The Joe Rogan/Spotify conversation has been the talk of the town lately.
At the request of Joe himself, Spotify removed over 70 episodes of Joe Rogan’s podcast, episodes spanning back to 2009 through 2018, after a compilations video of him using the N-word surfaced.
Joe apologized, provided some context, but on his latest podcast with fellow comedian Akaash Singh, he revealed how he’s handling the controversy.
He noted that the whole thing is a political hit job, while also calling it a relief:
“If you stay offline, it’s just real life… you just have to stay offline, life goes on as normal. In a lot of ways, all this is a relief because that video had always been out there.
This is a political hit job, and so they’re taking all this stuff I’ve ever said that’s wrong and smushing it all together, but it’s good because it makes me address some shit that I really wish wasn’t out there.”
His special guest, stand-up comedian Akaash Singh, also went to bat for his buddy, while noting that it’s ok for comedians to apologize:
“Real life is people who know you, and you’re a great guy…. you can apologize if you say some wild shit and we’ve all said some wild shit, and you apologized, and owned that it’s wrong, good for you.”
Rogan added:
“You should apologize if you regret something but I do think you have to be very careful to not apologize for nonsense.”
Since the video was shared by singer India Arie, who posted the viral video of Rogan saying the N-word, Spotify CEO Daniel Ek said that they will not cancel him, but decided to invest $100 million for the licensing, development and marketing of music and audio content from “historically marginalized groups.”
Singer Neil Young, who was the frontman of the call for artists to remove their music music from the platform due to Rogan’s spread of “COVID-19 misinformation,” has also since spoken out, asking Spotify employees to quit the company.
