Famous American podcast host, Joe Rogan, issued an apology for using racist language, particularly the N-word “n*gger”, repeatedly in his shows.
As the compilation of his previous videos, in which he was using the racial slur, went viral, Spotify removed more than 100 shows of the artists on its platform.
Rogan believes his comments were not perceived correctly
After the compilation video made headlines, Rogan said he “felt sick” watching his own content and wished he could take these comments back.
Likewise, the Spotify star indicated this should be a learning moment for other people as well. This way, they can know how disturbing these words could be when they come out of a white person’s mouth.
Joe Rogan x Nigger.
A compilation. pic.twitter.com/dMgtdzz4rk— Scottie. (@ScottieBeam) February 4, 2022
However, Rogan still tried to defend himself, suggesting many of his comments were taken out of context from the previous 12 years of videos combined.
Describing the context of his usage of the N-word, the artist asserted he was referring to an album of famous comedian Richard Pryor and the 1994 film “Pulp Fiction,” when he used those words.
Thus, Rogan suggested he thought people could have understood the context in which he was talking.
Famous artists complained of getting paid less on Spotify
The newly viral video was first shared by Grammy-winning artist India Arie on her Instagram page. Arie noted she would remove all of her music from Spotify to register her protest.
She stated Rogan should not have said these words in the first place, no matter the context.
Spotify is up to 100 deleted episodes of @joerogan podcasts now.
Give an inch to cancel culture, and they will take a mile. Spotify is going to get rekt.
— James Todaro, MD (@JamesTodaroMD) February 5, 2022
As she used the hashtag “#DeleteSpotify” on her Instagram account of nearly one million followers, Arie also decried being paid less on the platform. According to her, Spotify pays $100 million to Rogan, but pays her “0.003% of a penny.”
The recently released report of the New York Times indicated the platform pays half a cent per stream to artists; the money is then divided among recording companies and creators.
Many artists also left Spotify, as they claimed Rogan was involved in spreading coronavirus misinformation and the platform did not take any action against him.
Neil Young was the first artist to issue a boycott of Spotify on January 25, followed by Joni Mitchell, which encouraged a lot of artists to follow suit.
This prompted Rogan to issue an apology regarding his comments on the virus as well. Meanwhile, Spotify said it would issue an advisory statement for any program discussing coronavirus.
The CEO of Spotify responded to the remarks from Rogan about COVID, claiming it is the responsibility of the platform to provide authentic information in the medical arena.
Spotify is a major sponsor of Rogan, as it paid more than $100 million to get exclusive rights to its podcasts. “N*gger” is usually considered an ethnic abuse against people of color.
