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Taylor Swift Posts Gut-Wrenching Response To Scooter Braun Acquiring Her Music Catalog

The musician also called out Kanye West, Kim Kardashian West and Justin Bieber in a searing response.
Taylor Swift expressed her outrage over Scooter Braun acquiring her music catalog in a lengthy Tumblr post Sunday.
Steve Granitz via Getty Images
Taylor Swift expressed her outrage over Scooter Braun acquiring her music catalog in a lengthy Tumblr post Sunday.

Taylor Swift did not hold back on Sunday as she slammed some of the music industry’s biggest players after learning that manager Scooter Braun had acquired her music catalog.

News broke earlier in the day that Braun’s Ithaca Holdings acquired Big Machine Label Group, the record label that Swift had signed with for her debut album through 2017’s “Reputation.” She left the label, which owns her music catalog, for Universal Music Group last year.

Swift posted a lengthy blog to Tumblr expressing her outrage over Braun’s acquisition, describing him as a person who “stripped her of her life’s work,” tried to “dismantle” her career and whose “manipulative bullying” had been targeting her for years. She called out Braun for his involvement with conflicts she’s had with clients Justin Bieber, Kanye West and Kim Kardashian West.

“All I could think about was the incessant, manipulative bullying I’ve received at his hands for years,” she wrote of learning that Braun would own her music catalog. “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. (See photo) Or when his client, Kanye West, organized a revenge porn music video which strips my body naked.”

Swift was referring to West’s “Famous” song and music video, which features a nude figure resembling Swift in bed next to the rapper. The phone call she says Kardashian West “illegally recorded” was one in which Swift was reportedly told about a lyric in which the rapper says he made her famous.

Swift also took aim at Big Machine Label Group founder Scott Borchetta, who she said refused to let her own her own music or give her the opportunity to purchase it back.

“This is my worst case scenario,” she wrote. “This is what happens when you sign a deal at fifteen to someone for whom the term ‘loyalty’ is clearly just a contractual concept. And when that man says ‘Music has value’, he means its value is beholden to men who had no part in creating it.”

Swift’s post quickly went viral, with fans tweeting their support for the star with the hashtag #WeStandWithTaylor.

Braun and Borchetta did not immediately respond to HuffPost’s requests for comment, though Bieber took to Instagram to pen a lengthy response defending his manager.

Bieber first apologized for posting a “hurtful Instagram” that Swift had referenced in her blog, acknowledging that it was “distasteful and insensitive.” But he defended Braun against Swift’s accusations and argued that she should communicate in person about her frustrations rather than post a message on social media.

Swift assured her fans that she is focused on her future, including her upcoming album “Lover,” which is out next month. She then signed off her letter with these words: “Sad and grossed out.”

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This article exists as part of the online archive for HuffPost India, which closed in 2020. Some features are no longer enabled. If you have questions or concerns about this article, please contact indiasupport@huffpost.com.