And while I was vacay , the craziness continued.
Rap Genius co-founder Mahbod Moghadam has left the site after making inappropriate comments about the Santa Barbara suspect’s suicide letter.
I didn’t cover this so quick recap … The alleged shooter, Elliot O. Rodger, a 22-year-old student at Santa Barbara City College, killed six people on campus Friday night (May 23) and posted an 141-page letter claiming his actions were “retribution” against women who had sexually rejected him just before allegedly committing suicide. Read the letter HERE
Well, of course this is cray, but Rap Genius’ Moghdam’s comments on the letter is what raised brows. It seems he made several annotations about the manifesto, saying it was “beautifully written” and “artful”. He also added “Elliot barely mentions his sister Georgia throughout the book!” and adding “MY GUESS: his sister is smoking hot.”
This prompted immediate backlash.
The site’s co-founder and CEO, Tom Lehman, wrote about Moghdam’s resignation in a statement on the site Monday (May 26).
“Almost all the annotations were at least attempting a close reading – they were genuinely, though imperfectly, trying to add context to the text and make it easier to understand,” Lehman wrote. “However, Mahbod Moghadam, one of my co-founders, annotated the piece with annotations that not only didn’t attempt to enhance anyone’s understanding of the text, but went beyond that into gleeful insensitivity and misogyny. All of which is contrary to everything we’re trying to accomplish at Rap Genius.”
Lehman continued, “And Mahbod, our original community leader, is no exception. In light of this, Mahbod has resigned – both in his capacity as an employee of the company, and as a member of our board of directors, effective immediately.”
Following the annotations, Moghdam also issued the following statement to Gawker, apologizing for his comments.
“I was fascinated by the fact that a text was associated with such a heartbreaking crime, especially since Elliot is talking about my neighborhood growing up,” Moghdam said. “I got carried away with making the annotations and making any comment about his sister was in horrible taste, thankfully the rap genius community edits out my poor judgement, I am very sorry for writing it.”
Hmmm.
Rap Genius has raked in over $17 million in funding, according to the New York Times.
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