Life and career

Beginnings

Born and raised in Atlanta, Georgia, Smith graduated from Frederick Douglass High School in Atlanta. After working as a DJ for Atlanta night clubs, he started working for So So Def Recordings between 1993 and 2000.

Lil Jon & the East Side Boyz

Lil Jon & the East Side Boyz
Origin	Atlanta, Georgia
Genres	Hip hop crunk
Years active	1995-2005
Labels	BME Recordings
Past members	Lil Jon Big Sam Lil' Bo

Smith took the stage name Lil Jon and formed musical group Lil Jon & the East Side Boyz with rappers Big Sam (born Sammie Dernard Norris) and Lil' Bo (born Wendell Maurice Neal). The group signed to the Atlanta-based Mirror Image Records and were distributed by Ichiban Records. In 1997, Lil Jon & the East Side Boyz debuted with Get Crunk, Who U Wit: Da Album. It included singles "Who U Wit?" and "Shawty Freak a Lil' Sumthin'", the latter of which came out in 1998. Both singles charted on the Billboard Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Songs chart at No. 70 and No. 62 respectively. In 2000, Jon took part in starting up his own label BME Recordings and signed a distribution agreement with Norcross, Georgia-based Southern Music Distribution. There he released his breakthrough album titled We Still Crunk!. Among the tracks on that project was the hit single "I Like Those Girls", which reached No. 55 on the R&B chart and No. 3 on the Hot Rap Tracks chart.

After hearing feedback that Lil Jon was "the new guy" from street team people in the markets where he was attracting his biggest audiences - namely Atlanta, St. Louis, Memphis and Dallas - A&R at TVT, Bryan Leach, went to one of his Atlanta shows and was blown away by the immense energy of the experience. Leach told HitQuarters: "It was like early Beastie Boys, when they had the energy of a rock group but they were rapping, and ... that energy is what crunk music is all about." Lil Jon & The East Side Boyz signed to TVT Records in 2001 and debuted there with Put Yo Hood Up, which combined previously released tracks with new ones. The group's first nationally played single was "Bia' Bia'", which featured rappers Ludacris, Too Short, Big Kapp, and Chyna Whyte. "Bia' Bia'" peaked at No. 97 on the Billboard Hot 100 and No. 47 on the Billboard R&B chart.

In 2002, the group released Kings of Crunk. "I Don't Give A..." was its first single; it featured Mystikal and Krayzie Bone and peaked at No. 50 on the R&B chart. The group's next single, a collaboration with fellow Atlanta hip hop group Ying Yang Twins titled "Get Low", became popular in nightclubs nationwide and reached the top ten of the Hot 100.Crunk Juice followed in 2004, led by "What U Gon' Do" featuring Lil' Scrappy. "What U Gon' Do" peaked at No. 22 on the Hot 100, No. 13 on the R&B chart, and No. 5 on the rap chart; its follow-up, "Lovers & Friends" featuring Usher and Ludacris, peaked at No. 3 (Hot 100), No. 2 (R&B), and No. 1 (rap).

Solo career and production

In addition to leading Lil Jon & The East Side Boyz, Lil Jon has also produced many hit urban singles. From 2003 to 2005, while still with The East Side Boyz, Lil Jon produced hits like "Salt Shaker" by Ying Yang Twins, "Yeah!" by Usher, "Freek-a-Leek" by Petey Pablo, "Shorty Wanna Ride" by Young Buck, "Shake That Monkey" by Too Short, "Let's Go" by Trick Daddy, "Girlfight" by Brooke Valentine, "Presidential" by YoungBloodZ. Lil Jon entered the San Francisco Bay Area hyphy music scene in 2006 with his collaborations with Bay Area rapper E-40: Lil Jon produced E-40's single "Tell Me When To Go" and had E-40 and Atlanta rapper, Sean P of the YoungBloodZ, on his own "Snap Yo Fingers". During that same year he produced a song called "Go to Church" for Ice Cube. In 2006, Lil Jon severed his negotiation with record label TVT. He vowed never to record for TVT Records again, alleging that TVT owner Steve Gottlieb was shortchanging him. He also began recording a rock music album, Crunk Rock.

MTV News reported in March 2008 that Crunk Rock was taking more time to complete than Lil Jon already planned. As part of TVT Records' 2008 bankruptcy auction, Lil Jon withdrew his multimillion-dollar objection to the TVT sale proceedings and agreed to TVT's transfer of his artist agreement to The Orchard. In return, The Orchard released Lil Jon from all future obligations and returned the rights to the master recordings of Crunk Rock. Crunk Rock was released on June 8, 2010 and it features artists such as LMFAO, Soulja Boy, Ying Yang Twins, Waka Flocka Flame, R. Kelly, and many more. In March 2011, Lil Jon took part in the fourth season of Celebrity Apprentice on NBC and was eliminated in the Final Four. In July 2011, in a recent interview has said that he is working on a new studio album called Party Animal and has released a song with LMFAO called "Drink", which was used in the trailer for the film The World's End. In 2013, Lil Jon partnered with Zumba Fitness to create a new nightclub tour titled "Zumba Nightclub Series". For Zumba Fitness, he released a new song called "Work". I

In January 2014, Lil Jon collaborated with DJ Snake and released "Turn Down for What" on Columbia Records. In February 2014, the single entered the top 5 on the Dance/Electronic chart and debuted No. 38 on Billboard's Hot 100. The song has since peaked at number 4 on the Billboard Hot 100 and gone on to be certified 3x Platinum by the RIAA. On July 22, 2014, Lil Jon released a single titled "Bend Ova", featuring Tyga and released on Epic Records. The song reached number 92 on the Billboard Hot 100. His latest single "Make Em Bounce" was uploaded to Soundcloud April 15, 2016 which will be part of his new solo project Crunk Metal alongside the song #GFU which is produced by the romanian musician DJ Hidrro.

Musical style and influences

Jason Birchmeier of AllMusic has described Lil Jon's production as "bass-heavy" and his album Put Yo Hood Up as having "a long and varied list of guest rappers to accompany the beats". With the guest performers featured on that album much more than the East Side Boyz, Birchmeier remarked: "The end result is an album that resembles a street-level mixtape rather than a traditional artist-oriented album". He was specifically influenced by 2 Live Crew, 8Ball & MJG, Three 6 Mafia, OutKast, Geto Boys, UGK, N.W.A, Dr. Dre, and Sir Mix-A-Lot. Alex Henderson, also of allmusic, contrasted Lil Jon's style of "rowdy, in-your-face, profanity-filled party music" with other Southern rappers', those who "have a gangsta/thug life agenda" and those who convey "serious sociopolitical messages". Lil Jon has also found influence in rock music, having worked with Rick Rubin and Korn. This influence embodies itself in his aggressive delivery and 'yelling' style of rap. He was seen on VH1's 100 Greatest Artists of All-Time program wearing a Bad Brains T-shirt and also used to listen to Lynyrd Skynyrd growing up in the South in the 1970s. For Trick Daddy's "Let's Go", Lil Jon sampled the bass line from Ozzy Osbourne's "Crazy Train".

Television

Lil Jon has been a contestant on Celebrity Apprentice, finishing 4th in its 11th season and 3rd in its 13th season, The All-Star Celebrity Apprentice.

Personal life

Lil Jon married Nicole Smith in 2004. They have a son named Nathan Smith (born 1998). He was an avid fan of the NHL Atlanta Thrashers franchise until they relocated to Winnipeg in 2011. He has recently also become a fan of the University of Tennessee Volunteers since their adoption of his hit song "Turn Down for What" on third downs, changing it to "Third Down for What". On October 4, 2014, Lil Jon made an appearance via jumbotron encouraging the Volunteers to beat the University of Florida Gators. Tennessee would go on to lose by one point, but Lil Jon in a tweet after the game claimed that he "still had their back".

Discography

Main articles: Lil Jon discography and Lil Jon production discography

with the East Side Boyz

• Get Crunk, Who U Wit: Da Album (1997)
• We Still Crunk!! (2000)
• Put Yo Hood Up (2001)
• Kings of Crunk (2002)
• Crunk Juice (2004)

Solo

• Crunk Rock (2010)
• Crunk Metal (2016)

Awards

Grammy Awards

Year	Recipient	Category	Result
2005	"Yeah!"	Record of the Year	Nominated
		Best Rap/Sung Collaboration	Won
		Best R&B Song	Nominated
2015	"Turn Down for What"	Best Music Video	Nominated

MTV Video Music Awards

Year	Recipient/Nominated work	Award	Result
2014	"Turn Down for What"	MTV Clubland Award	Nominated
		Best Direction	Won
		Best Visual Effects	Nominated
		Best Art Direction	Nominated

Filmography

• 2004: Soul Plane
• 2005: Boss'n Up (with Snoop Dogg)
• 2005: Hip-Hop Honeys: Las Vegas
• 2006: Date Movie
• 2006: Scary Movie 4
• 2007: Class of 3000
• 2008: Smoke and Mirrors
• 2009: Pimp My Ride International
• 2010: Freaknik: The Musical (voice only)
• 2011: Celebrity Apprentice 4
• 2013: Celebrity Apprentice 6
• 2014: The Eric André Show (credited as Big Jon)

Television appearances

• Chappelle's Show (2004)
• The Andy Milonakis Show (Season 1 Episode 1 (2005))
• Wild 'n Out (2006)
• Ridiculousness (2012)
• Celebrity Apprentice (Season 11 (2011) and All Stars (2013))
• The Jenny McCarthy Show (2013)
• Comedy Bang! Bang! (2015)

[ Source: Wikipedia ]