Speaker 1: I found.
Speaker 2: You're listening to Mattconnorton unleash told you if it ah
shinty five point three. The Adams County Sheriff kick down
my door.
Speaker 1: Then I heard the glass spray.
Speaker 2: They found no kidnapping victims, just some limon poundcay, mama's
living pound.
Speaker 1: Okay. It takes so nice.
Speaker 2: It made the sheriff one of the down his gun
and cut him a slide.
Speaker 1: What limit poud Okay?
Speaker 2: He wound to put down his blow lemon pound okay.
Trending on tick tie limon pound okay. He's a family guy.
Limon pound okay, and munchies because he got hot limon
pound okay.
Speaker 1: Okay.
Speaker 2: He's an Adams Downy sheriff. He's hungry and he's big ass,
and he was sniffing for weed. Then he smelled another smell.
What was that? Mama's limit and pound?
Speaker 1: Okay. It takes so.
Speaker 2: It made the sheriff want to put down his gun.
Speaker 1: He cut him us.
Speaker 2: What limit poud Okay, he wound to put down.
Speaker 1: His flow limit okay.
Speaker 2: Trending no tick time limit pound okay.
Speaker 1: He's a family guy.
Speaker 2: Limit pound okay, munchies because he got high limit poud okay, Okay,
he sees my cake and my porn. Old man call
boom boom. Something happened to his camera on the way
to the evidence room.
Speaker 1: Mama's nimmy pound. Okay, it's so nice.
Speaker 2: Make the sheriff want to put down his gun and
cut him a slide A living pound okay. He want
to put down his clo. Limit pound okay, trending no
tick tie limit pound okay. He's a family leg.
Speaker 1: God living pound. Gayl munchies because.
Speaker 2: He got limit pound okay, okay, limit pound okay, he
won up put down this blow limit pound okay. Trending
noughtic time limit pound okay. He's a family legad living pound.
Okay you munchies because he god limit poud okay okay.
Speaker 3: Welcome everybody, here we go. It is that time again.
Matt Connorton Unleashed and we are live from the studios
of wm NH ninety five point three FM and Glorious Manchester,
New Hampshire. Of course, you can stream the show from anywhere.
Go to Matt connorton dot com slash live for all
your lives streaming options, social media links, contact info, show archives,
et cetera.
Speaker 4: Et cetera.
Speaker 3: Today is Saturday, March twenty one, twenty twenty six, and
I'm not alone.
Speaker 5: Jenny shows Good Morning Sunshine.
Speaker 4: Jenny is here at the news table.
Speaker 5: I am present on accounted board.
Speaker 3: So we have an exciting show for you today. Coming
up in the second hour, Ricky Mapleton is going to
be joining us. Kind of a last minute addition to
today's show. We had a couple of guests with illnesses
and such, but Ricky Mapleton will be here in the
second hour, and in the third hour we have Andrew
Deaver from the UK. He's going to be joining us
via WhatsApp and really looking forward to that. Very very
talented musician Andrew dev I think I said Diver, I
apologize Andrew Devi from the UK.
Speaker 4: He's going to be talking about his new single.
Speaker 3: And in the first hour, in a couple of minutes,
we are going to be talking about Afroman. That's why
I played a little bit of Lemon pound Cake. Afroman,
of course, who has transcended music and become an icon,
a First Amendment icon in America. And it's pretty cool.
It's a it's a fun story but also an important story.
And if you haven't been keeping up, we will talk
all about Afroman and of course the origin of the
song Lemon pound Cake. If you're not familiar with the
story at all, you're going to really enjoy this. I
think we're going to talk about that in a few minutes.
And even if you are familiar with the story, it's
it's a day to celebrate Afroman's triumph because it is
a triumph for all of us and the First Amendment,
in my opinion and hopefully in yours, it.
Speaker 5: Would have shut down the music industry, that's for sure
in a lot of ways.
Speaker 3: Well, we do have so, Jenny, you wanted to talk
a little bit about Mosaic Art Collective before we get
in all of that.
Speaker 5: Yeah, Actually, the Mosaic Art Collective has a lot of
great things coming up, and I really hope that you
will check them out. They're actually open today from eleven
am to two pm if you want to go check
out a really great show, The Women's excuse me, the
Woman Wise Show exhibit is upright now talking about equality, equality,
then equality Now what does that look like? What does
it look like that all these years women are still
trying to secure their independent rights. Back in nineteen seventy four,
there was a newspaper published called Women Whys, and that's
why this show is named that. Also on display at
the museum is the many many copies of the Women
Original magazine dating back into the nineteen seventies until the
late nineties. And it's really interesting to read their articles,
to see their work and to see what they were
doing then that what it looks like to us now.
So definitely check out the exhibit. It's running until the
thirtieth of March. The gallery is located at sixty six
Anover Street, Sweet two oh one here in the Queen City,
and their website is the mosaic Arcollective dot com. Also
right now, there are two open calls going on. One
is for the next exhibit called Clear to Me, and
this is a meditation on light and shadow and how
they can interplay with one another, how things can be
hidden and not hidden the up excuse me. The call
has been extended until the twenty seventh of this month,
so you still get time to put in your piece,
and it's not expensive to do to put in a piece. However,
I don't let that be a barrier. If you have
a financial barrier, please do contact the gallery and they
can help you out with more information on that. And
they are also now accepting entries into the juried show
Shaping Ourselves, which will occur in May. And this is
about how you're defining yourself. What defines you, your values,
your hopes, your dreams, your experiences past present, What do
you honor in yourself? What is it that you can
bring out in your art? And they really want you
to be bold with it, Go big, go how whatever
it is that draws you in. Don't be afraid to
experiment with the topics. I've actually been doing that a
lot lately, Matt. You've been able to watch me doing
that at home, where in the past a lot of
times I would just, you know, do something and then
wait for a show to come up that would meet
that painting. For this, uh, for the last few shows,
I've been trying to wait till the show is announced,
read what it's about, play with those ideas, and see
what comes out on the canvas, whether that's an acrylic paints,
whether that's in mediums, whether that's in macroma, however that looks.
And I hope you will do the same thing. I
would love to see your work hanging in the gallery.
So definitely go to mosaic our Collective dot com. Check
out everything that's going on right now. The Woman Why
show that's on exhibit right now, the Clear to Me
show coming up, and the Shaping Ourselves both open calls
right now that you can submit your work to highly
encourage you to. It's really an amazing experience to have
your wall excuse me, to have your work hang on
the wall of a gallery. It's humbling, it's amazing, and
it makes me strive to create more. Every time I
get a single piece entered into a show that's accepted,
it really does a lot to boost my creativity and
to reassure me that I'm a decent artist, or at
least I hope to be.
Speaker 6: So.
Speaker 5: As I said, check out the mosaic our Collective dot com,
go to the show, go to the museum. It's a
wonderful place to spend an afternoon.
Speaker 3: Well, very good, very good. 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, Yes, and.
Speaker 5: The actual rate occurred in twenty twenty two.
Speaker 3: 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?
Speaker 4: Or no, because I got high?
Speaker 5: How I got high?
Speaker 3: Yause I got high because I got high? Now, funny
thing about that song. I never liked the song. I
always thought it was annoying. But I remember defending the
song though, because I would have conversations. You know, some
people would say, well, you know, I don't like that
song because it glorifies drug use or whatever makes a
big joke out of it.
Speaker 4: But the fact is, if you listen to the.
Speaker 3: Song all the way through, which was always difficult for
me because I never liked it, but of course it
was ubiquitous, 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. 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.
Speaker 5: And it was back in two thousand and one that
it was actually released.
Speaker 4: Two thousand and one.
Speaker 5: Okay, yeah, apparently police found it in twenty twenty two.
Speaker 3: Yeah, I just, I just but yeah, so you know,
the police raided his home.
Speaker 4: I have the NPR article here, which I think is
your say.
Speaker 5: They never explained they were looking for weed. They were
looking they believed he was a dealer. Well, and kidnapping,
now that one is interesting because they keep saying the
word kidnapping, but I'm not sure it means what they
think it means.
Speaker 3: 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.
Speaker 5: But the police were doing a very thorough search looking
for that kidnapping victim in the pockets of all of
Afroman's suits.
Speaker 4: Yes, yes, which he thinks about.
Speaker 5: 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,
and there were none, and they were so diligently looking that,
as the song indicates, one of the officers stopped in
the kitchen, opened up the cake, cut himself a slice.
You ate it?
Speaker 4: Yeah?
Speaker 3: It now, in fairness to the officer, does look good,
the lemon pound cake. It does look good in the
video makes you something.
Speaker 5: You want it to be there when you get home.
Speaker 4: I'd be tempted, you know. And I don't even really.
Speaker 5: His mama's cake, but you know I made that for him.
Speaker 3: 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 like holding a rifle,
holding a gun. But he stops to look at the
but the cake is so distracting to him. It's like
the rio down and it's so it's perfect.
Speaker 5: It's when mass lid comes off the cake.
Speaker 4: Oh good lord, it's so perfect.
Speaker 5: He finds himself a knife and slices itself a piece.
Speaker 4: Of They also seized his cash, you know, while they
were there, they took his money.
Speaker 5: They found five thousand dollars in a suit pocket he
had forgotten he had left in there from a show.
Speaker 4: Yeah, it was the end of the gig.
Speaker 5: Pay yes, and jeez, I'd like to be rich enough
to forget that I had five grand on 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.
Speaker 3: Right after after breaking his gate and breaking his door,
they broke the.
Speaker 5: Gate to get into the driveway. Then they broke the
door down. Yep, they trashed everything.
Speaker 4: Oh yeah, he ate up his cake.
Speaker 3: Yep, they found nothing, and they took his money and
when he when he got it back, it was short
four hundred dollars.
Speaker 5: 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 miscow, because that's
what they claimed. It was a miscount of exactly four
hundred dollars missing from the five K.
Speaker 3: So I guess they did a little a little bit
of that civil asset forfeiture apparently, I guess we've.
Speaker 5: 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 nothing, nothing, 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 is if this case had gone the wrong way,
it would have taken a lot out of the music
industry and the video industry.
Speaker 3: Well, we have to explain why the why the police
were suing him. So they were suing him because he
did it.
Speaker 5: Got that part.
Speaker 3: He made a series of funny songs and videos because
he had all this footage.
Speaker 5: Yeah, he used from footage from his house.
Speaker 3: From from his own home, from his own surveillance from
camera to make to make fun of the cops.
Speaker 1: Yep.
Speaker 5: He made as you heard when we started the Lemon
pound Cake song.
Speaker 4: Yeah, and they so they sued him over.
Speaker 5: It, and they sued him for for violating their privacy
and defamation and defamation yep, we're embarrassing them.
Speaker 3: Or definition of character as a certain idiot likes to say.
Speaker 4: But yes, defamation of there.
Speaker 5: There were actual tears on the sand. And the interesting
thing about this is, I don't know.
Speaker 3: Do you have that clip actually of Afroman on the
not that clip specifically.
Speaker 5: 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.
Speaker 4: I thought it was four million or that was the total.
Speaker 5: 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. They did
all of this to themselves. We wouldn't be here today
if they hadn't broken down my door, trash to my gate,
crashed my home, eight from my kitchen to 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.
Speaker 4: Okay, I found the clip here.
Speaker 5: The flip is better than the way I'm pronounced saying it.
Speaker 1: Here we go said I got freedom of speech.
Speaker 2: After they run around my house with guns and kicked
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.
Speaker 1: Yes, I do. And I think I'm a sport for dealing.
Speaker 2: 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.
Speaker 6: I got the part 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.
Speaker 1: Yes, sir.
Speaker 6: 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 you saw 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.
Speaker 1: Knew I was upset.
Speaker 2: And when she was standing in front of my kids
with a 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.
Speaker 1: Okay.
Speaker 6: 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.
Speaker 2: Yeah, because I understand it was Randy's fault and all
of their thought 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 they did their research and
did things right. So all of this is their fault,
and now they want to sue me for their mistake.
Speaker 6: Is there anything that could change your mind about what
you're doing to these deputies?
Speaker 2: Is there anything that can change my mind about the
fact that they shouldn't have been at my house in
the first place.
Speaker 1: Is there anything that can.
Speaker 2: Change my mind about how my money shouldn't have been
touched in the first place.
Speaker 6: No, that's all the questions I have, Thank you.
Speaker 5: That's that lay write down, doesn't he Oh?
Speaker 3: Yeah, he's very smart, very articulate. He knew exactly how
to handle that. Very impressive.
Speaker 5: I forgot about the part where they had flipped off
the camera before they disconnected the camera.
Speaker 3: 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 they're having fun during
their little.
Speaker 5: Raid, 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.
Speaker 4: You know, they really didn't.
Speaker 5: They didn't go anywhere with it because they didn't have
any evidence.
Speaker 4: They literally walked.
Speaker 5: Out of that house with nothing. Bumpus. They found nothing
to implicate him in anything whatsoever. Right, And there wasn't
an I'm sorry, no, there wasn't. I'll let us help
you fix the.
Speaker 3: Gate and that that's something right, And that's that's why
he made that song. Will you help me fix my gate? Yeah,
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.
Speaker 4: They accidentally show up at the wrong house.
Speaker 5: That's happened many times.
Speaker 3: 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, we got 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?
Speaker 4: Nothing? They don't care.
Speaker 5: 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 and
she died. She had a heart attack and died within
like the day of that issue.
Speaker 4: And they don't care, and look, I'm not somebody who.
Speaker 5: Is and they don't care because of immunities.
Speaker 3: Yeah, do 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. 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
doing great work, important work. And I love the heroes,
but I hate the villains. And the cops who did
this to Afroman clearly are villains. Yeah, 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 take bad
things that happen to you, traumatic events, and this seems
like something that would be pretty traumatic for.
Speaker 4: Anyone to go through.
Speaker 3: 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. And that is exactly
what Afroman did. He took something horrible that happened to
him to his family and to his home.
Speaker 5: At his own home, in his own home, on his
own cameras.
Speaker 4: And created art.
Speaker 3: 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 their little raid, but then they're they
get their feelings hurt. All their feelings are so hurt
when people laugh and make fun of them.
Speaker 5: Nobody would have been laughing and making fun of They've
done their jobs correctly. Yeah, yeah, right, So he's right
about that. And in the 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. M 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.
Speaker 1: Yea.
Speaker 5: 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. And 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.
Speaker 4: Being file about it, being funny about it.
Speaker 5: Yeah, he's not saying go out and do harm to people.
He's not being violent in language at all. He is
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.
Speaker 4: Him, and it's and it's the truth.
Speaker 5: Nothing he said was false.
Speaker 3: Right, And nothing in these videos that he makes is false.
It's all from his security footage from his own home.
Speaker 5: 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?
Speaker 4: You know?
Speaker 5: Truth is truth?
Speaker 4: You know?
Speaker 5: If he if he was making songs calling them every
thing 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 defaming 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. You're a thief.
You can't sue me for deformation because it's true. Right,
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.
Speaker 4: In what you play, very very smart guy.
Speaker 5: And he kept saying that in it because it's truth.
He kept saying it and sticking to his truth. Every
single time I did do anything to anyone, right, they
did it to themselves.
Speaker 4: Right.
Speaker 5: They put themselves in my home. Right, 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.
Speaker 4: I mean, the pound cake does look good.
Speaker 5: It did look good. I do like lemon pound cake.
Speaker 3: 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. 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. 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.
Speaker 4: But he saw officers broke as ohbody says.
Speaker 3: 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.
Speaker 5: Oh my god, yeah, they were whole.
Speaker 4: Yeah. Can you imagine ten and twelve year old kids?
Speaker 5: Well, like he said, and you imagine how upset my
kids were when you were pointing guns in their faces.
Speaker 4: Yep, yep.
Speaker 5: 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.
Speaker 4: Oh yeah, yeah, yeah, these cops are sociopaths.
Speaker 5: He didn't care how upset I was when he poot
guns them or filled in the face.
Speaker 4: Right, And they don't care. They absolutely do not.
Speaker 5: 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.
Speaker 4: Right. Oh yeah, yeah, absolutely.
Speaker 5: They 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.
Speaker 1: Yea.
Speaker 5: And I like to know how they got the search
warn't what was the evidence?
Speaker 3: Well yeah, he addresses that in one of the songs.
He names the judge who signed the warrant.
Speaker 5: No, no, but what was the evidence that they gave
this judge for the surf.
Speaker 4: The informant that just made this stuff up and told them.
Speaker 5: That's all it was.
Speaker 4: That's all it was. That's all it took. Yees all
it took.
Speaker 5: Yeah, Well that is how it takes sometimes just somebody
saying something wrong.
Speaker 3: 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.
Speaker 4: Unquote.
Speaker 3: 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. It's fourteen songs have titles like the
police Raid, why 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 range
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. 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.
Speaker 4: They saw it.
Speaker 3: The contents removal and three point nine million dollars in.
Speaker 4: Damages, so about four million.
Speaker 3: Yeah, that didn't stop Afroman from releasing increasingly 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. But that contains
uh lyric well. And 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 short stage of viral
sitcom esque exchanges. On Wednesday, after less than a day
of deliberations, the jury sided squarely.
Speaker 4: With the rapper. Thank goodness.
Speaker 3: Um 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.
Speaker 4: Unquote.
Speaker 3: The deputy's lawyer, Robert Klingler. I guess they so this
was a joint suit.
Speaker 4: They all had.
Speaker 3: One lawyer told NPR that they brought the case in
hopes of putting false accusations behind them. 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 protect did 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 gonna read that
because just because we already played the clip. 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.
Speaker 4: Unquote.
Speaker 3: He said, a verdict in their favor would quote make
up in some way for what they've been through.
Speaker 4: Unquote.
Speaker 3: These like these they been through, these terribly unsympathetic people
that you can't possibly feel sorry for, you psychotic.
Speaker 5: So what did it do to them when they pointed
the guns at the children?
Speaker 4: Yeah, no kidding, huh. Yeah, we're supposed to.
Speaker 5: Never mind the children, never mind their dad.
Speaker 4: None of that. We're supposed to forget that.
Speaker 5: Let's remember, there's no lie. He didn't say anything right, untrue, Right,
he literally spoke what you see on camera.
Speaker 3: 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 at 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. Ye
have fun with it.
Speaker 5: But he's like take him to a local nursing home
and deliver them in chair. Yeah, like sure everybody eats them.
He probably threw them away.
Speaker 4: But he's just a dumb, fat cop from Ohio. He
doesn't know any better. Yeah, he probably did. He probably
was so it probably did just throw them away. Do
you mean you expected me to do my job?
Speaker 5: I was in kitten, I was policing the.
Speaker 4: Food, Coolly said. Quote.
Speaker 3: 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 unquote.
Speaker 4: People in the community were praerently doing yeah, no kidding.
Speaker 3: 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.
Speaker 5: 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.
Speaker 3: Also, Lisa Phillips cried on the stand Afroman's mean songs.
When asked if he saw that, Afroman acknowledged that Phillips
was upset 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 victim. Let's talk about the predators.
Speaker 5: That that was just mic dropping gold right there. Oh yeah,
you know, yeah, let's talk about liver mind the victim.
We'll talk about the predators that that that was a
great line.
Speaker 4: He's right.
Speaker 5: The kids was like ten in eight years 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, Dad gets to
make enough money to put him in college.
Speaker 4: It says.
Speaker 3: 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, yes, round ye number.
Speaker 5: Yes, he just counted it wrong.
Speaker 4: Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Speaker 3: The defense only called 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.
Speaker 1: Yep.
Speaker 3: 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.
Speaker 4: We can't say it here clearly, which.
Speaker 3: Stirred controversy with its overtly to put it mildly sexual
lyrics in twenty twenty, and testified that none of them
took the words literally. 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.
Speaker 4: In other words, nobody listens that and takes it literally.
Speaker 3: He said that's what Afroman was doing in his songs,
and that many of the terms that deputies found offensive
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.
Speaker 4: She's been dead for years.
Speaker 3: Walters replied, matter of fact, lee, prompting a chuckle and
condolences from the defense lawyer regarding his mother, 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. 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. 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 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
officer's lawsuit on me is running up my numbers, unquote.
So there you go. So and that's kind of the
you know, if there's a happy ending to this.
Speaker 4: 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
spot art, for.
Speaker 5: Art 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 caricature
of somebody in a negative light.
Speaker 4: Yeah.
Speaker 3: But also this, the other part of the happy ending
is this has helped Afroman's career tremendously.
Speaker 5: Oh my gosh, Yeah, I bet he's getting even more well.
Speaker 3: 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.
Speaker 5: If they do another trial, if they go after him again,
they're just going to 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.
Speaker 3: 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 mean.
Speaker 5: Stupid is a stupid does isn't that way?
Speaker 3: Because without all of this, if none of this had happened,
he would just be you know the guy.
Speaker 4: Oh yeah, Afroman? I remember him. He had that song
because I got high, right, you know what I mean?
Speaker 5: But that's not the thing anymore.
Speaker 4: Right now, it's not about that anymore.
Speaker 5: It's about Lemon pound Cake.
Speaker 3: And now he's a free speech First Amendment icon because
of all this.
Speaker 4: So he stood in the good for him.
Speaker 5: 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 it good,
bat are indifferent. You don't have to like it, but
they have the right to say it. That's basic free speech.
Speaker 4: Yep, yep, absolutely one.
Speaker 5: So this is an important win. The joke's aside, one
hundred percent. 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.
Speaker 4: I think I'm gonna play.
Speaker 5: Yeah, yeah, we were gonna do do another one of them.
Speaker 3: 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 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, but in other words, there's
no swearest. But there was one word in this song
I was uncomfortable with. 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
different reasons, but so I did take that word out.
There's also another word in it there 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.
Speaker 4: We'll play this out of him. Yeah, yeah, proud of him.
Speaker 5: Absolutely, way to stand up for everybody.
Speaker 4: Yeah, well done, sir.
Speaker 3: 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.
Speaker 5: And having favorite songs. Now you and I both love
pound cake.
Speaker 3: I'm twenty five years later, I'm now a fan of Afroman.
It's funny, so thank you PD for doing that.
Speaker 5: Let's re choose to do it again. I'm sure he
will take a few more million listeners.
Speaker 3: That's right, that's right, all right, here it is. This
is batter ram him of the police whistled lower the
radio edit by afromn.
Speaker 2: Mine eyes seen the corruption of the Adam County cops.
Still in money, still in cake. When they make they
traffic stops, first they screw you, then they sue you,
play a game, then dismiss your claims.
Speaker 1: The proofs on the inner.
Speaker 2: Afro Man will bring it to ya. Afro Man is
gonna dude, yeah, ahfro Man is gonna screw ya. My
proofs on the inner. Mine eyes have seen informs get
busted with fella niece, tell the cops I'm a kidnapper,
and I said a lot of keys raid my house
and then get pissed because the dungeon don't exist my
proof Sunday inured. Afro Man, We'll bring it to ya.
A bro man is gonna dude, yeah, afro Man, He's
gonna screw ya.
Speaker 1: My proofs on the innern.
Speaker 2: My gate don't operate, and my door is on the floor.
My camera's disconnected least so bills is up downtown. They
take my mama's limb in pound cake, my proof Sunday innerned.
Speaker 1: Adfro Man, We'll bring it.
Speaker 2: To yeah, afro Man is gonna do yeah, adfro Man,
He's gonna screw yah my proof Sunday Innerne. They vandalize
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 Sunday Innerne. Ah bro Man, We'll bring it to ya.
Ahfro Man is gonna do Yeah. Ahfro Man is gonna
screw ya my proof Sunday Innerne. Brian Newlyn is a flag,
William is a bio. If I'm telling folks the truth,
how come I have to go to trial Newland's guest kids.
Speaker 1: That's true.
Speaker 2: Now he's stealing my money to my proof Sunday Inner.
Speaker 1: Ah bro Man, We'll bring it to ya.
Speaker 2: A bro Man is gonna do Yeah. Ah bro Man
is gonna screw ya my proofs on the Inn. Tasha
Champlain is a confidential informant. Roy Gabbert is the just
that science fictitious war. This whole situation is totally their funk.
Don't rate me, don't get videoed and call ah bro Man.
We'll bring it to ya. Ah bro Man is gonna
do yah. Ah bro Man.
Speaker 1: Is gonna screw ya my proofs son. The iner.
Speaker 2: Prosecutor David Kelly turned the jail when they fell. Coward
ran to Arizona so he wouldn't catch the hell. Kimmy
tried to dodgers, Rogers, tried to retire and dip like
a rat, leaving a sin kingship. Ahfro Man, We'll bring
it to yer. Afro Man is gonna do yeah. Ahfro
Man is gonna screwed My proof Sunday inurned. All you
crooky cops in the world that's doing wrong, you better stop,
you crookie cop before I.
Speaker 1: Put you in a song.
Speaker 2: Make your family and your friends laugh out loud and
sing along My proof Sunday Inurned. Ahfro Man, We'll bring
it to yea afro Man is gonna do yeah, Ah
bro Man, He's gone a screw yah my proofs on
me in and will you help me repair my gay?
Will you help me repair my door? Did you find
what youse now looking for? Will you help me reaper.
Speaker 1: My game?
Speaker 2: End? Would you like a slice of living pound cake?
You can take as much as you want to take.
Them must speed a big mistake. Would you like to
have a slice sum lemon pound cake? The warrant said.
Narcotics said kidnapping? The warrant said, narcotics and kidnapping? Are
you king? I make my money wrapping. Why does the
warrant say narcotic? Well, I no darcotics, But why kidnapping?
Let me ask you something absolutely any kidnapping victims inside
my suit pockets? Are there any kidnapping victims inside my
soup pockets?
Speaker 1: You cooked? Cops need to stop it.
Speaker 2: There are no kidnapping victims in my soup pockets.
Speaker 1: Let me ask you another question.
Speaker 2: Is there a thousand pounds of weed in my soup pockets?
Is there a thousand pounds of weed in my soup pockets?
You cook it, Cops need to stop it. There's not
a million pounds of weed in my soup pockets.
Speaker 1: Let me ask you something else.
Speaker 2: Any kidnapping victims inside my CD any kidnapping victims inside
my CDs? The Adams County Sheriff Department, you can get these.
There are no kidnapping victims in.
Speaker 1: My in my CDs?
Speaker 2: How many pounds of weed are inside my CDs? How
many pounds of weed are inside my CDs?
Speaker 1: Adams County Sheriff, you can get these.
Speaker 2: How many pounds of weed did you find in my CD?
Why are you still in my money? Why are you
stealing my money? You represent the law, and it's funny
you're steal in my legal work. Hard every day they
taxes money. The sheriff disconnecting my cameras. The sheriff disconnecting
my cameras. The sheriff should be locked up in slammers.
The Adams County Sheriff Department.
Speaker 1: Disconnected my camera.
Speaker 2: Did you have to traumatize my kids? Did you have
to traumatize as my keys? Did you have to trumpatize
my keys? Did you have to trumpatize my keys?
Speaker 7: Will you pay me for doing wrong? Will you pay
me for doing me wrong? Will you pay me for
doing me wrong?
Speaker 2: Oh?
Speaker 1: Will I have think it pays? From this song?
Speaker 2: How you think they're gonna body man up.
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