Diplo has apologised for playing ‘Heartless’ — his 2019 collaboration with disgraced country artist Morgan Wallen — during a Super Bowl after-party last weekend.
Diplo took to Twitter earlier this week to apologise for the faux pas, pledging to donate proceeds from his Morgan Wallen collaboration to the NAACP in light of his error.
“‘Heartless’ is a old song of mine thats been in my live set for years,” he wrote. “Im sorry, I didn’t mean to make anyone mad or offended by playing a song featuring Morgan. It was by no means a Political statement or a message. Jason’s doin the right thing, Im also donating my proceeds.”
The donation to NAACP was likely inspired by a tweet from musician Jason Isbell from earlier that day, who announced he was going to donate profits from ‘Cover Me Up,’ a track he penned for Wallen’s Dangerous: The Double Album, to the Nashville branch of the NAACP.
“So… A portion of this money goes to me, since I wrote ‘Cover Me Up.’” Isbell wrote on Twitter at the time. “I’ve decided to donate everything I’ve made so far from this album to the Nashville chapter of the @NAACP. Thanks for helping out a good cause, folks.”
On February 2nd, TMZ leaked footage Morgan Wallen using the n-slur. The video arrived with a statement from Wallen, who said, “I’m embarrassed and sorry. I used an unacceptable and inappropriate racial slur that I wish I could take back. There are no excuses to use this type of language, ever. I want to sincerely apologize for using the word. I promise to do better.”
In the aftermath of the video coming to light, Wallen’s label Big Loud Records announced that they would be indefinitely suspending his contract, a number of streaming platforms pulled his music from playlists, and Academy of Country Awards telecast announced that Wallen has been disqualified from competing in the awards.
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Yesterday, Morgan Wallen took to Instagram to issue a lengthy video statement, apologising for his use of a racial slur. The apology saw Wallen detail that in the wake of the controversy, he has sat down in conversation with leaders in the black community, admitted that he’s now on the journey to sobriety, and asked fans to stop defending him.
“I’m long overdue to make a statement regarding my last incident. I wanted to collect my thoughts, seek some real guidance and come to you with a complete thought before I did,” Wallen said, before admitting he was in the midst of a bender.
“You saw was me on hour 72 of a 72-hour bender. And that’s not something I’m proud of either. Obviously, the natural thing to do is to apologize further and just continue to apologize, because you got caught. And that’s not what I wanted to do,” he said.
“Since that video was taken, I’ve been sober for nine days. It’s not all that long of time, but it’s enough to know the man in that video is not the man that I’m trying to be.”
Wallen went on to request that fans stop defending him. “I have one favor to ask. I appreciate those who still see something in me and have defended me. But for today, please don’t. I was wrong. It’s on me to take ownership for this. And I fully accept any penalties I’m facing,” Wallen said.
