Scooter Braun is mostly known for being Justin Bieber’s manager, but he’s actually been in the entertainment business more than a dozen years. He got his start organizing parties in Atlanta, which led to Jermaine Dupri recruiting him to be the executive director of marketing at the rap impresario’s So So Def Records.
Braun eventually split off on his own, and he was at the forefront of social media era, discovering rapper Asher Roth and Justin Bieber through MySpace and YouTube, respectively.
Today, Scooter Braun heads SB Projects, an entertainment and media company which houses SB Management and School Boy Records. In honor of his 34th birthday, here’s a list of artists whose careers have received an instrumental hand from Braun.
Justin Bieber
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YKS1xjqEv8o
It’s easy to forget the Canadian singer was once a 13-year-old boy posting YouTube cover songs in hopes of being discovered. As the story goes, Braun spotted his videos and tracked him down to link up with Usher in Atlanta. Recently, Bieber has been known more for his legal troubles and being a member of Floyd Mayweather’s entourage than his music career, but perhaps that may change soon. He turned heads while performing “Where Are U Now” with Skrillex and Diplo at Ultra earlier this year (causing Braun to make a comparison that ruffled some feathers), and he’s been performing Boyz II Men covers in recent months.
Carly Rae Jepsen
“Call Me Maybe” hit the Canadian airwaves in fall 2011, but it didn’t gain international attention until Justin Bieber and then-girlfriend Selena Gomez tweeted about it in January 2012. From there, Jepsen signed with Braun’s School Boy Records, giving her single the worldwide distribution it needed to rule the airwaves that summer. Emotion, the follow-up to her debut album, features another catchy single, “I Really Like You,” a real contender for this year’s Song of the Summer.
Ariana Grande
Unlike Bieber and Jepsen, Grande isn’t signed to School Boy Records, but she’s a key member of Braun’s SB Management roster. Last year, she followed her successful 2013 debut, Yours Truly, with an even bigger record, My Everything. After “Problem” ruled the airwaves in 2014, Grande embarked on a major international tour and will star in the Fox horror comedy series, “Scream Queens.” She’s also announced plans for her new album, Moonlight.
Psy
This Korean singer became famous in America when the music video for “Gangnam Style” went viral, surpassing Justin Bieber’s own “Baby” for most-viewed YouTube video in history at one point. Perhaps Psy would’ve still become a household name without signing to School Boy Records and SB Management, but he sure wouldn’t have done a Reddit AMA or made this Super Bowl commercial.
The Wanted
The “other” UK boy band is currently on hiatus, but The Wanted scored Billboard Hot 100 hits with “Chasing the Sun,” “I Found You,” and “We Own the Night” with Braun as their manager.
