Afroman wins defamation case over ‘Lemon Pound Cake’ raid video

Source: NPR Published: March 19, 2026

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Grammy-nominated rapper Afroman — born Joseph Foreman — won a defamation lawsuit filed by seven Ohio sheriff’s deputies who sued him over a series of viral music videos mocking their 2022 raid of his home. A jury rejected the deputies’ nearly $4 million claim, siding with Afroman’s argument that his music videos, which used home security footage of the raid, were protected free speech. The 2022 search — carried out on suspicion of drug trafficking and kidnapping — yielded no charges against the rapper. Afroman responded by releasing 14 satirical songs and videos about the incident, including “Lemon Pound Cake,” which accumulated millions of views. Outside the courthouse after the verdict, Afroman declared “I didn’t win, America won. America still has freedom of speech.” The case drew widespread attention to questions of policing accountability and the rights of artists to use personal experience as social commentary.

Image Source: Chris Gilmore, CC BY-SA 2.0 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.0, via Wikimedia Commons