Afroman vs. Adams County Sheriff's Department | Matt Connarton Unleashed

0:00 Speaker 1: So we should talk about because this just concluded. Was it yesterday or the day before? The lawsuit against Afroman by the police who raided his home looking for apparently on a very bad tip by an unreliable informant. And this is dragged on for several years. Now. This originally happened in what twenty twenty two?

0:20 Speaker 2: Yes, and the actual rate occurred in twenty twenty two.

0:24 Speaker 1: Now, if you're not familiar, or if some of you might be somewhat familiar with Afroman, you might sort of remember him. You know, there will be varying degrees amongst our listeners in terms of how they recall Afroman or if they recall Afroman. Afroman, of course, had a huge hit in what the early two thousands, right when I got high or no, because I got high, I got high, y because I got high because I got high. Now, funny thing about that song. I never liked the song. I always thought it was annoying.

0:53 Speaker 1: But I remember defending the song though, because I would have conversations. You know, some people would say, well, I don't like that song because it glorifies drug use or whatever makes a big joke out of it. But the fact is, if you listen to the song all the way through, which was always difficult for me because I never liked it. But of course it was you can escape that it was fun. Yeah, well most people did. But if you listen to it all the way through, it really doesn't glorify getting high because by the time you get to the end of the song, by the time you get to the end of the last verse, his life is in ruins because he got high.

1:26 Speaker 1: So, if anything, so I always told people, I was like, well, you know, I don't like the song. I think it's annoying, but it is a cautionary tale if you listen to it all the way to the end.

1:34 Speaker 2: And it was back in two thousand and one that it was actually released.

1:38 Speaker 1: Two thousand and one.

1:38 Speaker 2: Okay, yeah, apparently police found it in twenty twenty two.

1:44 Speaker 1: Yeah, I just, I just but yeah, so you know, the police raided his home. I have the NPR article here, which I think is you.

1:54 Speaker 2: See, they never explained they were looking for weed. They were looking they believe he was a dealer.

2:01 Speaker 1: Well, and kidnapping.

2:02 Speaker 2: Now that one is interesting because they keep saying the word kidnapping, but I'm not sure it means what they think it means.

2:09 Speaker 1: Well, because the informant told them that he had, like people, somebody in a dungeon or something in his home. He had kidnapped somebody, this very unreliable informant who apparently just made this up.

2:18 Speaker 2: But the police were doing a very thorough search looking for that kidnapping victim in the pockets of all of Afroman's suits.

2:25 Speaker 1: Yes, yes, which he thinks about.

2:28 Speaker 2: So why do we know all of this well, because, alike a lot of people, Afroman has cameras to keep an eye on his home, and he got an alert that there was damage at his home. And then there it is on video. He's watching the police batter his door down, start trashing the house, searching for these drugs that he's dealing, and the human captives in his suits.

2:52 Speaker 1: Yeah, and there were none, and.

2:55 Speaker 2: They were so diligently looking that, as the song indicates, one of the officers stopped in the kitchen, opened up the cake, got himself a slice. You ate it?

3:07 Speaker 1: Yeah? No, in fairness to the officer, does look good, the lemon pound cake. It does look good in the video.

3:12 Speaker 2: You mama makes you something, you want it to be there when you get home.

3:15 Speaker 1: I'd be tempted, you know. And I don't even really.

3:17 Speaker 2: Eat his mama's cake, but you know I made that for him.

3:21 Speaker 1: I would certainly stop and think about it. But it is so I mean, it's it's one of those cliches. It's almost too good to be true. When you see the video and you see this big fat got the cop, you know, looking at the cake.

3:32 Speaker 2: Like holding holding a.

3:36 Speaker 1: Rifle, holding a gun, but he stops to look at the but the cake is so distracting to him. It's like the rifles down and it's so it's perfect.

3:45 Speaker 2: It's when mass lid comes off the cake.

3:47 Speaker 1: Oh good lord, it's so perfect.

3:49 Speaker 2: He finds himself a knife and slices himself a piece of.

3:53 Speaker 1: They also seized his cash, you know, while they were there, they took his money.

3:56 Speaker 2: He found five thousand dollars in a suit pocket he had forgotten he left in there from a show. It was the end of the gig. Pay yes, and jeez, I'd like to be rich enough to forget that I had five grand in the pocket. But apparently the cops found that really great. So when they took it into custody, and and of course when the case ended, when there were zero charges pressed against him because they found absolutely nothing.

4:24 Speaker 1: Right after after breaking his gate and breaking his they.

4:29 Speaker 2: Broke the gate to get into the driveway. Then they broke the door down.

4:32 Speaker 1: Yep.

4:33 Speaker 2: They trashed everything. Oh yeah, he ate up his cake.

4:37 Speaker 1: Yep. They found nothing, and they took his money and when he when he got it back, it was short four hundred dollars.

4:44 Speaker 2: Yes, exactly four hundred dollars, not three hundred and ninety eight dollars, not three hundred and fifty six dollars like you would expect if there was a miscount, because that's what they claimed. It was a miscount of exactly four hundred dollars missing from the fire. Ok.

5:00 Speaker 1: Yeah, so I guess they did a little a little bit of that civil asset forfeiture were apparently We've.

5:06 Speaker 2: Talked about that before. But the thing about this case though, I mean, we joke about it, but it's horrible what he went through, what his family went through. You know, the security that you feel in your home is ruined when somebody breaks your door down and the destruction of things all for for literally.

5:23 Speaker 1: Nothing, nothing.

5:24 Speaker 2: He had nothing. They found zero weed. Listen to me, I said, they found zero weed and no human beings or tiny humans hiding in the closet in his jacket pockets. But the more important issue about this that that we want to well well is if this case had gone the wrong way, it would have taken a lot out of the music industry and the video industry.

5:50 Speaker 1: Well, we have to explain why the why the police were suing him. So they were suing him because he had got that part. He made a series of funny songs and videos because he had all this footage.

6:00 Speaker 2: Yeah, he used the footage from his house.

6:01 Speaker 1: From from his own home, from his own surveillance frollance camera to make to make fun of the cops.

6:06 Speaker 2: Yep, he made as you heard when we started the Lemon pound Cake song.

6:10 Speaker 1: Yeah, and they so they sued him over it, and.

6:13 Speaker 2: They sued him for for violating their privacy and defamation and defamation we're embarrassing them.

6:22 Speaker 1: Or definition of character as a certain idiot likes to say, but yes, defamation of this.

6:28 Speaker 2: There were actual tears on the sand. And the interesting thing about this is, I don't know, do you have that clip actually of Afroman on the.

6:40 Speaker 1: Uh not that clip specifically.

6:42 Speaker 2: Okay, So the interesting thing about all of this is Afroman was extremely intelligent with every word he said, yes and when he was cross examined by this because they tried to sue him for millions of dollars. They wanted millions of dollars because he made these videos songs. No, each person had a different amount.

7:05 Speaker 1: I thought it was four million or that was the total.

7:08 Speaker 2: I think it was more than that because I think I thought there was one that was looking for fifteen or something or one or I might be wrong. But each each one of the suing parties, which were each of the cops and one of them's wife, I think, but I'm not positive on the wife part. That that when the when the when the lawyer would try and catch him up on the stand and be like, well, you're seeing how upset these people are after what you've done to them. And he's like, oh, I didn't do anything, after a man kept saying I did nothing.

7:43 Speaker 2: They did all of this to themselves. We wouldn't be here today if they hadn't broken down my door, trashed my gate, trashed my home, eight from my kitchen, took stole money out of my house. We wouldn't be here if they hadn't put themselves on my camera, we wouldn't be here.

8:08 Speaker 1: Okay, I found the clip here.

8:10 Speaker 2: Let me clip is better than the way I'm pronounced saying it here we go said, I.

8:13 Speaker 3: Got freedom of speech after they run around my house with guns and kick down my door. I got the right to kick a can in my backyard. Use my freedom of speech. Turn my bad times into a good time. Yes, I do. And I think I'm a sport for dealing so because I don't go to their house, kick down their doors, flip them off on their surveillance cameras, then try to play the victim and sue them.

8:37 Speaker 2: I got fart.

8:39 Speaker 4: You were at Lisa Phillips's deposition, correct, Yes, sir, in your lawyer's office, Yes, sir, same office where you film part of that video last Friday.

8:47 Speaker 3: Yes, sir.

8:50 Speaker 4: And you saw how upset she was when she was answering your lawyer's questions about how this had affected her right, yes, yes, And all your attorney say, should we do we need to take a break? Yes, And you saw her say no, let's get let's go on and get this over with. Yes, sir, you saw all that. Yes, you knew she was upset, just like she.

9:13 Speaker 3: Knew I was upset when she was standing in front of my kids with AR fifteen, with her hand around the trigger, ready to shoot me, just like she knew. I was upset when she cut my cameras. But I'm not a person she is. So I'm sorry for being a victim. Let's talk about the predators. Okay.

9:27 Speaker 4: So you saw all that, You saw how upset she was. You heard the testimony about her children, You heard the testimony at the depositions about Randy Newland's daughter who came home upset. You heard all that, but you're still posting stuff about it.

9:42 Speaker 3: Yeah, because I understand it was Randy's fault and all of their fault for coming to my house in the first place. So if they hadn't came to my house, their children wouldn't be saying nothing. None of this would be going home if they had a did their research and did things right. So all of this is their fault, and now they want to assume me for their mistake.

10:04 Speaker 4: Is there anything that could change your mind about what you're doing to these deputies?

10:09 Speaker 3: Is there anything that can change my mind about the fact that they shouldn't have been at my house in the first place. Is there anything that can change my mind about how my money shouldn't have been touched in the first place.

10:19 Speaker 4: No, that's all the questions I have. Thank you.

10:25 Speaker 2: That's that lawyer write down, doesn't he.

10:27 Speaker 1: Oh yeah, he's very smart, very articulate. He knew exactly how to handle that. Very impressive.

10:34 Speaker 2: I forgot about the part where they had flipped off the camera before they disconnected the camera.

10:39 Speaker 1: Oh yeah, they flip off the camera, they disconnect the camera. They're making faces about it like they think it's all like they treat it like it's all a big joke. Yeah, that's the thing too. They're having fun during their little raid.

10:52 Speaker 2: And they're expecting that they're going to walk into this black man home who's a rapper and saying about pot and find all kinds of drugs, right, you know, he must be a drug dealer. And I still don't understand the kidnapping thing. I don't think anybody will because they never really expounded upon it. You know, they really didn't. They didn't go anywhere with it because they didn't have any evidence. They literally walked out of that house with nothing. Bump gus. They found nothing to implicate him and anything whatsoever.

11:21 Speaker 2: Right, and there wasn't an I'm sorry, No, there wasn't. I'll let us help you fix the gate.

11:27 Speaker 1: And that's something right, and that's why he made that song will you help me fix my gate?

11:32 Speaker 2: Yeah?

11:33 Speaker 1: Or will you help me fix my doors? Actually the title and something people should probably who might not realize too, is that that's actually pretty typical from what I understand, if the police show up. You know, there's this stories you don't even have to look that hard, where you know, maybe the police get a bad tip, or maybe they show up. They accidentally show up at the wrong house.

11:51 Speaker 2: That's happened many times.

11:52 Speaker 1: And you know what if that happens and they show up and they wreck your home and it turns out, oops, we made a mistake, the address wrong, you know what they do for you then? Nothing? Yeah, that's just like a standard thing in American law enforcement. If the cops make a mistake and wreck your world, what will they do to make it right? Nothing?

12:12 Speaker 2: They don't care. Was it last year or the year before? We saw the story with the elderly lady like one hundred years old with her walker and she's like pushing her walker into the cops, going get out, get out, of my house, get out. Yeah, she was the wrong addressed person. Yeah, and she died. She had a heart attack and died within like a day of that issue.

12:31 Speaker 1: And they don't care. And look, I'm not somebody who is and.

12:34 Speaker 2: They don't care because of immunities.

12:36 Speaker 1: Yeah, good qualified immunity and all that. And look, I'm not anybody who knows me knows I'm not somebody who's reflexively anti law enforcement. I think they're you know, I always say, celebrate the heroes, but condemn the villains. Just like any profession, you've got good ones and bad ones. You've got Look, you've got people, You've got people in law enforcement out there every day putting themselves in jeopardy, you know, doing great work, important work. And I love the heroes, but I hate the villains.

13:03 Speaker 1: And the cops who did this to Afroman clearly are villains. Yeah. They they wreck his home, they don't do anything to make it right, and then they sue him for doing something that we talk about all the time on the show. When you when you take bad things that happen to you, traumatic events, and this seems like something that would be pretty traumatic for anyone to go through when you take bad things, negative things, and you create art out of it. Yep, taking something bad and then creating something positive from that, that's the best therapy that there is, right to actually create art that not only helps you process what's happened to you, but can help others too, who can then relate to the art that you've created and enjoy that art.

13:43 Speaker 1: And that is exactly what Afroman did. He took something horrible that happened to him and to his family and to his home and his own home, in his own home, on his own camera and created art. Yes, and and the you know these these poor police who you know, they're so big and tough when they're they're doing their little raid, but then they get their feelings hurt. All their feelings are so hurt when people laugh and make fun of them.

14:07 Speaker 2: Nobody would have been laughing and making fun of They've done their jobs correctly.

14:10 Speaker 1: Yeah, yeah, right.

14:11 Speaker 2: So he's right about that, in the bigger issue being that if artists, if he had lost and artists would be judged on talking about the moments in their life that have been traumatic, you are shutting down music entirely right now. At the mosaic Ar Collective, I am a piece hanging called the cell and that comes out of a dark space, and that is a piece of art that other people relate to, and they talk to me about their stories and how they've related to that piece, because that's what art is. It's a relationship with the artist.

14:48 Speaker 2: When you listen to music, whether it's something funny that makes you laugh, or it's something serious about a death, something you connect into. So he's expressing trauma that occurred in a fun way in a way that we can relate to, and being file about it, being funny about it. Yeah, he's not saying go out and do harm to people. No, he's not being violent in language at all. He's literally taking something bad and making it funny and sharing it with us and sharing that in a way that you can laugh at it with him.

15:22 Speaker 1: And it's and it's the truth. Nothing he said was false, right, And nothing in these videos that he makes is false. It's all from his security footage from his own home.

15:32 Speaker 2: And that would be the if you're going to go after somebody for saying something about you, it's got to be untrue. If it's true, what are you doing it? Doesn't? You know? Truth is truth? You know if he if he was making songs calling them everything under the sun that was not real, then maybe they then they got a leg to stand on. Then that's deformation the character. If I say you're a thief, Oh, Matt, I'm faming your character. Now. If you got arrested for thievery, and I said, and you got convicted of it, I said, oh, he got convicted of thiever.

16:09 Speaker 2: You're a thief. You can't sue me for deformation because it's true. Nothing he said wasn't true. And that's something he actually said on the stand. It was a three day trial. I watched not all of it, but I watched a decent portion of it. But I will say the thing that I was most impressed by was every single time they tried to catch Afromon up to try and make him the bad guy doing something to them, he answered as clearly, as concisely as we heard in.

16:39 Speaker 1: What you play, very very smart guy.

16:41 Speaker 2: And he kept saying in it because it's truth. He kept saying it and sticking to his truth. Every single time. I didn't do anything to anyone. They did it to themselves. They put themselves in my home. They chose to not go through my home the way they're supposed to go through my home. Yeah, you're not supposed to raid the kitchen. I don't think that's part of your job. Sorry. If you're hunger, you get a snack, bring it with you. Yeah, that's not how it's supposed to work.

17:10 Speaker 1: I mean, the pound cake does look good.

17:12 Speaker 2: It did look good. I do like lemon pound cake.

17:15 Speaker 1: We should I want to look at the actually, well let's look at the NPR article. I do want to go through this. One's pretty thorough. I just I want to go through this and just make sure we didn't miss any important details because this all did just just conclude. Oh, by the way, too, shout out to my friend Mark Castick if he's listening or if he hears this later. He did update his profile picture. He's got a picture of him with Afroman, because I think he had interviewed him at some point and he just updated his profile picture on Facebook.

17:43 Speaker 1: But that's pretty cool Mark. So NPR dot org. This is from This is from NPR dot org from two days ago. Afroman prevails in cops music video defamation suit after a brief but viral trial. So it says here Afroman was just trying to turn lemons into lemon pound cake when he started making music videos and social media posts mocking law enforcement officers who conducted a heavy handed raid on his Ohio home. Home surveillance video of the August twenty twenty two raids shows half a dozen gun wielding law enforcement officers from the Adams County Sheriff's Office deputies kicking down his door, combing through a CD collection, going through his suit pockets, flipping through a wad of cash, and in one case, briefly getting distracted by a cake dish on the kitchen counter.

18:36 Speaker 1: The search on suspicion of drug trafficking and kidnapping didn't yield any evidence or charges against the rapper, whose legal name is Joseph Foreman, but he saw officers broke his ohbody says. Officers broke his gate and security surveillance wiring, took four hundred dollars in cash and frightened his family. He wasn't home at the time, but his wife and kids, then ten and twelve, were present. Oh my god, Yeah, they were whole. Yeah. Can you imagine ten and twelve year old kids?

19:05 Speaker 2: Well, like he said, and you imagine how upset my kids were when you were pointing guns in their faces yep, yep, because he was trying to make him feel guilty because one of the cops got so upset that they might have had to take a break during their deposition.

19:22 Speaker 1: Oh yeah, yeah, yeah, the scops are sociopaths.

19:26 Speaker 2: You didn't care how upset I was when you poot guns in my filed in face.

19:29 Speaker 1: Right, And they don't care. They absolutely do not.

19:32 Speaker 2: Care because what they do is allowable. It's this immunity of I can get away with anything I want to get away with and it doesn't matter.

19:38 Speaker 4: Right.

19:38 Speaker 1: Oh yeah, yeah, absolutely they.

19:40 Speaker 2: And it shouldn't be that way. They should be accountable. They should have to fix damage that they create, of course, yeah, especially when it's wrong. And I'd like to know how they got the search warn't what was the evidence?

19:53 Speaker 1: Well yeah, he addresses that. In one of the songs. He names the judge who signed the warrant.

19:57 Speaker 2: No, no, but what was the evidence that they gave this judge for the third.

20:01 Speaker 1: The informant that just made this stuff up and told them.

20:04 Speaker 2: That's all it was.

20:05 Speaker 1: That's all it was. That's all it took.

20:08 Speaker 2: Yep, all it took. Yeah, Well that is how it takes sometimes just somebody saying something wrong.

20:14 Speaker 1: It says lying, it says your Afroman told NPR in twenty twenty three, quote, 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, use the money to pay for the damages they did, and move on. Unquote. The rapper, best known for early hits like Because I Got High and Crazy Rap I Don't Even Remember that one, made waves again with the twenty twenty three release of Lemon Pound Cake.

20:51 Speaker 1: It's fourteen songs have titles like the Police Raid, why are you disconnecting my video camera? And will you help me repair my door? Featuring home surveillance footage in the music videos. He also posted memes and sold merchandise satirizing the incident and people involved. Common themes ranged from poking fun at the deputy's appearances, comparing them to family guys Peter Griffin and Quasimodo from the Hunchback of Notre Dame, two more serious allegations of extra amrital affairs and a word I'm not going to say that starts with a P amongst department members.

21:26 Speaker 1: Afroman called the approach quote the smartest, most peaceful solution unquote, but the sheriff's deputies disagreed. The seven law enforcement officers sued him in twenty twenty three for defamation and invasion of privacy, saying his unauthorized use of their likenesses hurt their reputations and made it harder to do their jobs. They sought the contents removal and three point nine million dollars in damages. So about that four million? Yeah, that didn't stop Afroman from releasing in He's seeing Lee personal songs about the deputies deputies involved, including one ahead of his trial this week called the batter Ram Hymn of the Police Whistleblower, which I am going to play and edited version at the end of the segment.

22:15 Speaker 1: But that contains well. By the way, you have to see the video, he's marching solemnly in an American flagsuit, the same one he wore at the trial. If you haven't seen it, you got to see the suit he's wearing but he also wears it in the video, and it's got lyrics like they vandalized my property, my money came up short, they disconnect my cameras because they are a poor sport. They're the predators and the victims, and they're suing me in court. My proof's on the internet. The three day trial focused on heavy topics like policing and free speech, though there was no shortage of viral sitcom esque exchanges.

22:52 Speaker 1: On Wednesday, after less than a day of deliberations, the jury sided squarely with the rapper, Thank goodness. Afroman told reporters outside the court, dressed in his American flag pattern suit tye and aviators topped with a white fur coat, he said, quote, I didn't win. America won. America still has freedom of speech. It's still for the people, by the people. Unquote. The deputy's lawyer, Robert Klingler. I guess they so this was a joint suit. They all had. One lawyer told NPR that they brought the case in hopes of putting false accusations behind them.

23:31 Speaker 1: He said they would quote review the verdict and consider any appropriate next steps unquote, thus implying they're going to try to appeal it. Both sides clearly felt wronged by the other, but the primary question before the jury was whether Afroman's response to the raid counted as protected free speech. He and the lawyer argued it did. He and his lawyer argued it did. The rapper said, from the stand quote, I got the right. We actually I'm not going to read that because just because we already played the clip.

24:01 Speaker 1: But he also said some of this, uh, none of this would have happened if they hadn't raided his house, so uh. Klingler, the lawyer for the deputies, framed it to the jury this way. Quote a search warrant executes, I'm sorry, a search warrant execution that you think was unfair doesn't justify telling intentional lies designed to hurt people unquote. He said, a verdict in their favor would quote make up in some way for what they've been through unquote the like these they've been through, these terribly unsympathetic people that you can't possibly feel sorry for, you psychotic.

24:42 Speaker 2: So what did it do to them when they pointed the guns at the children?

24:44 Speaker 1: Yeah, no kidding, huh, Yeah, we're supposed to never.

24:46 Speaker 2: Mind the children, never mind their dad. None of that.

24:49 Speaker 1: We're supposed to forget that.

24:50 Speaker 2: Let's remember there's no lie. He didn't say anything, right, untrue. Right, he literally spoke what you see on camera.

25:00 Speaker 1: Okay, Now this next part's funny. This this involves Sean Cooley, the pound cake guy. Okay, So Sean Cooley, the now retired deputy who has caught on camera checking out the cake, said he's received hundreds of poundcakes at work from different people and was even recognized by cops while working cases and other jurisdictions, in addition to his own community members. See if he were smart, If he were, he's an older guy. He doesn't get it. If you were smart, he would actually just lean into that. Yeah, have fun with it.

25:32 Speaker 2: But he's like take him to a local nursing home and deliver them in chair. Yeah, like sure everybody eats them.

25:36 Speaker 1: He probably threw them away, But he's just a dumb, fat cop from Ohio. He doesn't know any better. Yeah, he probably did. He probably was so keep it. Probably did just throw them away.

25:45 Speaker 2: Do you mean you expecting me to do my job? I was in the kitten, I was policing the food.

25:52 Speaker 1: Cooley said, quote, I had one guy come out of a bedroom after me, call me a thief and want to know why I stole Afroman's money. It just went from being a nice, quiet community, a job you felt safe, and to a place where you had to look over your shoulder every second.

26:08 Speaker 2: Quote people in the community were parently.

26:11 Speaker 1: Doing yeah, no kidding. Another Brian Newland, said he was forced to quit his dream job with the Sheriff's office due to Afroman's claims of him being a and it starts with a p I'm not gonna say it, which he denies. Deputy Lisa Phillips cried on the stand.

26:27 Speaker 2: Apparently his brother was convicted or something like that, and there's something about that as to how he gets Oh yeah, there's more to that use of that word.

26:40 Speaker 1: Also, Lisa Phillips cried on the stand on Afroman's mean songs. When asked if he saw that, Afroman acknowledged that Phillips was upset by the online trolling. Quote just like I was upset when she was standing in front of my kids with an AR fifteen in her hand around the trigger. But I'm not a person, so I'm sorry for being a vic. Let's talk about the predators.

27:01 Speaker 2: And that was That was just a mic dropping gold right there. Oh yeah, you know, yeah, let's talk about never mind the victim, we'll talk about the predators. That that that was a great line. He's right. The kids was like ten in eight ease old ten and twelve, ten and twelve, yep. And how much therapy are they going to be in forever? And how much trauma are they going to care for the rest of their lives over that? Yeah, no kidding, yeah, gets to make enough money to put him in college.

27:26 Speaker 1: It says. In addition to traumatizing his family and damaging his property, Afroman maintained that the deputies stole money from him. They seized thousands of dollars in cash from his home, which Afroman said was payment for a gig, but returned at four hundred dollars short. The Sheriff's office has explained the discrepancy by saying deputies originally miscounted the money, which Newland took responsibility for on the stand. Oh, they miscounted exactly four hundred, yes, round number.

27:54 Speaker 2: Yes, he just he just counted it wrong.

27:56 Speaker 1: Yeah, yeah, yeah. The defense only called one Okay, this part's fun too. The defense only called one witness, Ronda Groomes, a teacher and the ex wife of sheriff's deputy Cooley Yep. She was asked whether she and her students were familiar with the Cardi B song wapp Wap, which if you don't know what it stands for, you'll have to google it. We can't say it here clearly, which stirred controversy with its overtly to put it mildly sexual lyrics in twenty twenty, and testified that none of them took the words literally.

28:31 Speaker 1: Afroman's lawyer, David Osborne Junior, pointed to other explicit rap songs to argue that artists tend to exaggerate for the sake of entertainment. At one point, he argued that no one listens to Lil Wayne's song p Monster, I'll just say it that way and says there's a monster in that song, oh okay. In other words, nobody listens to that and takes it literally. He said that's what Afroman was doing in his songs, and that many of the terms that deputies found defensive were not facts but matters of opinion, like one that calls Sergeant Randy Waters a son of a bee, which Osborne said there was no definitive way to prove or disprove she's been dead for years, Walters replied, matter of fact, lee, prompting a chuckle and condolences from the defense lawyer regarding as his mother.

29:18 Speaker 1: So no way to prove or disprove that she was a bee at LISTA, Walters said something mildly clever for you know this dumb hillbilly quote unquote. Sheriff in his closing statements, Osborne appointed to a rap as pointed to rap as an established form of social commentary, saying police and public officials are called names online all the time, whether whether or not they like it, and he rephrased the plaintiff's question about what a liable verdict would mean. Osborne said, quote, what does this message send if we find that music and social commentary, while maybe not the most tasteful thing in the world, is silenced because a public official was hurt by it?

29:58 Speaker 1: Unquote. Some of the most fever dream like moments of the trial took off in social media eclips Afroman defiant in his American flag suit, deputies soberly discussing lemon pound cake, the defense lawyers garbling of Cardi B's name Most of the commenters remarked that by bringing the case to court, the deputies brought it to the public's attention. Several highlighted the irony of an invasion of privacy case going viral online, calling it an example of the Streisand effect, named after Barbara Streisand's two thousand and three lawsuit to remove a photo of her home from the web that only brought more eyes to it.

30:39 Speaker 1: The Lemon pound Cake music video has three point eight million views on YouTube as of Thursday, and the top comments were all about the trial. One commenter wrote, shout out to the cops for making sure I saw this absolute bop yep. Afroman, who said on the stand that he it did an estimated two hundred and fifty shows last year, acknowledged that the attention had boosted his follower account, which is almost six hundred thousand on Instagram alone. All the publicity from the officers lawsuit on me is running up my numbers unquote.

31:13 Speaker 1: So there you go. So and that's kind of the you know, if there's a happy ending to this. Not only not only did Afroman win in court and this is an important you know, it's funny and silly and goofy as it might seem, in some ways, it's actually a very important victory for the First Amendment for free spot art, for art.

31:33 Speaker 2: Art entirely because that could easily translate into picture art. It doesn't you know, you know, I do a I do a political picture art, and it does a charriacature of somebody in a negative light.

31:45 Speaker 1: Yeah. But also this, the other part of the happy ending is this has helped Afroman's career tremendously.

31:52 Speaker 2: Oh my gosh, Yeah, I bet he's getting even more well.

31:55 Speaker 1: Yeah, because without they blew him up, without all of this, Yeah, I mean, he's you know, he's relevant in twenty twenty six because of this.

32:02 Speaker 2: If they do another trial, if they go after him again, they're just gonna keep it that much more in the light. You'll get that much more views, I don't think, and he probably gets to raise his rate for what he gets paid for a performance.

32:13 Speaker 1: I don't think they're gonna go through with trying to appeal it. He's stupid, a waste of money. But but yeah, I.

32:19 Speaker 2: Mean, stupid is a stupid does Isn't that what?

32:22 Speaker 1: Because without all of this, if none of this had happened, he would just be you know the guy. Oh yeah, af me and I remember him. He had that song because I got high.

32:29 Speaker 2: Right, you know what I mean. But that's not the thing anymore. Right now, it's not about that anymore. It's about Lemon pound Gate.

32:35 Speaker 1: And now he's a free speech First Amendment icon because of all this. So he stood in the good for him.

32:41 Speaker 2: Yeah, he stood in the line of fire and defended the ability of an artist to be able to can produce the music they want to produce, be a good batter, indifferent. You don't have to like it, but they have the right to say it. That's basic free speech.

32:53 Speaker 1: Yep, yeah, absolutely one.

32:57 Speaker 2: So this is an important win the jokes. Yeah, this is a very important win for the music industry and for the artistry in and of itself. Yeah, especially these days when people do like to pick apart things and try and go after people. Yeah, it's really important to reinforce that the First Amendment applies to art, it applies to all of us.

33:21 Speaker 1: I think I'm gonna play yeah, yeah, we were gonna do do another one of them. I think I'm gonna play this track batter ram batter ram him, because that's what they used to break down his door him of the police whistleblower. I think'm gonna play this now. I did make a radio edit of this last night when I came in right before Paul's show. Afromann songs for the most part, the songs that he's been releasing are completely clean. Uh. But in other words, there's no swearest. But there was one word in this song I was uncomfortable with.

33:53 Speaker 1: So and it starts with a P. It came up a couple times in that article. I won't say it on the air for a couple of time, different reasons, but so I did take that word out. There's also another word in it that he actually self censors. But you can figure out what he's going for. But I think we should play this to end the segment or discussion about Afroman. Unless you had anything to add, we can. We'll play this out of them. Yeah, yeah, proud of him, absolutely.

34:17 Speaker 2: Way to stand up for everybody. Yeah, well done, sir.

34:20 Speaker 1: I know it's funny. Like I said, I didn't like that song back in two thousand and one, and I couldn't wait for it to go away, and I really had no interest in the guy. And you know, here we are twenty five years later, and I'm while like like while celebrating his victory in court.

34:33 Speaker 2: And having favorite songs. Now you and I both love pound cakes.

34:37 Speaker 1: I'm twenty five years later, I'm now a fan of Afroman. It's funny.

34:41 Speaker 2: So thank you PD for doing that. Let's rechoose to do it again. I'm sure he will take a few more million listeners.

34:48 Speaker 1: That's right, that's right, all right here it is this is bad Or ram him of the police, whistled lower the radio. Edit by Afroman