Afroman, the rapper best known for his 2000 smash hit “Because I Got High,” emerged victorious in court after seven sheriff’s deputies sued him for defamation.
Law enforcement claimed that they were defamed and had their privacy invaded when Afroman put out a series of catchy and insulting music videos about them after the group raided his home in 2022. In that incident, seven deputies raided Afroman’s home while he was gone while executing a warrant to search for evidence of drug trafficking and kidnapping. They failed to find anything to justify charges, but in the process of the search, the group kicked down Afroman’s front door with weapons drawn. According to Afroman’s testimony, videos from a family member who was home during the search and from his home security cameras caught police:
- Tearing his house apart
- Cutting his security video cords
- Taking cash from his home
- Traumatizing his kids
In an effort to get even after the incident, Afroman uploaded footage of the raid to his Instagram page and remixed it into multiple Youtube videos, even releasing an album titled “Lemon Pound Cake,” after a moment in the footage appeared to show an officer doing a double take at a cake sitting on Afroman’s kitchen island.
“The Adams County Sheriff kicked down my door
Then I heard the glass break
They found no kidnapping victims
Just some lemon pound cake,”
The above lyrics were featured in Lemon Pound Cake, which has been viewed more than 6 million times on Youtube. In addition to criticizing the raid, some of the videos made personal, professional and sexual comments about or towards the deputies. The deputies claimed these were intentional lies that harmed their reputations and made their lives and jobs more difficult.
Over the course of the three-day trial, both sides painted very different pictures of the situation and the videos that were created. Afroman argued that he had a First Amendment right to mock the deputies, partly because they were public figures, and partly because his over-the-top lyrics could not reasonably be taken as literal statements of fact.
“After they run around my house with guns and kick down my door,” Afroman said during the trial, “I got the right to kick a can in my backyard, use my freedom of speech, turn my bad times into a good time.”
During closing arguments, Afroman’s lawyer, David Osborne Jr., said nobody needed to share the rapper’s perspective in order to accept his right to vent his feelings in music and lyrics, much like N.W.A’s song “F**k tha Police.”
“That’s all entertainment,” Osborne said. “They made fun of everybody for entertainment. And some of it is a social commentary, but it is not fact. And everybody knows that. Nobody looks at Lil Wayne’s song, ‘P*ssy Monster,’ and says there’s a monster in that song.”
The presiding judge agreed with Osborne and Afroman, saying that his actions did not rise to the level of defamation, and the lawsuit was dismissed.
Check out the Lemon Pound Cake music video below, and if you feel like you have been treated unjustly by law enforcement or need assistance in court, connect with Avery and the team at Appelman Law Firm today at (952) 224-2277.
