Lil
Jon, right, poses with rock star Dave Navarro
during a star-studded even in Hollywood, California. |
“I
had a record with Nas and the Bravehearts,”
Lil Jon said, when asked about his feelings
on popular rappers borrowing sounds germinated
in the South. “It did nothing but
bring awareness to crunk and have it become
more accepted.The problem with our [Southern]
music for so long was that we had no outlet
to get it out of the South. Now we can get
it out. We keepin’ it crunk.”
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Started
in 1995, the Crunk Culture has lit a fire
on the underbelly of Hip-Hop, and with the
success of each Southern-influenced artist
the glow continues to grow brighter.
From paying enthusiastic dentists to lace
their mouths with gold, platinum and even
diamond laced metals to sporting A’s
baseball caps to represent an affinity with
Atlanta, music fans everywhere are seemingly
hungry for all things crunk.
Moreover,
that’s just what Lil Jon wants. But
what exactly does it mean to be crunk anyway?
“Being crunk is a way of life in the
South,” he explained. “When we
try to tell people what crunk is, we say you
gotta experience it. People [from the South]
live to go to the clubs on the weekends and
get crunk. You could see somebody get knocked
out in a fight [on TV] and say ‘Oh!
That boy got knocked out! That’s crunk!”
It’s a culture of a form of music. It’s
part of the lifestyles we lead, and it’s
developed into a culture. It’s the way
we go to pep rallies in high school or go
to dances. Everybody identifies Lil Jon and
the East Side Boyz with crunk.”
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Lil
Jon and the East Side Boys, top pic, among
cans of their hit energy drink "Crunk
Juice." The King of Crunk takes time
out during an autograph session, middle pic,
to text message a friend. Lil Jon, above,
shows his excitement about being one of the
most recognizable figures in the music industry.
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Don’t
let his openness about Crunk Culture fool
you about the secretive nature of this artist
though. Lil Jon is more tight-lipped about
certain questions than a CIA operative on
an overseas mission to the Ukraine. What we
do know about the artist, however, makes him
look like an incredibly “regular”
guy.
The single parent has a son and is the oldest
of three brothers and a sister. His mom is
a nurse and a stateside reservist who was
recently called to active duty due in part
to America’s conflict in the Middle
East. His late dad was a welder who worked
at Lockheed Martin Aeronautics Company as
a welder in the engineering department. Although
Lil Jon he had a firm middle economic upbringing
(“Our lights got cut off like everybody
else. We just had a bigger house”),
it wasn’t until late in his teens that
he began to experiment with making moves in
the music industry.
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