Kanye West has caused a lot of issues over the past few years, losing a lot of business deals and friends for his antisemitic behavior, promotion of hate and declaring himself a Nazi. Justin and Hailey Bieber cut ties with the controversial rapper, and Ye’s ex-wife, Kim Kardashian, reportedly has to keep her lawyer on speed dial. It sounds like he can also count Scooter Braun amongst his former friends, as the music mogul discussed his relationship with his ex-client.
Scooter Braun — likely best known for his feud with Taylor Swift — has retired as a music manager but has a pretty storied career of helping artists like Justin Bieber, Ariana Grande, Demi Lovato and more reach high levels of fame. Braun went on the Question Everything podcast, where he admitted to feeling “betrayed” by some former clients. That likely includes Ye, who he managed for two or three years, Braun said. He explained the person Kanye West is today is not the man he once worked with. In his words:
I don’t know him anymore, and I think the person that I knew wasn’t someone who says those things. Sometimes the hardest thing to do with someone you care about is mourn them while they’re still here. The person that I knew is not the person that I’m seeing, so I don’t have a relationship anymore. I’d rather stand proudly in who I am and who my people are and be gracious and kind to all people.
Basically, Scooter Braun said that while he does not have any ill will toward Kanye West, he does not have a relationship with him anymore, due to the former manager being Jewish and having grandparents who were Holocaust survivors.
However, rather than focus on the hate he’s seen since Ye’s antisemitic rants from October 2022, Scooter Braun would rather spread positivity by showing how “beautiful, kind and loving people” those of Jewish faith are. Podcast host Danielle Robay asked if Braun thought Kanye West could ever be reached by that message, and he replied:
I don’t know, and I don’t know him, and I think right now, I have three beautiful kids that need a dad to focus on them and make sure they’re prepared and strong in this world, and that’s going to be my focus.
Scooter Braun says he’s “damn proud” of who his grandparents were and of who he is, and he’s more concerned with teaching his children to bring the beauty of their beliefs to the world than telling people not to say things about him.
Despite Kanye West declaring that he was “done with antisemitism” earlier this year, 2025 has seen the rapper selling merchandise with Nazi propaganda on it, recruiting a “hooligan choir” who are comfortable wearing swastikas and releasing a song called “Heil Hitler” for an upcoming album. The single — which caused his Australia visa to be revoked — was reportedly banned in its original form from major streaming platforms and has been re-released in multiple altered versions.
One can see how such actions might cause his relationships with Scooter Braun and others to become frayed, to say the least.
