Before the Jury Sided With Afroman, the Crowd Already Had

On a run of 2025 California dates, Afroman was already turning “Lemon Pound Cake,” weed-leaf guitar theatrics, and full-contact fan energy into something bigger than a nostalgia act.

Afroman’s court win may have pushed him back into the headlines, but the road was already telling part of that story.

Before a jury sided with the rapper in the lawsuit brought by Ohio deputies over the music videos he made from footage of the 2022 raid on his home, Afroman was already out in California doing what he has always done best: turning weed, absurdity, crowd energy, and total lack of shame into a live show that still feels weirdly bulletproof.

Across a 2025 run of stops in Citrus Heights, Turlock, Vacaville, and Berkeley, he looked less like a novelty act living off old hits and more like an artist who had quietly folded internet infamy, cannabis folklore, and his own chaos into something durable. The crowds came for Because I Got High and Colt 45, sure. But they were also there for the larger Afroman spectacle: the weed-leaf guitar, the smoke-heavy vibe, the after-show hangs, and, increasingly, Lemon Pound Cake, the song that turned a police raid into one of the strangest clapbacks in modern rap.

At Rocky’s Bar & Grill in Citrus Heights, the backyard was packed before he took the stage. In Turlock, a crowd Brett Churchill described as more country than hip-hop still knew every word. In Vacaville, Afroman took requests, mixed in rarer live cuts, and kept the room with him. In Berkeley, he rolled through fan favorites and gave “Lemon Pound Cake” a spotlight, showing that the song was already becoming part of the live identity, not just a viral footnote.

And then there’s the guitar.

Afroman’s weed-leaf guitar is ridiculous, instantly legible, and perfect for him. According to both versions of Churchill’s write-up, crowds reacted the moment he picked it up, before he even played a note. That detail says a lot about the current version of Afroman: people are not just showing up for songs anymore. They are showing up for the whole mythology.

He also still does something a lot of legacy acts stop doing. He hangs around. Churchill’s drafts repeatedly describe Afroman staying after shows for autographs, photos, and smoke sessions with fans. That kind of access matters. It keeps the whole thing feeling less like a packaged oldies run and more like a living scene.

That is what makes the current spike of attention feel bigger than a random viral rebound. The verdict may have sharpened the story, but these live dates suggest the momentum was already there. Afroman had already figured out how to turn the raid, the jokes, the smoke, and the songs into one long-running performance about ridicule, survival, and control.

Now that the court case is over, those 2025 shows look less like isolated tour stops and more like the setup for a moment that was coming either way.

For a guy whose career has always depended on knowing exactly when the joke is on him and when it’s on everybody else, that feels about right.

<p>The post Before the Jury Sided With Afroman, the Crowd Already Had first appeared on High Times.</p>