Mahbod Moghadam, cofounder of Rap Genius, has resigned following questionable comments he left on the manifesto written by Elliot Rodger, the Santa Barbara shooter who killed six on Friday night.
In the annotations, Moghadam applauds Rodger’s writing and even makes an inappropriate comment regarding the gunman’s sister.
The comments have since been removed.
In a statement, Rap Genius co-founder and CEO Tom Lehman said Moghadam had resigned as an employee and also from the board of directors.
It read in part:
“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.”
Before resigning, Moghadam told Valleywag:
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.
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.
Moghadam also took to Twitter to apologize:
I want to apologize to everyone. I need to hear these criticisms, reflect for real, and work on becoming a better person
— Mabode (@mahbodmoghadam) May 26, 2014
To read Lehman’s full memo on Moghadam’s resignation, click here. For more on Rodger’s disturbing manifesto, click here.
SOURCE: Recode, Gawker/Valleywag, Twitter | PHOTO CREDIT: Getty
