in the industry have aspects of both.
Yes, the something else that’s happening is the combined publicity machines of countless music industry parasites cranking to life. Divert attention to the minutiae, define all present and future behaviour by past events, stoke the bile in the bellies of the haters. Who has the biggest most loyal fan base? They’ll make a Netflix special out of this. $$$$
*grabs popcorn*
This story is really interesting because there are so many people involved.
When Justin Bieber is more mature than you, you know you need to stop & check yourself.
Bwahahaha! I love it.
I laughed so much at that and thank you. I think I agree, even if she is right and a true victim, she is not handling it well and she should know better. We ll see what happens.
He’s not. One, it’s strange and insulting to suggest wanting sympathy is somehow wrong. Two, he deleted Cara delivigne’s comment on his post.
What about his statement is mature? The non-apology apology or the Scooter PR screen?
Mature? Nothing mature about that comment. Also, the grammatical errors were painful. Did Justin ever get to go to school or was he too busy supporting his parents and Scooter Braun?
I don’t believe Bieber wrote this.
I dunno…the misspellings, incorrect punctuation, weird phrasing. Combined with Justin’s actual undying love for Scooter. Seems probable
There are a LOT of spelling/grammar mistakes so I do 😏
The grammatical errors are making me cringe so much.
It reads pretty much exactly like every time he writes a comment or post, so either whomever wrote it is EXTREMELY good at mimicking the way he writes, or he wrote it. I tend to believe the latter.
LOL you might be right. My assumption was based on the fact that he spelled rebuttal and communicate correctly (all the million other mistakes aside) which shows how much faith I have in Bieber‘s spelling skills haha
I’m sure he has autocorrect turned on. It would catch the spelling, but not the crimes against grammar.
I think he did. The correct term is “rebut” not “rebuttal” that’s what jumped out in that message. Other than that it was a well thought out message.
I find Taylor so untrustworthy, I don’t deny that what she’s facing is terrible for anyone (imagine someone you dislike owning all of your work – awful). At the same time, it seems that after all of the years of playing the victim and using the same ploys, Taylor is finally meeting her match (besides Kim K of course, who really did rip her a new one)…
It really seems like Kim Kardashian paved the way for others to stand up to her. No one believes anything Taylor says anymore. Taylor is the queen of lying, bullying, manipulating narratives and most for her songs are 3-4 minutes of her bullying ex’s, old friends and peers. Based on the fact that her catalog is majority songs that bully other people I’m okay with her not owning them.
She should have left the Kim recording out of it. That piece doesn’t make her look sympathetic- it just reminds us why there’s reason to be suspicious of her.
@otaku fairy I’m pretty sure in her mind she changed the narrative on that and Kim and Kanye bullied her and shes the victim.
She’s clearly incapable of telling the truth because in her mind her lies are the truth. Honestly, I couldn’t care less. Oh no! The girl with a catalog full of songs that bully and haunt people doesn’t get control over all of her nasty bully anthems. I felt bad for Paul McCartney, i couldn’t care less about her masters though.
This.
She’s overplayed her hand here AND her new singles suck: this is beginning of the end for Taylor Swift.
What is her end game with this misguided attack? Getting her Snake Army to bully a record company out of owning her masters?! She hasn’t used her power to speak publicly for Kesha (just a private’s donation she made which she leaked to the press) or other women in the music industry who have been systematically abused but she’s taking to the digital streets because *someone she doesn’t like* now owns her masters. Why that has happened no one (eyeroll)!
That’s what this all boils down to: she’s a brat in arrested development. It was cute when she was 19, but now chick is 30. She’s gotten away with abhorrent behavior (dating a 17 year old high school senior when she was 23, engaging in racist tropes against Kanye West, refusing to disavow Nazis liking her music) for years!!!
I hope the machine turns against her. There are many more talented pretty blondes who deserve the attention and space Taylor Swift takes up like Tori Kelly.
Good riddance to bad rubbish. I hope her album falls below expectations.
Well if she was really a shrewd businesswoman (doubtful the brains are daddy’s), she would have outright purchased the masters back. So Scooter owns her catalog of mediocre, can’t stand the test of time music. I think he’s taking a loss owning those. She thinks she’s the second coming of the Beatles. Honey, no you’re not.
It’s about time her fans grew up. She needs to find new minions but what preteen will worship a 30 year old?
There wasn’t a buy back offer. It was a, you get one back for every new one you write for us to make more money on, offer. The word indentured comes to mind.
Who would have thought Justin would be the voice or maturity and reason in this. He’s right though. Taylor knew what she was doing when she took this public. All the Taylor stans would line up to “defend” her because she’s forever the victim in any given scenario.
I can believe Justin wrote this because it’s such a rambling mess.
As with anything to do with Taylor and her feuds, there is a lot of gray area. There’s no hero or villain and Taylor could be both at any given time, but this is an issue other artists care about and most will rally around her. But Scooter has used his influence and money to attach himself to other powerful people and they don’t let each other sink easily. Right now, he seems to be having people around him handle this, but Taylor definitely dinged him and I bet, totally caught him off guard.
Your last sentence out of everything written so far is what makes sense. Taylor definitely caused some damage to Scooter with her attack. And her former label knew she didn’t like him.
Complains about Taylor putting it on social media while putting the complaint on social media? Hmmm…
Anyways, isn’t this the same Justin that was just excusing Chris Brown?
He also deleted Cara’s response to his post.
I was intrigued by that – obviously Hailey is his wife, and last I knew Hailey was very good friends with Kendall, who was very good friends with Cara. So I was a little surprised to see Cara go off in defense of Taylor (although her and Taylor have been friendly, they never seemed to be super tight).
Why shouldn’t an artist be able to call out people in the industry over owning their masters that they would like to have a chance to bid on? I feel like Taylor is being honest. But it all comes down to who you believe. And the concept is still gross no matter what way I look at it. Plus the language being used here really is akin to gaslighting.
Taylor is like a lot of people. She makes it all about her. She is manipulative. And she’s good at it. Just that now people are seeing her for that. I do feel bad about her music. I wonder in all this time when she was focusing on how to twist things for her purpose she could have found some way to buy her own catalog. I don’t’ know how any of that works though. It must be so frustrating as an artist to have the work you put all your energy in taken away pretty much. I get her anger. I’m just not a fan of her’s. She reminds me of some other celebs that twist facts and try to turn the public against someone they are pissed at.
To be fair, this IS all about her. It’s her music, it was being sold, and they didn’t even ask if she’d like to buy them first. It’s gross.
That’s not true. They offered her a deal. She declined it.
@Arizona they didn’t offer her a deal to buy back her music and she declined. They declined her offer to buy her music and instead offered her a deal to make albums for the label in turn for getting her albums back. That’s not the same thing at all.
it wasn’t to make an album, earn an album back. it was sign a contract for ten years and have your masters immediately.
they offered her a deal, and she declined. that’s her right. this whole thing is about her being mad they sold to Scooter.
@Arizona it was to sign a contract for ten years and have your masters at the end of those ten years, not immediately.
@miles. She could have paid cash for the whole label like Braun did.
Taylor also liked a comment about Justin cheating on Selena. That part isn’t a shocker, but it’s kind of funny that she went there. Guess the rumors from years ago about her not liking their relationship were true.
I definitely remember that gif of Taylor making a grossed out face while Selena and Justin were hugging.
I feel like after Receipt Gate and the Summer of Tiddlebanging, Taylor has been miscalculating a bit.
Yeah this sounds like the same Justin Bieber who digs Chris Brown. This is basically an altered version of “Well, he never punched ME in the face..”
I don’t think that Taylor Swift would just spontaneously decide to try and assassinate someone’s character for no reason. That would be stupid and kind of insane. If she had experiences with Braun that are contrary to Bieber’s experiences, maybe he should stfu and hear it out instead of (as usual) assuming that if a woman alleges bad treatment, she’s only doing it to get attention. I’m so incredibly tired of that narrative.
This is such a strange situation. But I feel like to be a leveled playing field, all the information needs to be put out there (Todrick’s posts and comments about his time under Braun, Bieber deleting Cara Delevigne’s comment, etc). What a strange soap opera.
I am so mixed on Taylor sometimes. She’s used her platform to advocate for artists and some of the injustices in the music industry, and she testified in court against sexual harassment, which was very admirable. I would think this situation would be different if she was taking a stand on music rights and advocating for industry change. Her tumblr post was not that, it was peak victimhood, white woman tears, everyone is a bully and mean to me! Oh, btw I have an album coming out.
She obviously knows this is how the industry works, she’s being treated the same as everyone else. The label took a risk on her at 15, she signed a contract that said “label helps you record, promote, tour, etc. and in exchange we own the product”. She has no legal argument here. I saw the messages between her and Scott and it seems like they parted on good terms and she was well aware that she had a choice; go to new label and give up ownership or stay and keep it. Was Scott not supposed to sell to Scooter because Taylor doesn’t like him? Maybe she needs to take her own advice and calm down!
About Scooter, I don’t know too much about him, but I’ve seen him as part of a panel on “We Are Man Enough”, which is a web series that aims to stop toxic masculinity by getting men together to talk about their experiences as men and how toxic the current definition of “masculinity” is. They also speak about being allies to women and #MeToo. Scooter had a lot to say, and he seemed like a thoughtful and introspective guy. It made me think he might not be this terrible bully she painted him as.
Excellent post, well thought out. Taylor had an opportunity to stay with her current label and own her masters. She didn’t like the terms so she looked for other opportunities with other labels, found what she liked and signed. And seemed fine with Scott and left on a positive note until she found out Scooter was buying Scott’s label and there for all her masters.
Sorry Taylor, you can’t have it both ways. You did amazing things with Scott and you chose to move on. So move on. I suspect if she doesn’t, things won’t go well for her.
Thanks! I wonder her motivations, because as she said to Scott when departing BM,
“Owning my masters was very important to me, but I’ve since realized that there are things that mean even more to me in the bigger picture. I had a choice whether to bet on my past or to bet on the future and I think knowing me, you can guess which one I chose.”
So it’s not about the masters, which she made the choice to forgo when presented with a different/better opportunity. I don’t use this term lightly, but her Tumblr post was dramatic; full of tears, “my legacy”, “bully”. What did she expect to get from this? I think a couple things:
– Album promotion. Any drama she creates dominates news and it’s always before a new album. John Mayer, Harry Styles, Katy Perry, Kimye. It’s what she does. Her two singles also did not debut at #1. Is she worried?
-He’s adjacent to people she is still salty about. Kayne, Justin, Scooter and his wife also went to Karlie’s western wedding that Tay wasn’t at.
If she was worried about her masters, couldn’t she have pulled a Katy, extended and olive branch and say, “Hey, congrats on the sale! I’d love to set up a time to chat and build a relationship since you recently acquired my masters?” That’s more reasonable than a Tumblr takedown!
I think her motivations are one part catty and one part promotion. Maybe she even wanted to have public pressure on Scooter to sell her the masters.
It’s very interesting, but I think this latest fight she picked might blow up in her face. We’re tired of the girl who cries victim. It’s so hypocritical at this point that she’s telling people to “calm down” and lambasting Scooter as a proponent of “revenge p*rn” when she wrote “Better than revenge” as a slut shame on Camille Belle (and never apologized). The rules don’t apply to Swift and her pocketbook, and I’m glad people aren’t letting her walk all over them.
Kimmy Kakes is loving this. 🐍. #Solutionwear
Yup. This time she didn’t even have to do anything for the publicity lol !