News

India Arie shares video of Joe Rogan use of N-word, calling Black people ‘apes’ as she joins Spotify boycott

India Arie and Joe Rogan
India Arie joins the Spotify boycott after highlighting Joe Rogan’s use of a racial slur. Pic credit: ©ImageCollect/ICLuum/S_bukley

India Arie joins a growing list of artists pulling their music from Spotify due to hosting Joe Rogan’s podcast.

The podcast, The Joe Rogan Experience, and its host have come under fire for false claims about the COVID-19 vaccine. However, Arie is removing her music for another reason; Rogan’s use of racial slurs.

The Grammy-winning singer shared clips of Rogan using the N-word multiple times.

Arie joined several musicians and podcasters, including Neil Young, Joni Mitchell, Niel Lofgren, Brene Brown, Roxane Gay, and Mary Trump, who have pulled their content from Spotify.

India Arie explains why she is removing her music from Spotify

The Grammy-winning musician took to her Instagram page to explain why she is removing her music from Spotify in protest of hosting Joe Rogan’s podcast.

“I’m going to leave a short message here about why I decided to ask my music be pulled off Spotify,” she said in the video, followed by clips of Rogan using the n-word and comparing a black neighborhood to The Planet of the Apes.

“He shouldn’t even be uttering the word,” Arie said. “Don’t even say it, under any context. Don’t say it. That’s where I stand. I have always stood there.”

Arie also took issue with how Spotify pays musicians, accusing the platform of using revenue it generates from music to pay Rogan.

“We have this person who is offensive to a lot of people and is paid $100 million. The backbone of Spotify is the music. You pay the musicians .003-.005 percent of a penny and take this money generated over here and use it to invest in this guy? Do you what you want, but take me off. Or pay me too. I mean us. Pay artists like me too. Pay podcasters of color too.”

Joe Rogan apologises for use of racial slurs

Joe Rogan responds to the compilation video of his repeated use of the N-word and comparing a Black neighborhood to the Planet of the Apes. He starts by stating that it is “the most regretful and shameful thing he ever has to talk about publicly.”

In a long-response video on Instagram, the JRE host admits that his use of the racial slur was wrong, regardless of the context, adding that he has not used the word in many years.

He goes on to explain the contexts of his use of the slur, citing numerous examples and claiming that he didn’t use it offensively.

“It’s not my word to use; I am well aware of that now,” he said in the video, adding that he “never used it to be racist because I am not racist.”

He also explained the calling Black people “apes” controversy, claiming that he compared a Black neighborhood to the planet of the apes “to be entertaining.”

He added that he corrected himself in the same video after realizing, “it was a racist thing to say, Planet of the Apes wasn’t even in Africa.”

Rogan also says he deleted the podcast in which he made the offensive comparison. He concluded the video with an apology.

Subscribe
Notify of
guest

2 Comments
Oldest
Newest Most Voted
Inline Feedbacks
View all comments
Gemma
Gemma
2 years ago

Joe Rogan is racist, homophobic, transphobic and in general a complete moron. I don’t believe his ridiculous self serving “apology”. He literally is making excuses for each time he used the “N” word. It wasn’t just one, two or three times that he used that word in a derogatory manner countless times. If anyone ever deserves to be cancelled it is this idiot.

stephen cockerham
stephen cockerham
2 years ago
Reply to  Gemma

swim little Joe swim