Big Loud Records has announced it will "suspend" country star Morgan Wallen's recording contract after the singer shouted a racial slur last weekend, reports The Tennessean in Nashville.
"In the wake of recent events, Big Loud Records has made the decision to suspend Morgan Wallen's recording contract indefinitely," the label announced Wednesday.
According to the statement, Republic Records — partners with Big Loud on Wallen's latest release, "Dangerous" — "fully supports Big Loud's Decision and agrees such behavior will not be tolerated."
A video shows Morgan, 27, being dropped off at a house and telling a friend to "take care of this...(slur)," apparently referring to another person in the group.
"I’m embarrassed and sorry," Wallen said in a statement after the video was posted Tuesday by TMZ. "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.”.
Outside of Wallen's circle, industry reaction was swift. A spokesperson for iHeartMedia — the largest radio owner in the U.S., with more than 800 stations — said they had removed Wallen's music from rotation on its Country stations.
Both the Country Music Association and cable network CMT announced they would remove Wallen from all of their platforms. The Academy of Country Music pulled Wallen from eligibility for the 56th annual ACM Awards, set to take place in April.
Wallen is also conspicuously absent from Spotify's premier country playlist, "Hot Country," as well as Apple Music's "Today's Country" — despite currently having five of the top 10 songs on Billboard's "Hot Country Songs" chart.
In the past year, Wallen became country music's biggest new star. He's topped the Billboard 200 Album chart for the past three weeks and was named New Artist of the Year at the CMA Awards.
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