Photo: Financial Times
On Saturday, Joe Rogan announced an apology on Instagram following a compilation of the commentator often saying the n-word on his podcast circulated around social media.
Rogan said the word over 20 times in the videos from various episodes in his podcast, which he claimed were put together over a span of 12 years. Rogan stated in his apology it’s the “most regretful and shameful thing” he has ever had to deal with publicly.
“I know that to most people, there’s no context where a White person is ever allowed to say that, never mind publicly on a podcast, and I agree with that,” said Rogan. “Now, I haven’t said it in years,” he further stated.
Rogan talked about a clip of him comparing a Black community to the movie titled Planet of the Apes. “I certainly would never want to offend someone for entertainment with something as stupid as racism,” he said.
Streaming service giant Spotify is currently under extreme heat due to exclusively hosting Rogan’s widely popular program.
When asked to disclose if the streaming platform had plans on taking measures against Rogan, a Spotify representative declined to comment.
However, a source disclosed that the giant has been discussing with Rogan’s team regarding the issues tied to some of these podcast episodes.
According to a tracking site, it seemed that Spotify pulled out over 70 episodes of Rogan’s podcast on Friday.
As a matter of fact, Rogan chose to pull out some previous episodes simultaneously to his apology, said the source.
India Arie, an American singer-songwriter, is one of many artists who demanded that Spotify pull out their music. She uploaded the compilation of Rogan saying the n-word on her Instagram account.
The award-winning artist stated that although she understands the artists who demanded the removal of their content because of the COVID-19 misinformation, her boycott toward Spotify is due to his language about the race.
Arie said that Rogan “shouldn’t even be uttering the word.” And added, “Don’t even say it, under any context. Don’t say it. That’s where I stand. I have always stood there.”
#DeleteSpotify was the hashtag used by Arie to her over 1 million followers on Instagram.
