Gather some Colt 45s and maybe a few Zig-Zags: Afroman is coming to the High Dive on Wednesday. Afroman, or Joseph Foreman, Grammy-nominated slacker rapper star behind the hits “Because I Got High” and dirty rap anthem “Crazy Rap” — known to many as “Colt 45 and Two Zig-Zags” — is leaving his beloved Palmdale to bring Gainesville the music that has enchanted generations since he rose to fame and fortune in the early 2000s.
Foreman became Afroman in the eighth grade when a teacher got him expelled for sagging his pants. By the time he wrote, recorded and sold 400 copies of a song about said teacher, he realized music was his calling.
Afroman’s big moment came in 2000, when his album “Because I Got High” and the eponymous single from that album dropped. When the Internet got a hold of the song, which describes a man neglecting his responsibilities because he’s gotten high, with increasingly severe consequences, Afroman became an instant sensation.
Along with a Grammy nomination and a music video where he smokes a joint the size of his forearm with Jay and Silent Bob, the stoner ballad ensured Afroman’s presence in the memories of fans and detractors alike, however hazy those memories may be. With the release a year later of “Crazy Rap,” a song that is remarkable in that no part of it can actually be described in publication, it seemed Afroman’s career was only headed toward greater fame.
But that was not how things turned out for Afroman. His most significant achievements since the early 2000s have been his slew of parody albums; one of country music — “Save a Cadillac, Ride a Homeboy” — and two holiday albums, “Jobe Bells” and “A Colt 45 Christmas”, featuring between them jingles such as “O Chronic Tree,” “Nutscracker,” “The 12 Js of X-mas” and “Deck My Balls.”
Perhaps the public grew tired of songs that, funny at first, really are only about weed, cheap beer and sex.
Although that may seem like an ignorant criticism of rap — it is — in Afroman’s case it’s just a description. There is no glamour to his music — he sells it like it is, and I believe that makes it beautiful. It would be easy to dismiss Afroman, to say he’s washed up and no longer relevant.
My retort would be, A.) No one who was nominated for a 2002 Grammy is still relevant. The artist he lost to was Missy Elliot, and his other main competitor was Nelly. This is a totally different world. B.) Afroman was never relevant in the first place.
He was one of the first viral phenomena, just sitting on the corner selling rap CDs to whupping into the spotlight. Though he enjoyed fame and fortune, he had the courage to give that up and pursue his true dream instead — making music that brings people joy, lowriding and savoring life, with a blunt in one hand and a 40 in the other.
Alec Carver is a UF journalism freshman. His column appears on Fridays. A version of this column ran on page 7 on 1/10/2014 under the headline "Because I got Gainesville: Don’t write off Afroman"
