Scooter Braun

SB Projects. Justin Bieber, Kanye (briefly), Ariana Grande. Taylor Swift masters feud.

From his Atlanta-based SB Projects, Scooter Braun became one of hip-hop's most polarizing power brokers despite comparatively modest deep roots in the culture—a manager who briefly steered Kanye's erratic Donda era while building a roster that intersected hip-hop constantly through Drake's prolific collaborations and features. His most consequential hip-hop moment arrived not through creative input but through perceived gatekeeping: acquiring Taylor Swift's masters triggered a cultural reckoning about artist ownership that reverberated through rap's business corridors, forcing conversations about publishing and legacy that artists like Kanye had long demanded. With only two major documented connections ranking him outside hip-hop's inner circles, Braun's influence reads less as artistic architect and more as the kind of executive who shapes industry mechanics from the margins—powerful enough to matter, peripheral enough to remain perpetually controversial.