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Imagine this. You are cult-rapper Afroman. It’s 2022, and police raid your house over suspected kidnapping and drug charges. They search everything, damage your property, unsettle your family, and at one point, they help themselves to your freshly made lemon pound cake. You think the cops may have even stolen $USD400 from you.
Now imagine you’ve captured the whole thing on security cameras. When no charges were filed, the Grammy-nominated rapper did what he does best. He turned the ordeal into a song.
Actually, a few of them.
“I asked myself, as a powerless Black man in America, what can I do to the cops that kicked my door in…?” Afroman told NPR back in 2023. “The only thing I could come up with was make a funny rap song about them.”
Already racking up millions of views on YouTube, tracks like Will You Help Me Repair My Door? and Lemon Pound Cake pulled directly from the footage, poking fun at the raid and the officers involved. In one track, he raps: “They found no kidnapping victims / Just some lemon pound cake,” before adding, “It made the sheriff wanna put down his gun / And cut him a slice.”
And while Afroman saw it as “the smartest, most peaceful solution,” the deputies involved weren’t laughing.
Afroman vs Cops: The Trial
Seven Ohio sheriff’s deputies sued Afroman for defamation, emotional distress and misuse of their likeness, arguing the videos led to harassment and public ridicule.
One of the more bizarre moments came when a deputy was questioned about a lyric from Why You Disconnecting My Video Camera claiming Afroman had slept with his wife.
“Randy Walters; Private Pyle / I used to f*** his wife doggy style.”
When asked if the claim was false, he hesitated.
“I don’t know,” he replied. And when Afroman’s lawyer pressed him on whether something like that could be proven true or false.
“Ask your client,” Walters said, suggesting that Afroman would know if he did indeed sleep with the deputy’s wife. Damn.
But that wasn’t the only moment that raised eyebrows. Another deputy broke down in tears on the stand, describing the impact of the videos, as Afroman continued posting new clips online in real time.
At one point, he responded directly on Instagram: “Where was these tears when she was standing in my yard with a loaded AR-15 ready to Swiss cheese me?” the rapper wrote.
His lyrics go even further. In one track, he raps: “Stealin money, stealin cakes when they make their traffic stops. First they screw you, then they sue you … the proof’s on the internet.”
And while from an outsider’s perspective, there’s plenty of fun to be had with the whole situation. For Afroman, it never had to happen in the first place.
“If they hadn’t wrongly raided my house, there would be no lawsuit, I would not know their names, they wouldn’t be on my home surveillance system, and there would be no songs … my money would still be intact,” he told the court.
This week, they lost.
Afroman, while wearing a red, white, and blue USA flag suit, successfully defended the tracks as protected speech, with the court siding with him on First Amendment grounds. His legal team argued the songs were clearly exaggerated, satirical and rooted in a real event the rapper experienced firsthand.
“No reasonable person would expect a police officer not to be criticised. They’ve been called names before,” defence lawyer David Osborne said in closing arguments.
“It’s a social commentary on the fact that they didn’t do things correctly,” he said of the officers.
Outside the courthouse, Afroman celebrated.
“We did it, America. Freedom of speech,” he said.
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