LMFAO Would Like to Formally Apologize for Party Rocking

For more than fifteen years, LMFAO has been synonymous with party rocking. Today, we need to acknowledge the harm that party rocking has caused.

When we released “Party Rock Anthem” in 2011, we believed that everybody wanted to have a good time, and that it was appropriate for us to make them do so. We understand now that this was a misguided assumption. Too often, we measured our success by how hard we had rocked the party without asking whether the party wished to be rocked, or whether existing levels of party rockitude were already sufficient.

The party rockage of 2011 and 2012 was extensive. What began in clubs and other designated party-rocking environments spread into homes, stores, and places of worship that had never asked to be party rocked.

One incident in particular has stayed with us. In October 2011, members of our team encountered a six-year-old’s birthday party in Tempe, Arizona. Our team, uninvited, determined that the event was in need of party rocking.

Within forty-five minutes, more than 200 people had entered the property. A DJ booth was erected in the driveway, and two champagne showers were initiated. At approximately 7 PM, a Kia Soul began doing donuts on the lawn.

Police ultimately dispersed the gathering. Three neighboring properties sustained damage, and the birthday child’s father was briefly detained after officers mistook him for the event promoter. The car remained on the property until the following Tuesday, and a neighbor’s koi pond was irreparably party rucken.

For years, we described what happened that afternoon as a party that “got out of hand.” That was not accurate. The party did not get out of hand. We party rocked it out of hand. For that, we are deeply sorry.

We know that historical party rocking has created real and lasting rifts between us and the communities we call home, and that the effects of party rocking do not necessarily end when the party does. Nothing we say today can return those communities to their pre-rock condition.

But we can listen. We can learn. And we can do better.

Beginning immediately, we will seek affirmative consent before and throughout the party rockification of any previously non-party-rocking event. We will establish reasonable limits on party rockitude, including mandatory periods of party rocklessness.

We are also ending the use of champagne showers. Champagne will be served in glasses.

Finally, we have retired our longstanding policy of shuffling every day. We now understand that daily shuffling is neither appropriate nor sustainable.

These measures are only a beginning. When we first said that we were “sorry for party rocking,” we had not yet done the work necessary to understand what we were apologizing for. At the time, those words were less an apology than a response to neighbors and others who had asked us to stop.

They deserved better from us.

There will still be parties, and there will still be rocking. But party rocking must be undertaken thoughtfully, consensually, and with respect for everyone who has to live with the consequences.

We are sorry for party rocking.

LMFAO