Using a snippet of his unreleased song “Thousand Miles,” the Australian pop artist suggested Braun was his “last mistake”
THE KID LAROI pulled off some solid pop star multitasking as he did promo for his new song, tried to get a new TikTok trend going, and appeared to take a not-so-subtle jab at his former manager, Scooter Braun. According to an Instagram story from Scooter, however, Laroi and Braun are cool — he’s just working with Andrew Watt, a producer Braun manages.
A short clip posted on Wednesday April 13 features some early audio from what’s ostensibly the Kid Laroi’s next single, “Thousand Miles.” The clip is based around the refrain, “Here goes another mistake I know I’m gon’ make, I know I’m gon’ make tonight,” and in the video, the Kid Laroi asked fans to share their own “last mistake” while using that sound. The Australian artist then shared a bunch of photos of Braun, which fans largely read as a dig at the celebrity manager.
Braun posted a story to Instagram Thursday sharing what appear to be texts between him and Laroi, with Braun writing, “People from the media thinking you and I got real beef” and the Millennial favorite, the crying-laughing emoji. “LMAO, I’m dead,” Laroi replied. Braun wrote in a caption on the story, “Don’t believe everything you see on the internet” along with a plug for Laroi’s new song, out April 22. So, it seems this particular beef was an impossible burger.
It’s not out of the realm of possibility that the two would have a falling-out, though. The Kid Laroi first started working with Braun and his company SB Projects last June, just about a month before the release of “Stay,” his smash collaboration with Justin Bieber (a noted and longtime Braun client himself). But the relationship lasted only a few months, with the Kid Laroi ditching SB Projects to work with Adam Leber at Rebel Management in Sept. 2021.
It’s unclear what exactly transpired between artist and manager, but an Oct. 2021 profile in Billboard shed some light on the tensions that emerged between Kid Laroi, Braun, and SB Projects president Allison Kaye, with whom Laroi worked most closely. One source said that Braun made “a promise” to be directly involved in Laroi’s career, but failed to meet those expectations; there were also “significant problems” with Kaye, with Laroi reportedly feeling like she made decisions without his input. While Laroi tried to work things out, the source said his decision to sign with Leber was ultimately “a very easy pivot.”
At the time, Braun issued a statement, “Laroi is a brilliant artist, and I wish him and his family nothing but the best. I’m proud of the historic success we had together in our short time — I am rooting for him always, and he knows that.”
