Lil Jon: Keeping It Crunk

 

By Vic Everett HOLLYWOOD, California -- Lil Jon doesn’t have much time to himself these days. From interviews with the press and magazine photo shoots to producing hits for numerous artists, he's one busy guy. Presently, Lil Jon is sitting behind a desk at a luxurious recording facility in Atlanta, Georgia and feeling the seconds slip away. The multi-faceted recording star is reminiscing about being in the recording studio, and overseeing the final additions of a certain project that some may find a bizarre pairing indeed.

Music star Lil Jon gives details about his "Crunk" life, and shares some time with the readers of 30 Below magazine.

“I worked on TLC,” Lil Jon revealed. “I produced a new song for their greatest hits album. I did a Youngbloodz record for Arista and L.A. Reid wanted to hollah at me to do something with the girls, and the girls wanted to do something with me too. We just got together and made it happen. [TLC] are down to Earth people.” Drum majors to the movement known as crunk, Lil Jon & the East Side Boyz returns with their fifth CD titled Crunk Juice (TVT records) which features enough guest vocalists to keep any fan of music happy. While the recently certified platinum effort boasts cameos by Ice Cube, Usher, Ludacris, R. Kelly, Snoop, Nate Dogg, Pharrell, Nas, Fat Joe and others, Lil Jon said that there is a simple explanation for all of the collaborations with some of Hip-Hop’s finest: He can’t rap. Actually, the diminutive artist revealed that he doesn’t even make rap records. “We’re not trying to rap on our records really,” he said. “We make crunk records. We’re crunk artists and all we do is make records to get the club started. I wouldn’t say it’s different from rap, it’s just a different form of it. This is another part of Hip-Hop. We was the first artists to say ‘All we wanna do is make records and get the party crunk. We’re not trying to be the greatest lyricists. I can rap if I want to, but we’re not trying to be in the Hip-Hop Quotable of the Month in ‘The Source.’ We got a platinum album and everywhere we go the record controls the clubs everywhere in America.” Lil Jon, in red jersey pictured above, performs "Get Low" for excited fans. Although four full-length projects deep in the music industry, the fact that Lil Jon never actually raps on his recordings might surprise a few fans, yet the artist believes that providing listeners with solid, energetic tunes is far more important then spitting lyrics over beats.   CONTINUE