
MICHAEL RUBIN AND Lil Baby first met in the Bahamas. The CEO and the rapper found themselves, in January 2021, sitting around the same baccarat table with their mutual friends Drake and Meek Mill. Baby had begun making music a few years earlier after serving two years related to drug and weapon charges in Atlanta. Now, like the two other rappers placing their bets, he was beginning to mix with billionaire businessmen.
"We ain't win," Baby recently recalled. "We had a great night, though."
As with Drake and Meek, Rubin, 51, struck up a friendship with the 28-year-old rapper. Each of the three has recorded lyrics about him, but Baby put it the most bluntly on a 2022 song: "I get my advice from Mike Rubin." "He's got the best story ever," Rubin said, sitting nearby. "Because this guy didn't even rap until he got out of prison, and it shows you, you can do anything at any time in your life." They were in a Sprinter van on a Tuesday morning in June, heading from a Harlem school to get to Rubin's company jet at LaGuardia. Fanatics, the sports merchandise business (jerseys, cards, more) that Rubin has run since 2011, was holding its inaugural Merch Madness event. In cities including Los Angeles, Miami, and Dallas, a wealth of athletes and musicians including Donovan Mitchell, DJ Khaled, Quavo, and Chris Paul-most of them personal friends of Rubin's-gave out licensed apparel to local kids and families in need. It was an instance of the philanthropic bent Rubin has demonstrated in recent years as well as of the eye-popping and mildly befuddling constellation of personalities he has assembled around himself over the same period.
Rubin and Baby boarded the plane.
Bu hikaye Vanity Fair US dergisinin October 2023 sayısından alınmıştır.
Start your 7-day Magzter GOLD free trial to access thousands of curated premium stories, and 9,000+ magazines and newspapers.
Already a subscriber ? Giriş Yap
Bu hikaye Vanity Fair US dergisinin October 2023 sayısından alınmıştır.
Start your 7-day Magzter GOLD free trial to access thousands of curated premium stories, and 9,000+ magazines and newspapers.
Already a subscriber? Giriş Yap

NYPD CONFIDENTIAL
Along with a contingent of detectives and undercover operatives, the NYPD's counterterror czar, Rebecca Weiner, defends New York City and the nation against enemies foreign and domestic. ADAM CIRALSKY reports from inside the country's most elite local law enforcement agency

VIBE CHECK
WITH 2024 IN THE REARVIEW, HIGH-RANKING DEMOCRATS ARE FINALLY ARRIVING AT THE HARD TRUTH THAT THEIR PARTY IS UNWELL. \"DISARRAY\" DOESN'T QUITE COVER IT. AS FOR WHAT THEY'RE DOING ABOUT IT-AND WHETHER THEY CAN EVER WREST THE COUNTRY BACK FROM TRUMP AND TRUMPISMIT DEPENDS ON WHOM YOU ASK

WHERE DEI Went to D-I-E
Many people of color in Hollywood suspected it was mostly window dressing—and they’ve been proven right

Masks OFF
He spent his teen years concealing his sexuality. Now BENITO SKINNER IS mining that awkward time for art

Gastronomic IMMUNITY
Washington, DC's ascendant dining scene prepares to seat a second Trump administration

THOROUGHLY MODERN MILLIE
AS THE SENSATIONAL HIT SERIES THAT LAUNCHED HER CAREER COMES TO AN END, MILLIE BOBBY BROWN HAS A PLAN TO SUSTAIN THE MOMENTUMALL WHILE SAYING NO AS MUCH AS SHE NEEDS TO AND LIVING ON A FARM IN GEORGIA. WHY NOT? STRANGER THINGS HAVE HAPPENED

SECOND ACT
SMASH, THE SHORT-LIVED 2012 TV SERIES, DEVELOPED A DEDICATED CULT FOLLOWING. NOW, STEVEN SPIELBERG AND COMPANY HAVE RESURRECTED IT FOR BROADWAY. MICHAEL RIEDEL TELLS THE BACKSTORY OF THE ORIGINAL SHOW AND THE NEW PRODUCTION, REVEALING THE MAD RHAPSODIES OF MAKING A MUSICAL

No WONDER
RUPERT EVERETT reveals what’s behind his new collection of short stories, a meditation on rejection

Cinema VERITÉ
At Art Basel Paris, Miu Miu reaffirms its support of women in film

A KILLER VIEW
When an heiress to the L.L. Bean fortune noticed that a grove of majestic oaks on her coastal Maine property had died, she cast her suspicions on her neighbors uphill, summer residents who wanted a better view of Camden Harbor. The legal fight that ensued became a town drama that roils to this day