EDM DJ Deadmau5, born Joel Zimmerman, has released a statement today apologizing for his insensitive comments calling DJ Slushii's music "aids fucking music" and "fucking seriously autistic shit." Being as DJ Slushii revealed that he is on the autism spectrum, he responded back to Joel saying his comments are "really disappointing."
"This has been a very difficult period and I sincerely apologise for my comments which were completely offensive and I take full responsibility for," Joel wrote. "Now it’s time for me to deal with my own personal issues including finally addressing my own mental health challenges that I have wrestled with for the past several years. My desire to start a record label was to uplift the community and give opportunities to the next generation and I have fallen very short of that goal."
Earlier this week Joel reportedly exchanged in a since-deleted back and forth with a fan on Twitter that ended with him tweeting a transphobic response.
"I wasnt trying to make blatant transphobic statements, just got into a heated argument with some dude online said something dumb and the internet took it way into somewhere unintended," he said after the matter. "I’ve since deleted the tweets, I'm not that kind of person. my apologies"