Country music star Morgan Wallen has been suspended indefinitely from his label after a video surfaced of him shouting a racial slur.
Big Loud Records said in a statement posted to social media that Mr Wallen’s contract had been suspended indefinitely.
Republic Records, which he is co-signed to, said it agreed with Big Loud’s decision and that “such behaviour will not be tolerated”.
Some radio stations have already removed his music from their playlists.
The video, which was first published by TMZ on Tuesday, showed Mr Wallen outside a home in Nashville, Tennessee, yelling profanities and a racial slur.
Mr Wallen said in a statement to TMZ that he was 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 apologise for using the word. I promise to do better,” his statement said.
Mr Wallen is one of the genre’s biggest young stars, with his new record, Dangerous: The Double Album, spending three weeks at the top of the Billboard 200 chart.
But the reaction from the music industry has been swift.
A statement from iHeartMedia, which has hundreds of radio stations across the country, said: “In light of Morgan Wallen’s recent actions involving the use of a racial slur, we have made the decision to remove his music and content from our stations effective immediately.”
As of Wednesday morning, streaming apps like Spotify and Apple Music also did not have his songs in their most popular country music playlists, where normally Mr Wallen had multiple songs from his new album.
It actually IS representative of our town because this isn’t his first “scuffle” and he just demolished a huge streaming record last month regardless. We all know it wasn’t his first time using that word. We keep them rich and protected at all costs with no recourse.
— MAREN MORRIS (@MarenMorris) February 3, 2021
The Tennessee-born singer has done a lot of public apologising lately.
He was arrested for public intoxication and disorderly conduct in May 2020 after being kicked out of a downtown Nashville bar.
In October, Saturday Night Live dropped him from a scheduled performance on their show after he violated Covid-19 protocols when videos appeared on social media of him partying with fans in Alabama. He was later invited back on the show in December, where he appeared in a skit making fun of himself.
Other country stars criticised his actions publicly.
Country star Maren Morris tweeted: “It actually IS representative of our town because this isn’t his first ‘scuffle’ and he just demolished a huge streaming record last month regardless.
“We all know it wasn’t his first time using that word. We keep them rich and protected at all costs with no recourse.”
