Stranger Things star Noah Schnapp, 15, took to his social media after a clip of him and a friend singing Chris Brown‘s first verse from his hit with Lil Dicky called “Freaky Friday” (which repeatedly uses the N-word) went viral. “Hi guys. recently a video from last summer has gotten out of me dancing and singing a song while singing the word ‘neighbor’ over the n word,” Noah wrote in an Instagram story on Wednesday, August 26. “I would truly never say the n word and i’m not the type of person. I genuinely have never used that word in my life. using the word ‘neighbor’ in that song was just something my camp friends and i did.”
“I hope you all understand i could never even think about doing that. my friends also would never post a video, or support me, if i was saying that slur without hesitation,” he continued. “i apologize for using a replacement word. it is not my place to use one and i should of [sic] kept my mouth shut. i understand why it is found offensive and i am so sorry.” The video in question, first posted on his friend’s IG, has been taken down.
Noah wasn’t the only star who had to address something of a similar manner. Former Bachelorette Hannah Brown, 25, shared a huge apology after she said the N-word during an Instagram livestream. She was caught doing it while singing lyrics to DaBaby‘s song “Rockstar”.
“I tried to defend myself but between being intoxicated — which I’m also not proud of — and just being embarrassed and confused, I just made it a whole lot worse,” she said during an 18-minute video posted to her Instagram about the incident while breaking down in tears. “I was embarrassed, I was disappointed and I just felt so much shame on me.”
“[My first] apology was from my heart and in my own words but it was never ever supposed to be the end of the conversation, it was just the beginning,” Hannah added, referencing how she first spoke up about it two weeks prior. “But I knew if I wanted to be from my sincerest self and I had to put in some work and I had to go through a process and I think that’s why people are like, ‘Why now?’…the truth is I had a lot that I had to figure out and it is abnormal what I did. What I did, I don’t want it to go away.”