大多数音乐家会在他们的演艺生涯中经历不计其数的跌宕起伏，这通常看起来就像他们纯粹凭着他们的地位而活着。Afroman这几年的动作并不是那么受感情驱使，他在业内的起步更象是一个发生在校园的不幸事件，不管你相不相信，这个事件是因为他下垂的裤子。
“我的第一张专辑是关于我八年级的老师，”这位30岁，真名叫Joseph Foreman的说唱歌手回忆道。“她把我踢出了学校，因为我传下垂的裤子，后来这变成了一个大事件。然后我写了一首关于她的歌并卖出去400张，我卖给教师，学生，每一个人。我还意识到，即使我已经不念书了，我的音乐还停留在学校，这样来说我仍然在学校。买我歌的所有人都会到我家来，只是为了告诉我他们觉得那首歌有多酷。”
这段插曲明显变成了著名的“踹裤子事件”， Afroman需要满足他那急速成长的音乐渴望。用着他父母买给他用来使他“远离麻烦”的贱价麦克风，卡带和混音器，这个说唱初学者借着嘲笑他的老师制作了一些巧妙活泼的卡带，其中充斥着他独一无二的有深度的笑话以及街头情绪。
“我会忙于所有在LA的交易直到保安把我踢出去，”他又回忆起在他少年时期，在LA的一个不起眼的南部中心地区生活，直到他搬去加州的Palmdale。“我同时也会去所有廉价的演出和维纳斯海滩。基本上来说，我会去任何我认为可以赚到一个美元的地方 ...

by Ed Nimmervoll
Born Joseph Foreman, Afroman may be the first artist to achieve a worldwide hit with the assistance of the Internet. Citing his influences as Too Short, Big Daddy Kane, and 2 Live Crew, he began his rap career in the eighth grade when he started making homemade tapes of his own songs and passing them out to his classmates. He got his start as a performer at church where he played drums and eventually moved on to playing guitar. For a while, he used to work as a baggage handler at an airport while trying to make an impression with his songs.
He was still living in East Palmdale, Los Angeles, when in November 1999 Afroman released his first album, Sell Your Dope, and played parties, sidewalks, and contests. Not finding L.A. to his liking, he moved to Hattiesburg, MS, where he teamed up with drummer Jody Stallone and keyboardist/bassist Daryl Havard. In the spring of 2000 he concocted his second LP, Because I Got High, with producer Tim Ramenofsky. He distributed it at shows and with the help of T-Bone Records in Hattiesburg. The more people he performed for, the more word of mouth spread, with not just a little help from the Internet's controversial music-file swapping service, Napster. Someone who got his hands on his music at a show posted the track "Because I Got High" to Napster and suddenly everything changed for Afroman. Then Howard Stern's radio show boosted "Because I Got High"'s popularity by playing the song on his show. The song "Because I Got High" was based on Afroman's inability to clean up his room. The song lists a number of activities -- cleaning his room, going to court, attending class -- that get derailed because of "reefer madness."
Afroman eventually also gained the attention of Universal Records, which signed him to a six-album deal. His first Universal album, The Good Times, was a compilation of his first two LPs and a few new ones. "Because I Got High" was also included on the soundtrack to Kevin Smith's film Jay and Silent Bob Strike Back starring Matt Damon and Ben Affleck. "Because I Got High" became a huge hit around the world in the last quarter of 2001. When he returned in 2004, he did so in a big way, with the double-disc Afroholic...The Even Better Times, although he did so independently. Free of Universal, he wrote, produced, and recorded Afroholic on his own, marketed it largely via the Internet (www.afromanmusic.com), and toured with a live band. The holiday album Jobe Bells followed in 2004 and then came Drunk'n'High in 2006. After his second 2006 album, A Colt .45 Christmas, Afroman released Waiting to Inhale in 2008.