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Bieber’s Manager Takes Rapper Lil’ Dicky Under his Wing

Scooter Braun made an international sensation out of Justin Bieber. How will he market Lil’ Dicky, a talented and rising Jewish rap artist who’s not afraid to make fun of himself?

by
Jesse Bernstein
July 22, 2016
Alex Wong/Getty Images
Scooter Braun in Las Vegas, Nevada, January 7, 2016. Alex Wong/Getty Images
Alex Wong/Getty Images
Scooter Braun in Las Vegas, Nevada, January 7, 2016. Alex Wong/Getty Images

Thus begins the next stage of Lil’ Dicky’s career—with a tweet:

my new manager is @scooterbraun, i wonder if i’ll ever get him to show me his dick or anything cool like that, that requires a lot of trust



— Davey Wavey (@lildickytweets) July 12, 2016

For Dicky, it’s another step—BIG step—forward for a guy who was writing copy for NBA commercials just four years ago. For Braun, it’s another notch on the bedpost for the 35-year-old talent manager who discovered Bieber when he was 12.

But the question remains: How exactly will music industry titan Scooter Braun—who has Kanye West, The Black Eyed Peas, and Justin Bieber under his wing—market Lil’ Dicky, suburban Philadephia’s favorite Jewish rap star? Better yet: How will Dicky’s very real talents—behind the mic and as a showman—develop under Braun’s guidance?

The grandson of Holocaust survivors, Braun (who is no fan of Donald Trump) created a short Holocaust documentary while in high school in Greenwich, Connecticut, that a family member sent to the office of Steven Spielberg. The director then sent the film to the Holocaust museum in Washington, D.C., and a letter of congratulations to Braun, something the young music exec cites as “one of the most inspirational moments” of his life.

Since being named (by Jermaine Dupri) as executive director of marketing for So So Def Records at the age of 20, Braun, who would eventually form his own talent agency (with Usher, no less), has signed everyone from Carly Rae Jepsen to Asher Roth (another Jewish rapper!), along with the aforementioned best-selling pop legends. Though “teen titan” Braun tries to emulate David Geffen (according to a 2012 New Yorker profile), the article painted him to be more of a type like Tom Parker, who managed Elvis Presley.

As for the new rapper under Braun’s wing, there’s no word yet on whether he will facilitate a Kanye collab. One can only hope in these (apparently) dark times.

A photo posted by Lil Dicky (@lildickygram) on Jul 11, 2016 at 2:07pm PDT

Jesse Bernstein is a former Intern at Tablet.