Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson is walking back his previous comments in support of Joe Rogan after a newly surfaced video of the popular podcast host using the word “nigger” on several episodes went viral over the weekend. (Editor’s Note from Jay Connor: Joe Rogan is trash but y’all knew that already.)
Johnson initially lent his support to Rogan last week, after Rogan posted a sad excuse for an explanation video to Instagram attempting to clarify some of his disturbing and offensive comments on his show, according to Deadline. After Rogan insisted that he was only interested in having “interesting conversations” and that his aim was to “tell the truth,” Johnson commented: “Good stuff here brother. Perfectly articulated. Look forward to coming on one day and breaking out the tequila with you.”
Well, not too long after, video footage of Rogan using the n-word several times started circulating over the weekend, thanks largely in part to India Arie, who previously announced she’d be taking her music off Spotify in protest of Rogan last week.
Now, it seems the Red Notice and Fast & Furious star is no longer smelling what Rogan is cooking after all. Because after being called out for supporting the podcast host online, Johnson walked back his comments in a tweet saying in part: “Thank you so much for this. I hear you as well as everyone here. 100% I was not aware of his N-word use prior to my comments, but now I’ve become educated to his complete narrative. Learning moment for me.”
Rogan has since put out an apology following the viral clip. In a nearly six-minute-long video posted to Instagram, he explained, in part:
“It looks fucking horrible, even to me. Now I know that to most people, there’s no context that 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 when it would come up in conversation, instead of just 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.
Additionally, per CNN, Spotify has since quietly pulled over 100 episodes of Rogan’s podcast off their platform. In an internal memo sent to staffers by company CEO Daniel Ek, it explains how Rogan’s comments do not “represent the values of this company” and that the streamer would be investing “$100 million for the licensing, development, and marketing of music (artists and songwriters) and audio content from historically marginalized groups.” However, Ek also made it clear that “silencing” Rogan was not an option and that “in order to achieve our goal of becoming the global audio platform, these kinds of disputes will be inevitable.”