Rapper Afroman is being sued by several Ohio law enforcement officials after he put footage of their 2022 raid on his house in music videos about the incident.
The Grammy-nominated rapper, who is best known for his 2002 jam “Because I Got High,” made a whole album about the August 2022 raid in which police broke down his door based on a search warrant for drug trafficking and kidnapping. No evidence supporting those allegations was found and no charges were filed.
He told NPR of the incident, “I asked myself, as a powerless Black man in America, what can I do to the cops that kicked my door in, tried to kill me in front of my kids, stole my money and disconnected my cameras? And the only thing I could come up with was make a funny rap song about them and make some money, use the money to pay for the damages they did and move on.”
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The musician, whose given name is Joseph Edgar Foreman, wrote about the raid in several of his songs, including “Lemon Pound Cake,” which opens with they lyrics, “The Adams County sheriff kicked down my door, then I heard the glass break. They found no kidnapping victims, just some lemon pound cake.”
In the surveillance footage included in the video, police are shown kicking in the door and walking past the titular cake on the kitchen counter. Afroman told NPR that the cops also broke his video surveillance system and stole $400 from him.
Four deputies, two sergeants and one detective from the Adams County Sheriff’s Office are now suing him, his label and a Texas-based music distribution company for invasion of privacy.
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In the complaint filed last week, they said they have received death threats, and also suffered “humiliation, ridicule, mental distress, embarrassment and loss of reputation.” Unless the music videos and social media posts are taken down, “Plaintiffs will suffer irreparable injury to their reputations, their mental health, and their legally protected rights,” the complaint read.
They are also seeking all proceeds of the songs and videos, as well as his merchandise, including sales of the malt liquor made by his 4204 Main Street Brewing Company.
Afroman said his reaction to the lawsuit was “a drop of anger, disbelief and a little anxiety, followed by tons of laughter. I was thinking, these big bad cops … are being beat up and bullied by those little corny rap songs I made about them. I’m like, ‘Oh my god, are you letting me know that my raps are working on you?'”
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He was already planning a defamation lawsuit against the police and now plans to countersue. “I want to sue them for stealing my money, I want to sue them for writing ‘kidnapping’ on a warrant and making me suffer financially in my industry because just that accusation makes people raise an eyebrow about you,” he added.
In December, Afroman announced he was running for U.S. President in 2024 as an Independent on the platform of getting “weed legal everywhere.”
Watch the video for “Lemon Pound Cake” below:
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