The week Joe Rogan divided the world: Dwayne ‘The Rock’ Johnson distanced himself while Spotify stood by the podcaster and Donald Trump even congratulated him
- Neil Young, Joni Mitchell and 270 doctors, scientists and educators asked the platform to remove Rogan’s podcast after he spread misinformation about Covid-19 and vaccines
- India Arie posted a video of him using the N-word, which he apologised for, while Spotify CEO Daniel Ek backed him and YouTube-rival Rumble offered him US$100 million to jump ship
ICYMI, here’s how the drama has unfolded …
Music artists against Rogan
The drama started when Neil Young pulled his music from Spotify after the streaming platform declined to remove Rogan’s wildly popular podcast, accusing it of spreading misinformation about Covid-19 and vaccines. Joni Mitchell and other musicians followed Yong’s lead. Their actions came after 270 doctors, nurses, scientists and educators wrote a letter calling on Spotify to remove Rogan’s show to mitigate the spread of misinformation.
Past mistakes brought to light
More drama unfolded on February 3, when Grammy-winning singer-songwriter India Arie posted a compilation video of Rogan using the N-word 24 times in 23 clips taken from older episodes of his show, The Joe Rogan Experience.
Rogan took to Instagram on February 5 to address the N-word controversy and said it was the “most regretful and shameful thing I’ve ever had to talk about publicly”.
