His explanation was that he was high at the time, he was trying to be funny, and he didn’t mean it in a racist way. However it was harder to explain away a joke where he compared visiting a Black neighborhood to being in Planet of the Apes. “But whenever you’re in a situation where you have to say ‘I’m not racist,’ you’ve fucked up, and I clearly have fucked up.” “I never used it to be racist, because I’m not racist,” he said. According to him, he used the N-word not as a slur, but in conversations discussing the work of Black comedians like Richard Pryor. He also stated that the viral montage took his words out of context.

In his apology video on Instagram, Rogan expressed shame at having used the N-word repeatedly over 12 years of his show. In a letter to Spotify staff, CEO Daniel Ek said he “strongly” condemns Rogan’s use of racial slurs, while adding, “I do not believe that silencing Joe is the answer.” This attempt to find middle ground (and to retain Spotify’s most popular podcast) was not successful, as the backlash against Rogan just keeps spreading. Following in the footsteps of Neil Young and Joni Mitchell, numerous artists have also pulled their own material from Spotify, including Crosby, Stills & Nash, writer Roxane Gay, and singer India Arie-who shared a viral montage of Rogan repeatedly using the N-word. Meanwhile, Spotify has removed 113 episodes of Rogan’s podcast from the platform, and Spotify users are canceling their subscriptions in droves. The controversy around Joe Rogan continues to snowball, as old clips resurfaced of him using the N-word, prompting Rogan to share an apology video on Saturday.

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