Jonathan H. Smith, known professionally as Lil Jon, is an American rapper, DJ, and record producer. He was instrumental in the commercial breakthrough of the hip hop subgenre crunk in the early 2000s and is often credited as a progenitor of the genre. He was the frontman of the crunk group Lil Jon & the East Side Boyz, with whom he has released five albums. In addition, Lil Jon served as a producer for most recordings by artists who popularized the genre; these include Pitbull, Too Short, E-40, Ludacris, Ciara, and Usher.
Lil Jon has produced several Billboard Hot 100 hit singles including "Salt Shaker", "Cyclone", "Get Low", "Snap Yo Fingers", "Damn!", "Freek-a-Leek", "Lovers and Friends", "Goodies" and "Yeah!". The lattermost won Lil Jon a Grammy Award for Best Rap/Sung Performance as part of his five Grammy Award nominations.
In 2013, Lil Jon released "Turn Down for What" (with DJ Snake), an EDM single which was certified octuple platinum by the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA). The song went on to win the Billboard Music Award for Top Dance/Electronic Song. The accompanying music video was nominated for a Grammy Award for Best Music Video, and passed the milestone of 1 billion views on YouTube seven years after it was released. Listed as one of the Top Billboard Music Award Winners of All Time in 2016, Lil Jon has amassed his eight number one singles -Wikipedia
Birth Name: Jonathan Smith
Born: January 17, 1972 (age 52)
From: Atlanta, Georgia, U.S.
Spouse(s): Nicole (m. 2004)
Genre(s):
Hip hop,
crunk
Occupation(s):
Rapper,
songwriter,
DJr,
ecord producer,
record executive,
hype man
Active From: 1991-present
Associated Acts:
Lil Jon & the East Side Boyz,
David Guetta,
E-40,
Ludacris,
Pitbull,
TLC,
Too Short,
Trick Daddy,
Twista,
Usher,
Ying Yang Twins
Quotes:
"Earning his rightful share is one of Jon's top priorities right now. The deal comes at a time when he has been very vocal about his unhappiness with his most recent label home, TVT Records. He told Billboard that he is] very unhappy ... don't know how to pay people and take care of the people that helped take his label to another level."
"Me and my team got it down to science, ... I just go in and do it. My job is to make beats and make something hot. When I go in, I catch a vibe. If the beat feels like it don't make you move right, I scrap that and go to another track. Sometimes it takes 10 minutes, sometimes it takes an hour to get one done. I just keep spitting them out. I got all these artists, and we gotta get these albums out. If I don't do beats, we don't put no damn albums out. That's my motivation right there."
"I grew up on N.W.A N.W.A and Too Short were my favorite groups. So to just be in the studio, and for him to listen to me and let me guide him, ask me what I think... I still can't believe I'm cool with Cube like that, 'cause that's Ice Cube."
"Andrew [Farriss] and Garry [Beers] and myself have been collaborating with other artists to just have a huge pool of songs ready, ... We weren't sure if [our new singer] was going to be a woman or a man, so some of the keys were written around a lady's voice and some keys were written around a guy's voice. And we just sat there madly pulling songs and J.D. goes, 'I like this one, this one's great.' Obviously it's really important that J.D.'s involved."