Joe Rogan says he’s a victim, slams clip of him using racial slur as a ‘political hit job’

Joe Rogan weighed in once more on the controversy over his repeated use of the N-word on his podcast — and Spotify’s elimination of dozens of previous episodes due to his “racially insensitive language” — and this time performed the sufferer card.

Final Friday, Spotify pulled 70 episodes of “The Joe Rogan Expertise” from its platform, courting from 2009 to 2018, which the streamer mentioned it did on the request of Rogan and his group. That got here after singer India Arie final week mentioned she was pulling her music and podcasts off Spotify, citing Rogan’s “language round race.” She reposted a video on Instagram, compiling 24 instances Rogan used the N-word on his podcast, and the resurfaced clip quickly went viral.

Rogan addressed the state of affairs in Tuesday’s episode of his podcast, which is solely distributed by Spotify.

“That video had all the time been on the market. It’s like, it is a political hit job,” Rogan mentioned. He continued, “And they also’re taking all these things I’ve ever mentioned that’s flawed and smushing all of it collectively.”

On the similar time, Rogan mentioned, “It’s good as a result of it makes me handle some (expletive) that I actually want wasn’t on the market.”

“You simply have to remain offline … Life goes on, as regular,” Rogan instructed his visitor, slapstick comedian and actor Akaash Singh, initially of the episode.

“Actual life is individuals who know you, and also you’re an important man,” Singh instructed the podcaster.

He added he was happy with Rogan for apologizing for his use of racial slurs.

“We’ve all mentioned some wild (expletive), and also you apologized, and owned that it’s flawed, good for you,” Singh mentioned.

Rogan added, “I do assume you must be very cautious to not apologize for nonsense.” He cited Awkwafina’s current assertion addressing critics accusing her of appropriating Black tradition. “They had been saying it was a ‘blaccent,’ which is — come on, man,” Rogan mentioned.

In an Instagram publish on Saturday, he responded to the clip of him saying the N-word. He mentioned it was “essentially the most regretful and shameful factor I’ve ever needed to discuss publicly,” and added that he had not used the N-word in years.

Following Rogan’s apology, Spotify CEO Daniel Ek on Sunday despatched a memo to workers saying the he was “deeply sorry” for a way the controversy over the podcaster has affected them. However, he wrote, “I don’t consider that silencing Joe is the reply… canceling voices is a slippery slope.”

In his memo to workers, Ek additionally mentioned Spotify will make investments $100 million for the licensing, improvement and advertising and marketing of music and audio content material from “traditionally marginalized teams.” Spotify’s unique multiyear cope with Rogan is reportedly value greater than $100 million.

To make sure, Rogan has been a controversial determine even earlier than Spotify inked its unique cope with him in 2020. When Spotify added “The Joe Rogan Expertise” to the service in September 2020, it had dropped some episodes together with these that includes right-wing company similar to Alex Jones, Proud Boys founder Gavin McInnes and Milo Yiannopoulos.

The present intense highlight on Rogan — who had the No. 1 most listened-to podcast on Spotify final 12 months — began final month after Neil Younger demanded Spotify take away his songs or drop Rogan’s podcast, citing COVID misinformation on the present. On Monday, Younger urged Spotify workers to give up, writing in a weblog publish, “Get out of the place earlier than it eats up your soul. The targets acknowledged by Ek are about numbers — not artwork, not creativity.”