Just a few days before he would make his inevitable appearance on Usher’s Super Bowl LVIII halftime stage, rapper-producer extraordinaire Lil Jon tells me about the self-soothing mantras that kicked his decade-long wellness journey up a notch. “My affirmations in my time of really finding meditation were ‘I am healthy, I am happy, and I am at peace,’” he said. After he emerged from a mosh pit on the football field of Las Vegas’s Allegiant Stadium – performing his hit with DJ Snake, “Turn Down for What,” as a lead-in to his smash Usher collab “Yeah!” – many took to social media to comment that Lil Jon did indeed look all three.
“When I got the call that [Usher] wanted me to be musical director, I knew immediately I was going to put ‘Turn Down for What’ in there,” Lil Jon says. “‘Turn Down for What’ has such a huge drop. I knew I wanted to have ‘Yeah!’ drop right after that.’ I DJ in the club every weekend. I’m still playing the song and every time I drop it, people go crazy. Not many producers have records like that, and I was blessed with not one, but a couple.”
Since the late 1990s, Lil Jon has built a formidable catalog of high-energy hits as one of the forefathers of crunk music’s foray into the mainstream. His riotous, Southern club rap defined an era with songs like “Get Low” with the East Side Boyz. Through Lil Jon, crunk made moves towards R&B with hits like Ciara’s “Goodies” and Usher’s “Yeah!”, also featuring Ludacris. It even got into pop on songs like LMFAO’s “Shots.” But as of late, in his day-to-day life, Lil Jon has a calmer spirit. At 52 years old, he’s releasing his first album of guided meditations on Feb. 16.
“An epiphany kind of came over me,” he tells me. “At some point, you’ve accomplished a lot [but] sometimes you feel like, ‘There’s something else I’m supposed to do that I’m not doing.’” For Jon, that was boosting his own holistic health, as well as his community’s. “I started checking on my friends more, ‘Yo bro, what’s up? You good? How are you mentally and physically?’” he says. “Part of the reason I want to do this project is [because] people that look like me and then people that look at me like, ‘Oh, this crazy party guy,’ [are] going to listen to me in a different manner than they would like a doctor or their mom or their dad. They relate to me a little bit more.”
Lil Jon says the lifestyle changes he tells us about – drinking less, working out, getting into herbalism, and listening to binaural beats – are also inspired by watching his rap peers succumb to health crises. “I want to be here as long as I can,” he says. “I feel like there’s so much I’m supposed to be doing on this planet. I don’t want to shortchange my time here by killing my body.”
Below, he details his Super Bowl moment, conversations with André 3000 about showing a different side (and a potential collaboration), alcohol culture in entertainment, rap on trial in Atlanta, and how he’s fallen in love with amapiano.
What do you think your core memories of your Super Bowl performance will be — things you’ll have important flashbacks of or be able to see and feel viscerally when you think back on it?
Everything about putting this whole thing together, man, from starting to formulate the flow of the show and the organization of the tracks and starting to put that together for Usher for the first time, to all of the studio sessions. Then, to go from there to being in a rehearsal and starting to see the dancers and the acrobats. And then when we finally hit the stadium and see the stage set up and all the performers there, all of the cast, to see all of the banners in the stadium for the Super Bowl, it’s like, whoa, we here. Just the whole process, man, is just an incredible memory, because not many people can say they’ve done this.
What has your relationship with Usher been like over the years?
Me and Usher have a brotherly relationship. We go at it a little bit here and there. Not in a bad way, but I’m just a very passionate person when it comes to what I do. And everybody has different perspectives, so we clash a little bit. We head butt a little bit here and there, but we still have the ultimate respect for each other. I think with me, he understands that I just want the best for him. I’m going to push him every single time because like for me, if something can be better, we make it better. He is a great person and I’m really happy that he’s made it to the highest of heights performing at the Super Bowl halftime.
I got really excited when I got on Twitter and saw that you’re releasing a meditation album. How did this even happen? Why is this happening?
I was turning 50 and when you hit 50, you start to look at things about your life and see where you are. You start to evaluate more things for yourself; to make yourself happy. I’ve been on a health journey, to backtrack, for a while.
Tell me about it.
I started juicing years ago. I started ginger shots, sea moss, and all of that stuff. I’ve been off of traditional medicine and I’ve been into herbal, holistic remedies for illnesses.
Once I turned 50, a lot of things started to happen. I started going through a divorce. I’m separated right now. Going through that and all of the emotions of the divorce – anger and frustration and all of the ups and downs – I found meditation to calm me and to bring me more at peace; to look at life and situations in a different manner. I really got into meditating and saying my affirmations every day and also into manifestation. All of that tied together.
And a little before that, my partner who I did this project with – Kabir Sehgal – and my attorney are friends. My attorney had been wanting me and Kabir to connect for a while. I hit my attorney about doing some binaural music.
What is that?
Binaural is certain frequencies of music that stimulate the brain in a certain kind of way. So, I would listen to binaural beats to help me sleep. I’m really deep into binaural music. I’m into frequencies like 285, 396, 528. I’m really into PEMF – pulsed electromagnetic [field]. I have frequencies running in my home at all times.
What do those particular frequencies evoke, the ones that you just named?
285 is like a cellular regeneration frequency, so it makes sure … When I’ve been working hard training in the gym, and I know I push myself a lot, I put 285 on at night and it helps my cells to repair and grow. 528 is just the all-around best frequency for everything. 528 helps your plants to grow.
So, I was into binaural music. My attorney connected me and Kabir together, and I kind of told him what was going on in my life and we put together this guided meditation project. Actually, we got six, seven albums worth of stuff.
Wow.
Health is just really, really important. It’s interesting because people compare me and André 3000 now with what I’m doing. Me and André had a talk the other day. I was explaining to him my journey and he was saying, “Yeah, people look at us a certain way, but we showing them that it’s okay to be able to do other things and to care about yourself, your health, and your wellbeing. This image of rappers, blah, blah, blah – we don’t have to be that. We can be other things and show people it’s okay to go do other things.”
How recent was your conversation with André 3000? Have you guys talked a lot over the course of your health journey?
No, we just talked this week. I was talking to him about maybe collaborating on one of the meditation projects. So, you got a scoop. We ain’t went in the studio or nothing yet. We just talked about it and I was explaining to him my journey and he told me his journey of how he got to where he is with the flute. I talked to him when he was in New York. We’re just telling each other about each other’s journeys and having appreciation for growth in Black men, basically.
That’s been a bit of a trend recently. Men’s Health did a big package on Black men in hip-hop and health for the 50th anniversary of the genre. You saw all different generations of rappers talking about it. Is there a wellness community in hip-hop that you’ve found beyond André 3000?
In the entertainment industry, period. Even down to DJ friends of mine, they’re not indulging as much as they used to. With all the people having heart attacks and strokes and just having health issues – the older you get, you realize you’re not Superman. When you’re young, you think you can do anything. You can party for days and weeks and months and nothing happens to you. The older you get, you start to see stuff happen to people around you and you don’t want that to happen to you.
So, I’ve been on a conscious journey for my health for at least 10 years, maybe 15 years. I was even going to holistic doctors when I was living in Los Angeles. And I’m actually studying to be a certified herbalist right now, too.
What kind of program is that? Is it online?
Yeah, I’m just doing it online. It’s crazy because I’ve been kind of dabbling in herbalism for years. Whenever someone in my house is getting sick, I make tonics. I make my own tonics. I buy different tinctures and I know what herbs to take when certain things are wrong with you. I’ve been dabbling in it for a while, but now I want to be certified.
I was going through your old music videos – I grew up on your music. I’m 30 and was in the fourth grade when “Yeah!” came out. It reminded me of your iced-out cup in the music videos and how much of your music became a soundtrack in environments where there’s a lot of indulging in alcohol. What has your relationship with alcohol over the course of your career actually been like?
I’ve been drinking since my teenage years, but at 50, I kind of had a little health scare. There was nothing wrong with me, but I thought it was something wrong with me. I thought I might’ve had a kidney or a liver issue because I had a little pain in my side. I was worried, so I kind of stopped drinking and went to the doctor.
And the doctor was like, “No, your kidneys [are] on the other side, that’s not your kidney.” He was like, “But I think it’s your gut.” And he was like, “And you’re 50, it’s time for your colonoscopy.” So, there we go, André 3000 talking about colonoscopy – I could totally relate. So, I had to have a colonoscopy. And he did the endoscopy, too, and looked in my gut. I had some inflammation, so I had to stop drinking as much.
When I did that, it’s like I came out of a fog because every weekend, I [was] drinking. It’s part of work. So, it’s like when you fall back a little bit, you give your body time to heal and you open up. It opens up your spiritual and your mental. So, that was great for me, too, because I needed a break. I realized for 30, 40 years, I had been drinking nonstop.
It’s really interesting to see the cultural turn towards health and wellness. I think a lot of people struggle with meditation though. It took me three years to really feel present when meditating, to be able to have a thought and watch it float away, to be able to recenter myself. What would be your number one tip to someone who is venturing into meditation and struggling with it?
Do guided meditation because you have to understand the breathing. The breath is so important because that calms you. And then, as far as guided meditation, they tell you exactly how to move and they put the picture in your head so you can center yourself or you can detach from what’s going on around you.
One thing that helped me out a lot was creating affirmations that really were what I needed. We also actually have an album of affirmations as well, but that’ll come out later. What people really need to understand is the more you say it, the more you believe it. And if you believe it, it shall be.
What was your introduction to meditation?
I guess I’ve always kind of meditated. I would go into myself even before I go on stage. I’m very quiet and I kind of just be to myself. I’m just mentally preparing myself. When I got into this space of doing these guided meditations, I understood like, “Hey, I’ve already been doing this.” I would already do my breathing to calm myself and to center myself.
No one ever taught me. I guess it’s just already in me. Just naturally, as I grew as a person, I just would figure out how to not let stuff bother me. You just detach from what’s going around you, or you get those negative thoughts out of your head. You got to figure out a way to clear your mind and get those thoughts out that don’t need to be there.
But there’s so much aggression in crunk music, the style of music that you popularized. Where did that come from for you? Was it a character or were you tapping into something real?
Oh, everything is always real. Nothing with me is ever not me. We get rowdy. And I was born in the ’70s, so I was a teenager in the ’80s, and I was really into punk music. Bad Brains is my favorite band. I would draw similarities between crunk music and punk music. And it’s not really aggression, it’s letting out energy. That’s what crunk music really is. When you go and you turn up and you get crazy crunk in the club and it’s a mosh pit, you’re just letting out all of that energy.
So, it’s like even if the song is taunting someone or talking about fighting, it’s not because you want to do it, it’s just letting out those types of feelings.
Yeah, it’s just the energy. It’s like, we getting rowdy and crazy, but you don’t have to fight nobody.
Especially thinking of your hometown of Atlanta, we’re seeing rap artists come under legal fire for things that are art, expression, creativity, and imagination. For you, especially watching that happen in YSL case and having made music that tapped into that imagination and expression yourself, what has it been like to witness?
I don’t like it at all because, yeah, it’s art. Other artists don’t go to jail for making a movie about people killing people. You know what I’m saying? Rap has always been an expression of what’s going on around you and what you see or what you might’ve heard, or it’s your environment. So, you can’t put people on trial for making a song about some things that they experienced in their lifetime or they know of. I just don’t like the fact that you can put the music on trial. You have to put the person on trial for their actions, not the music.
Speaking of music, what have you been listening to lately?
I’m listening to a lot of Amapiano. I’m really, really, really into Amapiano. I’ve been into it for a little bit now. I like the difference between Afrobeats and Amapiano – it just has a swag to it that’s so different. It’s the drums and the bass. I’ve been on to South African house music for 10 years because I went to South Africa. I was in the clubs. They’ve been killing it for a while. But it’s dope that they created some new shit that is taking over the world.
I love the energy of it, like the dances. When the log drum hits a certain way and they do the little hand movement [Editor’s note: this is actually a thing]. Then when people roll their eyes back in their head and then they pump their chest a little bit and they have their fingers up [Editor’s note: this too]; I’m into it. That’s Black folks. That’s why people are so into our shit – because we create the culture.
