Bringing a special guest out on stage for this one…
Tortuga Music Festival in Ft. Lauderdale Beach, Florida kicked off this weekend, featuring headliners Post Malone, Riley Green and Kenny Chesney. But before Riley took the stage this weekend, Afroman got the crowd warmed up – and during one of the songs he released while being sued for defamation by the Adams County Sheriff’s Department in his home state of Ohio, he even debuted a lookalike for one of the officers.
In case you missed it, here’s a quick rundown.
Back in August 2022, the rapper’s house was raided based on an anonymous tip accusing Afroman of kidnapping and drug trafficking. Nothing ended up being found during the raid (other than a small amount of weed of course), and no charges were ultimately filed against the rapper.
But shortly after having his home raided, Afroman took to social media to share photos of the damage to his home and criticize officers for the raid. He claimed that police caused over $20,000 in damages to his home while also disabling his security cameras, and also accused deputies of stealing $400 after confiscating over $5,000 but failing to return the full amount once he was cleared.
He also used his security footage of the raid in a series of subsequent music videos, including a song called “Will You Help Me Repair My Door” and one called “Lemon Pound Cake” that called out officers:
“The Adams County Sheriff kicked down my door
Then I heard the glass break
They found no kidnapping victims
Just some lemon pound cake”
Well even after the officers filed a defamation lawsuit against him, that didn’t stop Afroman from continuing to release music calling them out. During the trial, he shared a particularly vulgar song (who am I kidding, they’re all pretty vulgar) about one of the female officers called “Licc’em Low Lisa,” and I’ll let you use your imagination to guess what that one’s about…
The song ended up being played in court, bringing the officers to tears while she was on the stand:
@imnotalawyerbut Officer Lisa Phillips began crying on the stand as her attorney played multiple videos of Afroman mocking her. Phillips is suing Afroman for defamation and Invasion of privacy after he made several music videos and social media posts questioning her gender, orientation and more. The posts came after Phillips was apart of the team who raided Afroman house on suspicion of kidnapping and drug trafficking back in August of 2022. During the raid officers seized Afroman money, disconnected his video camera, broke his gate and his door
After a jury ruled in Afroman’s favor and dismissed the lawsuit from the officers, the rapper dropped a new album earlier this month featuring the songs he dropped during the trial, including “Licc’em Low Lisa.”
And this weekend during his performance at Tortuga, the “Because I Got High” singer treated the crowd to a live performance of the song – complete with an Officer Lisa impersonator on stage. (You can watch the slightly NSFW performance on Afroman’s Instagram here).
Hilarious. God bless freedom of speech.
During the trial, Afroman himself took the stand and blasted the officers for what he saw was a violation of his rights:
“My whole thing is they never should have raided me in the first place. …
If they never would have showed up, there would be no songs about them. I wouldn’t know who they are. Their faces would not be on my video cameras. None of this, we wouldn’t be in this room right now if they hadn’t have raided my house and didn’t press no charges, didn’t even know what they was doing.
This whole thing is their fault and they’re suing me for their mistake.”
And after winning the case in court, Afroman declared his win a victory for free speech:
“I didn’t win, America won. America still has freedom of speech. It’s still for the people, by the people. America won.”
I love everything about this story. I just hate that I wasn’t at Tortuga to see it live.
