For more than 25 years, rapper-singer Afroman was remembered, if he was remembered at all, for his minor 2000 hit “Because I Got High,” a good-natured hip-hop explanation for his layabout lifestyle.
Even if he were just a little-known nostalgia act, it’s the kind of song and theme that is always welcome on the beach at Fort Lauderdale’s Tortuga Music Festival, where Afroman will take the stage at 3:45 p.m. Saturday.
But everyone knows Afroman these days.
His newfound viral celebrity can be traced back to a 2022 raid on his home in southern Ohio by police armed with a warrant that cited suspicion of kidnapping and drug trafficking. Afroman was on the road, and officers left empty-handed, but not before damaging property and scaring his wife and two children, he said — a scene captured on security cameras and in a live Facetime video call from his wife.
No charges were filed in the case, but the experience infuriated Afroman (real name Joseph E. Foreman). So he wrote satirical songs about it and created a series of music videos using the footage.
Afroman told NPR in 2023: “I asked myself, as a powerless Black man in America, what can I do to the cops that kicked my door in … And the only thing I could come up with was make a funny rap song about them … use the money to pay for the damages they did and move on.”
The video for one song, “Will You Help Me Repair My Door,” shows armed officers kicking down a door and roaming through the living room and kitchen. Another shows an officer pausing during the raid to stare at a cake on the kitchen counter. The song is titled “Lemon Pound Cake,” which became his nickname for the officer.
Borrowing a melody from “Under the Boardwalk,” Afroman sings: “Mama’s lemon pound cake, it tastes so nice / It made the sheriff want to put down his gun and cut him a slice / Lemon pound cake / He wanna put down his Glock / Lemon pound cake / Trending on TikTok.”
All of it likely would have faded into obscurity had seven of the officers involved not filed a defamation suit against Afroman in 2023, saying his use of their faces in the videos and on promotional T-shirts caused them to suffer “ridicule, mental distress, embarrassment and loss of reputation.” They sought $3.9 million in damages.
During the trial in March, Afroman, 51, cited First Amendment protections and artistic freedom. The American Civil Liberties Union filed a brief in support of his “protected speech.”
Video of the trial in Adams County, Ohio, showed Afroman in an American flag-inspired suit and sunglasses under his signature halo of hair. His testimony was polite, professional and direct.
“The whole raid was a mistake. All of this is their fault — if they hadn’t wrongly raided my house, there would be no lawsuit,” he told the court.
The trial included coverage from CNN, The New York Times and the BBC. Comedian Josh Johnson of “The Daily Show” wrote an hourlong riff on Afroman.
After a three-day trial, the jury sided with Afroman. A star was born.
“We did it, America! Yeah! We did it! Freedom of speech!” Foreman said in a celebratory Instagram post. “God bless America. Yeah! Power to the people!”
The video for “Will You Help Me Repair My Door” currently has more than 13 million views, and “Lemon Pound Cake” is at 8.8 million.
A new Afroman album, “Freedom of Speech,” will drop, of course, on 4/20.
Afroman is scheduled to perform at 3:45 p.m. Saturday, April 11, during the Tortuga Music Festival at Fort Lauderdale Beach Park, 1100 Seabreeze Blvd. For tickets and information, visit TortugaMusicFestival.com.
Staff writer Ben Crandell can be reached at bcrandell@sunsentinel.com. Follow on IG: @BenCrandell.