LIL' JON

You’re the ambassador of Atlanta, spreading the whole "crunk" movement, so why record your album in Miami?
We recorded Kings of Crunk here, and now we’re working on the Crunk Juice album. The reason we come to Miami is to get away and not really be distracted and be able to focus. And the sun and the water energizes you and frees your mind. You’ll notice that a lot of artists don’t work on their records at home, ‘cause it’s too much distractions.

You predicted "Yeah" would be the biggest record of the year, and so far you’re right. What’s your next prediction?
The next big record I did was Kanye West’s "Workout Plan" remix. That shit is crazy. It’s Kanye West, Uncle Luke, and Fonsworth Bentley. He’s rapping on it. That’s a monster hit. We also got a record by a girl named Sierra that’s on Jive. That’s gonna be huge, that’s like the next crunk R&B song.

Have you decided what will be the first single off your next album, Crunk Juice?
Nah, but I think it will probably be this record with me and Ice Cube. It’s a traditional Lil Jon & the East Side Boyz rowdy crunk song. And I’ve got a record that’s me and Luda and Usher again, but me and Timbaland did the beat together. I did a beat, Timb did a beat, and we put our beats together so it’s gonna be some monumental shit. I don’t think no producers that’s on the level that we’re at have did a beat like that. It’s some next level shit. We might have Jonathan Davis from Korn jump on a track cause we’re about to do something on his album. R Kelly is gonna be on the album, and there’s gonna be a lot more features. Pharrell is doing a track for us too.

Here at this mansion in Miami, is it hard to live and record in the same place?
Nah. The hardest part for me is having to deal with all the day-to-day business shit and still be creative. That shit be killing me, to have so much stuff on my mind and then try to do a beat.

What do you like most about this house?
The water. It’s relaxing, soothing. If you have a long day you can just come out here and sit and listen to the damn ocean. Listen to the water and look at the sun.

You can get crunk out here?
I can get crunk at any moment! (laughing) Nah, I mean, this is just to relax. Because you have to free your mind and focus. When I do beats, it comes from nowhere. And if I’ve got too much on my mind then I can’t create. So being in this type of environment relaxes me and helps me be able to make the music.

Is there a release date for Crunk Juice?
Aw, man. I’m behind schedule like a muthafucker cause we really should be doing vocals by now. [The East Side Boyz] Sam and Bo should be down here already. I was gonna bring ‘em down once I got all the beats done so we could just do our parts and then get the guest appearances done. But we’re moving late and we’ve gotta go do a tour in Japan, so it’s probably gonna be October.

Is there some tension between you and the East Side Boyz?
My popularity as Lil’ Jon the character is exploding, so we’ve gotta iron out some stuff between us. But that’s with any group, when one member stands out more than the others you know it’s gonna be some tension. But we all family, so we gonna work out our problems and keep moving. Every family has problems. People love Lil’ Jon, but people love Lil Jon & the East Side Boyz too.

Did you like the Dave Chappelle skit?
It was real funny. I guess it’s kinda accurate, but he exaggerated my personality, ‘cause I do go back and forth between wild Lil’ Jon and businessman Lil’ Jon (laughing). It was a blessing that he did that, ‘cause he helped take me to a whole ‘nother level as a character, something that everybody recognizes. I came and surprised him on the set one day just to say "thank you" for what he’d done for me.

What else are you working on?
We got a Lil Jon action figure in the works, and "What!" "Yeah!" and "OK!" t-shirts coming. My line of sunglasses with Oakley is coming. I’m almost done with Oobie’s album, Pitbull’s album is pretty much done, I’m about to do something for Nivea and Nelly Furtado. We just shot the videos for Trillville and Scrappy’s new singles. They’re different concepts from what I normally do in videos. These are very serious. We actin’ and shit in these videos.

- Interview and photos by Julia Beverly, jb@ozonemag.com