When you are a musician, it is your job to make people like you. Since you have been outspoken about these issues in the past, what is it like now that people are finally listening? Now that people are hearing me this time, I’m saying it all. But again, I did not expect people to really listen - that’s the truth that I’m used to in the industry. A lot has shifted inside of me around who I am. This was so big and loud it was a tipping point for me.Īlso on a personal level, I’m coming out of these last two years of being quiet. Those are the things I’ve been speaking about on my Instagram over the last couple years. People don’t understand the nuances of how Black artists are often erased from Black music. People don’t know what it’s like to be a Black artist and have a young, non-Black artist love your music, grow up, sound like you, and make millions of dollars while you’re still you. Spotify choosing Joe Rogan the way that they did, and how bold his racist statements were. You’ve spoken on Instagram about why deciding to pull your music was important for you to maintain your “integrity” and “dignity.” What was the tipping point for you? “I’ve been trying to tell people all along that the music industry really is abusive.” But when you put Spotify in the mix, now I have to say something, because it enters my world. But that was a personal conversation, it didn’t feel like I had to go online and say, do y’all know this guy does this? The comedy community knew he was doing it. Then it came to light for me, that part of who is. I’m also a podcast listener, a deep listener to lots of them. The video had been going around on social media. When did you become aware of Rogan’s history using the N-word? People listened to it this time because is involved, which has its own element of race, too. I’ve been saying that on my Instagram for a while. This is about the way Spotify treats artists. We’ll see how many more times I can say Joe Rogan’s name I’m getting a little tired of it. Now it’s become a conversation of me against him - that was never my intention, and that’s not how I feel. Our biggest streaming platform is allowing this. It was about exposing what it’s like to be an artist of color in the business. My dream is that what I’m doing will work, and there will be systemic changes” in the music industry.įor me it wasn’t even about exposing Joe Rogan. It’s about my integrity, my dignity, and hoping to create more of that for other artists too. At the end of the day, it’s about wanting to be treated well. “It was about exposing what it’s like to be an artist of color in the business. “For me it wasn’t even about exposing Joe Rogan,” Arie tells Rolling Stone. “FOR ME IT’S ALSO HIS language around race.” Spotify pays “musicians a fraction of a penny,” Arie continued, while lavishing Rogan with “$100M,” demonstrating how little the streaming platform cares for the music and musicians, especially Black musicians, that have allowed it to thrive.Īfter Arie spoke up, the narrative immediately turned into a slugging match between her and Rogan, but the singer says this framing is a distraction from more pressing issues. “I find Joe Rogan problematic for reasons OTHER than his Covid interviews,” she wrote on Instagram. That was all before India.Arie, an R&B veteran with a handful of Grammys and nearly a dozen radio hits, kicked down the door that Young had cracked open. It’s been close to three weeks since Neil Young announced his plan to remove his music from Spotify due to the platform’s ongoing support for Joe Rogan as he spread “false information about vaccines.” Young’s salvo spawned a series of intense debates - about Spotify’s responsibility for the content it beams out, about musicians’ role as activists, and about artists’ ability to control where their own output is heard.
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