There’s nothing a parent loves more than seeing their child grow and evolve into their own. That’s just what singer, Pebbles, and music honcho, L.A. Reid’s son, Aaron Reid, appears to be doing in his career.

Aaron is 32 years old now, and some of you may recall seeing him on VH1’s “Sweet Sixteen” reality series in 2005, where his parents lavished him with gifts and threw an expensive birthday party, where some of the most popular rappers at that time performed- Kanye West, Swizz Beats, and Jermaine Dupri. Jay-Z and Puffy also attended.

Well, fast forward to today and Aaron is determined to build his own name without leaning on his parents’ legacy and he’s now flourishing in his career, or shall we say- careers…

He has a few, beginning in 2013 he was an A&R at Epic Records (the label his Pops was once the CEO). In case you don’t know, an A&R gig is one of the most revolving door gigs in the music industry. A&R’s get fired all the time because as soon as they don’t find the next hot artists that the label can successfully make money from, the label looks for the next A&R. So Aaron’s multi-year year span as an A&R is pretty impressive. Why? Because regardless of if his dad was running the company or not, Aaron still had to prove that he deserved to be there, by bringing the right artists to the table. However, these days, Aaron is reportedly a producer and A&R for Hitco Music.

Bad Boy Records owner, Puffy, is Aaron’s godfather, and Aaron even gave Puff a run for his money once when he stepped up his A&R game to successfully win over an artist who both he and Puffy were trying to grab.

An A&R’s pay ranges from about 27K a year, to as high as about $175K per year. Their salaries depend on many factors. Aaron’s A&R salary combined with the fact that he’s a professional singer, songwriter, and producer, means that he is standing on his own and doesn’t need Mommy and Daddy to cut him a check every month. Isn’t that every parents dream eventually?

A few years ago he had a budding single titled “Crazy Luv,” but he seems to have put that on that project on the back burner for now. Check out his 2011 video below, which his sister, Ashley (Pebbles’ daughter), co-directed with him.

Aaron said this about stepping outside of his parents’ shadow and he says that he takes his dad’s advice to heart everyday:

“Every day I think about what he told me as a kid, ‘You gotta do what you gotta do so you can do what you wanna do,’” he says. “I take that every day, think about it and apply it.”

It looks like Aaron is doing a great job so far at applying that wisdom his dad has passed onto him. Look forward to seeing more from that brotha in the future.