Joe Rogan’s been in the hot seat lately, what with artists getting furious and Spotify losing market value over his alleged COVID misinformation. But quietly, Spotify has also removed several episodes of Rogan’s show, including his interview with Tool frontman Maynard James Keenan, over his use of racial slurs within them.
As reported by Consequence of Sound, soul singer India.Arie recently spoke about her boycott of Spotify on Instagram, saying she’d isolated 24 instances of him using the N-word, and arguing that even his attempts to use it analytically were unacceptable.
“He shouldn’t even be uttering the word,” said Arie. “Don’t even say it, under any context. Don’t say it. That’s where I stand. I have always stood there.
In response, Spotify pulled Rogan’s interview with Maynard, as well as interviews with comedians Bill Burr, Tom Segura, and Pete Holmes. While they tried to do so with little fanfare, the Joe Rogan Subreddit figured things out.
All episodes, it should be mentioned, are from before 2019 and aren’t related to COVID misinformation. Only racial slurs. Ho boy.
It’s also worth noting that Rogan has apologized on his own Instagram, saying the following:
“Now I know that to most people there’s no context where a white person is ever allowed to say that word, never mind publicly on a podcast, and I agree with that now.
“I haven’t said it in years, but for a long time, when I would bring that word up, like if it would come up in conversation, instead of saying ‘the N-word’, I would just say the word. I thought as long as it was in context, people would understand what I was doing.”
So there you have it — Joe Rogan’s got a lot more problems that telling people to not get vaccinated, but at least he has the intelligence to stare them in the face.