bb

[bb @AlexBobotaylor]

@OohAhhBK send this to the Statesman...

[Aakash Gupta @aakashgupta]

A 13-year-old Canadian kid uploaded R&B covers to YouTube in 2008 from his bedroom. A talent manager named Scooter Braun stumbled on the videos and signed him.

For the next 15 years, Braun controlled everything. Tours, branding, business deals, public image. The kid became the biggest pop star on the planet, sold 150 million records, racked up 32 billion Spotify streams, and had three Diamond-certified singles before turning 25.

Then in 2022, he got hit with Ramsay Hunt syndrome. Partial facial paralysis. Cancelled the world tour. Disappeared from public life entirely.

Here's where it gets interesting.

In January 2023, he sold his entire 290-song catalog to Hipgnosis for $200 million. Every song he'd ever released. "Baby." "Sorry." "Love Yourself." All of it. Gone. At 28 years old, he cashed out his past.

Then he dropped Scooter Braun. After 15 years. No manager. No agent. For the first time in his career, nobody was making decisions for him.

Fast forward to this weekend. Coachella calls. He picks up the phone himself. Rolling Stone confirmed he negotiated his own headlining deal directly with Goldenvoice. No agent commission. No manager cut. $10 million for two weekends, and he kept all of it.

Then he walked onto the biggest stage in music, sat down behind a MacBook, and pulled up YouTube.

He played "Baby" from 2010. He played his bedroom covers from 2008. He harmonized with his 13-year-old self in front of 100,000 people. Katy Perry joked about whether he had YouTube Premium.

Half the internet called it lazy. The other half called it genius.

They're both wrong. It was a receipt.

He sold his catalog for $200 million. He fired the man who discovered him. He negotiated his own deal. And then he went back to the exact platform where it all started and said: I built this from a laptop. I'm headlining Coachella from a laptop. And for the first time in my life, every dollar is mine.

The kid from YouTube just closed the loop.

[bb @AlexBobotaylor]

@6mgzyns That wasn’t fun watching gober last night

[bb @AlexBobotaylor]

@jr_bottle Pls send me this now

[bb @AlexBobotaylor]

@jr_bottle Fire song choice blast that shit through the city of Milano

[marybeth 🐞 @60minonacid]

this video is a masterpiece i think of it too often

[Sopranos World @SopranosWorld]

brat summer is ending
furio fall is coming

[Tarrant @la_tarrant]

Oasis’s tour manager bout to have the toughest job in the world:

[Aaron Nagler @AaronNagler]

Still the greatest Liam video ever

[Steve Will Do It @stevewilldoit]

Gifting Bradley Martin his Dream Car with Logan Paul $HERO

[bb @AlexBobotaylor]

@6mgzyns @JWepp 36,37,38 goated

[bb @AlexBobotaylor]

@22PercentFrom3 Whole album is so good

[The Daily POW @TheDailyPOW]

If you’re an avid Alta skier and you haven’t checked out Vail Ridge, your time is now. If you don’t do it this year, you’ll be one year older when you do.

[bb @AlexBobotaylor]

@22PercentFrom3 Couple clouds before he made half a million

[No Laying Up @NoLayingUp]

Running into someone whose name I should definitely remember but I don’t

[bb @AlexBobotaylor]

@22PercentFrom3 Lmfao which one

[Krooked Kings Daily @krookedkingsfan]

last show in north america 🇺🇸

[Wingnutz Buffalo @WingnutzB]

10/10

Thank you! 😍
@AlexBobotaylor

[bb @AlexBobotaylor]

10/10 @WingnutzB @BarstoolBigCat @PFTCommenter

[SLUG Magazine @SLUGMag]

Closing out the week jamming to Salt Lake's own @krookedkingz latest album All Out of Good Days @nobodygetsit_co #SLUGPlaylist