Jemele Hill says she isn’t departing Spotify, despite a Bloomberg report stating otherwise — ‘I never asked Spotify for $100M.’
Despite a report that she would be leaving Spotify, Jemele Hill announced on Twitter that her “Unbothered” network of podcasts isn’t going anywhere.
Bloomberg reported on Friday that Hill was looking for a new home for her podcasting network, which includes her show Jemele Hill is Unbothered, as the company has “reconsidered its expensive podcasting strategy.”
“A lot of what’s been reported just isn’t true,” tweeted Hill in response to a fan who tweeted that they hated that she had “lost her Spotify deal.”
“My podcast hasn’t been canceled. I never asked Spotify for $100M. This sh*t is truly comical,” continues Hill, before listing upcoming guests to her show: Sabrina Elba, Blair Underwood, Kasi Lemmons, JR Smith, Kenny Latimore, and more. “When I have something to say, I’ll say it.”
According to Bloomberg’s sources, who asked not to be identified, Hill and Spotify are “negotiating the terms of her separation, which will result in the end of her show and network — at least at Spotify.”
Bloomberg’s report comes four years after Spotify spent a cool $200 million for Joe Rogan’s podcast, after which Hill said she would like to see Spotify give that much money to Black podcasters.
“What I would like to see is for them to hand $100 million to somebody who is Black,” Hill told The New York Times.
A former ESPN personality, Jemele Hill left the network in 2018 amid political controversies there. After calling Donald Trump a white supremacist in 2017 and asking advertisers to boycott Cowboys owner Jerry Jones after he suggested the team could bench players who “disrespect the flag” — comments that saw her suspended from the network. Later that year, she joined The Atlantic and started her podcast in 2019.