Joe Rogan Apologizes After Clips Surface Of Him Using The N-Word Multiple Times

Comedian and podcaster Joe Rogan continues to face scrutiny after a compilation of him using the n-word several times in old podcast episodes gained traction this weekend. Rogan has been in hot water for the past couple of weeks, with several musicians recently pulling their music from the platform Spotify, where Rogan has an exclusive deal, in protest of episodes of his show where he platformed Covid-19 misinformation.

Soul musician India.Arie, in particular, cited Rogan’s “language around race” more than his Covid-19 comments as a contributing factor for her pulling her music. Arie has since taken her point a step farther by sharing several instances of Rogan using the n-word on his podcast, and one clip where he referred to entering a black neighborhood as “we walked into Planet of the Apes.”

“Spotify is built on the back of the music streaming. So they take that money, that’s built from streaming and they pay this guy [Rogan] $100 million dollars, but they pay us .0003% of a penny? Just take me off!” Arie said in a video following the racist Rogan clips. She acknowledged that clips can be taken out of context, but he “shouldn’t even be uttering the word,” in the first place. The clips Arie shared were part of a compilation created by Patriottakes, a right-wing watchdog group.

This past weekend, over 100 episodes of The Joe Rogan Experience were quietly removed from Spotify’s platform, and Rogan himself issued a video apology on Instagram Saturday. He called the viral compilation of clips “taken out of context of me of 12 years of conversations on my podcast, and it’s all smushed together.” He said in the video “I haven’t said it in years,” and excused his use of the word by arguing that he would only say it when he was referring to other people saying it, and not using it in a racially aggressive way.

“There’s nothing I could do to take that back, I wish I could,” Rogan added as well. He also acknowledged his Planet of the Apes comment and claimed he only used that language to be entertaining and immediately followed that joke by saying it was racist. He admitted that the comment still “looked terrible even in context.” He wrapped up his response by saying he hoped this situation would be a “teachable moment” and offered his apologies to those he harmed.

Spotify is still standing by Rogan, according to their chief executive Daniel Ek, who condemned Rogan’s language in a memo to staff but said he didn’t think “silencing Joe is the answer.” Ek even clarified in this note that it was Rogan himself, and not a team at Spotify, that chose to pull those old episodes down. According to the memo, Ek will be committing $100 million, the same sum they paid for Rogan’s podcast, to license and develop music by historically marginalized creators.