By MARYCLAIRE DALE Associated Press
The Grammy-nominated rapper Afroman won a defamation lawsuit filed by seven Ohio sheriff’s deputies who sued him over music videos in which he used home security footage to mock their raid of his home.
“We did it, America! Yeah, we did it! Freedom of speech! Right on! Right on!” the 51-year-old rapper, born Joseph Foreman, shouted outside the courthouse after the Wednesday evening verdict. He later posted the clip to social media.
The case tested the limits of parody and the license artists can take in social commentary directed at public figures. The deputies, collectively, sought nearly $4 million in damages.
“No reasonable person would expect a police officer not to be criticized. They’ve been called names before,” defense lawyer David Osborne said in closing arguments for the rapper and comedian, known for his breakout 2000 hit, “Because I Got High.”
The Adams County deputies said they were publicly harassed over the viral videos, which were viewed more than 3 million times on YouTube. The videos show rifle-wielding deputies busting down Afroman’s door, searching his shoes and suit pockets, and hungrily eyeing a cake on the kitchen table, inspiring one song’s title, “Lemon Pound Cake.”
In other music videos, Afroman took aim at the deputies’ personal lives and called them “crooked cops” because of $400 that went missing in the raid.
“Police officers shouldn’t be stealing civilians’ money,” the rapper testified this week. “This whole thing is an outrage.”
In court — wearing a red, white and blue American flag suit — he defended his work on First Amendment grounds and said he issued the diss tracks to cover damages from the raid, including a broken gate and front door.
No charges were filed over the 2022 raid, which the warrant said was part of a drug and kidnapping investigation. In his testimony, he said he had the right to tell his friends and fans what police had done. He said the raid traumatized his children, then 10 and 12.
“The whole raid was a mistake. All of this is their fault. If they hadn’t have wrongly raided my house, there would be no lawsuit. I would not know their names,” Foreman said. “They wouldn’t be on my home surveillance system, and there would be no songs, nothing.”
The lyrics of “Will You Help Me Repair My Door?” address the police directly: “Did you find what you were looking for/ Would you like a slice of lemon pound cake/ You can take as much as you want to take/ There must be a big mistake.”
The video slows down, showing an officer holding a gun next to a cake stand in Afroman’s kitchen.
Then he raps: “The warrant said, ‘Narcotics and kidnapping’/ Are you kidding? I make my money rapping,” and “You crooked cops need to stop it/ There are no kidnapping victims in my suit pockets,” as a video shows the officers searching his closet.
The deputies, in their testimony, said the songs ridiculed them. Deputy Lisa Phillips said the rapper created a “derogatory” music video that questioned her gender and sexuality.
Sgt. Randy Walters said his child had been hazed at school over Afroman’s posts and came home crying.
“Where in the world is it OK to make something up for fun that’s damaging to others when you know for sure it’s an absolute lie?” he asked.
Afroman’s lawyer, in closing arguments, said it was not unusual for artists engaged in social commentary to exaggerate. Robert Klingler, representing the deputies, said Afroman lied about “these seven brave deputy sheriffs” for the past three years.
“Even if somebody does something to you that hurts you, that you think is wrong — like a search warrant execution that you think is unfair … that doesn’t justify telling intentional lies designed to hurt people,” he argued.
Afroman lives in Winchester, about 50 miles (80 kilometers) outside of Cincinnati.