Taylor Swift Might Re-Record Her First Six Albums To Screw Over Scooter Braun
Boom.
At least judging by its singles, the forthcoming Taylor Swift album Lover is one of the musician’s chirpiest, most unhurried releases yet — which only makes the considerable behind-the-scenes drama she has been embroiled in over the last few months that more notable.
At the beginning of July, Swift discovered that her masters had been sold to Scooter Braun. Braun, the man responsible for bringing a young Canadian YouTuber named Justin Bieber to the mainstream, is an industry titan who Swift alleges has bullied her for years.
According to a Tumblr post that the artist wrote following the sale, Braun helped fan the flames of the singer’s dispute with Kanye West and Kim Kardashian. That back-and-forth — a spat over a sexist line in West’s ‘Famous’ — ended with Kardashian publicly posting a video of a phone conversation with Swift.
.@Camila_Cabello defends @TaylorSwift13 following the sale of her master recordings to Scooter Braun in new @Variety profile:
“An artist of her caliber just being F-ed over like that, and not being able to have her masters? That sucks. It’s heartbreaking for her.” pic.twitter.com/mOGUcZ7pHg
— Pop Crave (@PopCrave) August 6, 2019
Shortly thereafter, Bieber shared a screenshot of a FaceTime chat between himself, Braun, and West, all of them grinning in what can be read as a deliberate attempt to upset Swift. “This is Scooter Braun, bullying me on social media when I was at my lowest point,” Swift wrote in her Tumblr post about the sale of her masters. “He’s about to own all the music I’ve ever made.”
Now, however, it seems like the ‘Bad Blood’ singer has found a novel solution to a difficult problem. In an interview with American talk show CBS Sunday Morning, Swift was asked whether she had considered re-recording her music as a way of regaining ownership of those first six albums. In response, the singer quickly affirmed that was “absolutely” a plan.
If Swift goes ahead with it, she could subtly encourage her fans to buy her version over Braun’s, essentially making the sale of her masters a pointless exercise and trumping a man who she alleges has had it out for her for years.
Pretty baller.