Afroman | |
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Afroman in Daytona Beach, Florida, October 11, 2009
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Background information | |
Birth name | Joseph Edgar Foreman |
Born |
Palmdale, California, U.S. |
July 28, 1974
Genres | |
Occupation(s) |
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Instruments |
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Years active | 1992–present |
Labels |
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Website | afromanmuzzicc |
Notable instruments | |
Gibson EDS-1275 Fender Jazz Bass Pearl Drums |
Joseph Edgar Foreman (born July 28, 1974), better known by his stage name Afroman, is an American rapper and musician. He is best known for the hit single "Because I Got High". He was nominated for a Grammy award in 2002.
He began his career in 8th Grade, when he began recording homemade songs and selling them to his classmates. "The first tape I made was about my eighth-grade teacher," he once recalled. "She got me kicked out of school for sagging my pants, which was a big deal back then. So I wrote this song about her and it sold about 400 copies: it was selling to teachers, students, just about everybody. And I realized that, even though I wasn't at school, my song was at school, so in a way I was still there. All these people would come by my house just to give me comments about how cool they thought the song was." Foreman also performed in his church at a young age, playing both the drums and guitar.
In 1998, Afroman released his first album, My Fro-losophy; and later relocated to Hattiesburg, Mississippi, where he met drummer Jody Stallone, keyboardist/bassist Darrell Havard, and producer Tim Ramenofsky (aka "Headfridge").
Ramenofsky produced and released Afroman's second album Because I Got High in 2000 on T-Bones Records; it was distributed primarily through concerts and the file-sharing service Napster before its title track was played on The Howard Stern Show. Afroman was inspired to write the song's lyrical content by his unwillingness to clean his room, and he ran with the idea of everyday tasks being derailed by drug use. In late 2001, the song became a worldwide hit and was featured in the films Jay and Silent Bob Strike Back, The Perfect Score, and Disturbia later in the 2000s. "Because I Got High" was nominated for the Grammy Award for Best Rap Solo Performance in 2002.