The King Of Crunk Jonathan Mortimer Smith (born January 27, 1971), better known by his stage name Lil' Jon
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- Solo albums : Crunk Rock (2010) Video games
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Jonathan Mortimer Smith "Little Jon" redirects here. For the character in the Robin Hood legend. The King Of Crunk 
Jonathan Mortimer Smith (born January 27, 1971), better known by his stage name Lil' Jon, is an American rapper, actor and music producer who was a member of the group Lil' Jon & The East Side Boyz. Lil Jon formed the group in 1997, and the group released several albums between then and 2004. Besides the group, Lil' Jon has also produced many hit urban singles and has made the terms "OK!", "What?!", and "Yeah!", a familiar calling amongst his friends, followers, admirers, and inside and outside of the hip hop genre. Life and career Lil' Jon was born and raised in Atlanta, Georgia. He worked for So So Def Recordings between 1993 and 2000. He attended Woodward Academy, where he graduated with Honors. Jon was accepted into Emory College, but declined so he could work more on his music. Lil' Jon & the East Side Boyz Smith took the stage name Lil' Jon and formed musical group Lil' Jon & the East Side Boyz with hype men/rappers Big Sam (born Sam Norris) and Lil' Bo (Wendell 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 #70 and #62 respectively.[4] Under BME Recordings, the group followed in 2000 with We Still Crunk, and scored a hit with "I Like Dem Girlz", which reached #55 on the R&B chart and #3 on the Hot Rap Tracks chart. 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'", a song written about and dedicated to Lil' Jon's girlfriend at the time. It featured rappers Ludacris, Too Short, Big Kapp, and Chyna Whyte.[2] "Bia' Bia'" peaked at #97 on the Billboard Hot 100 and #47 on the Billboard R&B chart.[4] 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 #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 #22 on the Hot 100, #13 on the R&B chart, and #5 on the rap chart; its follow-up, "Lovers & Friends" featuring Usher and Ludacris, peaked at #3 (Hot 100), #2 (R&B), and #1 (rap). He also graduated college at Ohio State in 1993 and then later moved back to Atlanta to perform his 1st hit song.
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, and "Girlfight" by Brooke Valentine.[2] 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 on his own "Snap Yo Fingers". 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; in May 2006 he began recording in Las Vegas, Nevada because rock band The Killers was recording its upcoming album Sam's Town there.
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 multi-million 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 Musical style 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: "[T]he end result is an album that resembles a street-level mixtape rather than a traditional artist-oriented album". 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 gansta/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. For Trick Daddy's "Let's Go", Lil' Jon sampled the bass line from Ozzy Osbourne's "Crazy Train".. Other endeavors Lil' Jon has his own energy drink, called CRUNK!!!, which was launched with Sidney Frank in 2002, after Frank's Grey Goose company had sponsored hip hop tours which included Lil' Jon. When Frank died, former Kimberly-Clark executive Tom Mahlke took over as chief executive, and during 2008 the drink took an estimated $15 million in sales.[ He launched his own line of Oakley Sunglasses in 2004, and his own brand of wine, Little Jonathan Winery, which produces a Merlot, a Chardonnay, and a Cabernet Sauvignon. Lil' Jon and his group also worked on a series of pornography releases, with the Lil' Jon and The East Side Boyz American Sex Series released in 2004. In 2008, Lil' Jon was reported by Forbes to have received a total income of 11 million US Dollars. Personal life In 2004, Lil Jon was married. Lil Jon is a fan of Atlanta Thrashers, a hockey team of the NHL and writes a blog on the NHL website NHL.com. On the blog, he has stated that his son plays hockey. Former Atlanta Thrashers goalie Kari Lehtonen once had a picture of Lil' Jon on the back of his helmet. In April 2009, Lil Jon acquired the former cell phone number of Miley Cyrus; despite that, he still received messages intended for Cyrus. Discography Main article: Lil Jon discography Main article: Lil Jon production discography Albums with the East Side Boyz:
Solo albums:
Video games
Filmography
See also
References
[edit] External links
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