Aaron Carter may have “Beat Shaq” back in the day, but these days, he’s trying to beat down his Twitter haters.
Carter, 30, has a new album out called Love that he’s been promoting. Who knew?! His promo drive was temporarily halted when a fan on Twitter wondered why he had “never reached the level of success” of fellow, former child pop star Justin Bieber.
Carter responded by ranting on Twitter in a tirade that went on for more than two hours.
“I’ve been in this industry before he was born,” he wrote in a tweet. “I’ve had harder times and always bounce back. No I’m not Justin Bieber I’m Aaron Carter.” Carter continued. “I paved the way. These kids have NEVER paid me homage.”
Twitter trolls bashed Carter for comparing himself to Bieber, including one who accused Carter of “using the Biebs’ name to promote” his upcoming album. “Carter has done this before. *Yawns.*”
Carter fired back, pointing out that he’s “gold in 10 countries” and his last single has “100 million streams.”
Not quite, responded Sleepless in YYC:
The following day, Bieber tweeted that he was a big fan of Aaron’s and would be up for being his hype man.
“Aaron carter i had your album when I was little. And bumped the song Aaron’s party. I was like 7. if you need a hype man I got you,” he wrote.
The “Sorry” hitmaker returned to Twitter three hours later to insist his post was genuinely positive after some outlets thought it may have been shady, adding: “All love over here Aaron. You got my support.”
Aaron retweeted Justin’s message and replied, “No bro it’s all good. No hype needed… I’ve also been a big supporter of you since your start… Nothing but love bro.”
Aaron, the younger brother of Backstreet Boys’ Nick Carter, released his most successful album, Aaron’s Party (Come Get It), in 2000 when he was 12 years old — and Bieber was six. Aaron followed this up with 2001’s Oh Aaron and 2002’s Another Earthquake!, before stepping away from the music industry for years. Many didn’t know that he was back on the scene with his latest album Love.
The Biebs, on the other hand, released his debut EP, My World, in late 2009. It was certified platinum in the U.S. He became the first artist to have seven songs from a debut record chart on the Billboard Hot 100. The Canadian-born pop star released his first full-length studio album, My World 2.0, in 2010, which debuted at or near number one in several countries. The album, featuring the hit single “Baby,” went on to be certified triple platinum in the U.S.