This past weekend, a compilation video surfaced of Joe Rogan using the N-word several times in past shows on his podcast, “The Joe Rogan Experience.”
The discovery resulted in more than 70 of his podcasts being removed off of Spotify, with tons of people calling for him to be removed from the platform for good.
This, of course, comes after singer Neil Young and several other artists asked to be removed from the platform due to Rogan’s “misinformation” on the COVID-19 vaccine.
Rogan released an apology video, provided the missing context for a number of the incidents in the video, but ultimately, he confessed that this was the most “regretful and shameful” thing he’s ever had to discuss:
“Hello friends, I’m making this video to talk about the most regretful and shameful thing I’ve ever had to talk about publicly.
There’s a video that’s out that’s a compilation of me saying the n-word… clips of me that have been taken out of context from 12 years of conversations on my podcast, and it looks fucking horrible… even to me.”
Although Rogan is over 70 podcasts short of his original number, Spotify CEO Daniel Ek has no intentions of completely removing his podcast from the platform, according to the New York Post.
And in fact, Spotify didn’t remove the episodes at all… it was Joe Rogan that made the call.
Ek explained in a letter to Spotify employees:
“Not only are some of Joe Rogan’s comments incredibly hurtful– I want to make clear they do not represent the values of this company.
While I strongly condemn what Joe has said… I realize some will want more.
I want to make one point very clear… I do not believe that silencing Joe is the answer. We should have clear lines around content and take action when they are crossed, but cancelling voices is a slippery slope.
Following these discussions and his own reflections, he chose to remove a number of episodes from Spotify.”
He also noted that Spotify will be investing $100 million to help boost diversity:
“I am committing to an incremental investment of $100 million for the licensing, development, and marketing of music (artists and songwriters) and audio content from historically marginalized groups.”
