Thursday, March 5, 2009

Who is Jonathan Mortimer Smith

Who is Jonathan Mortimer Smith^?[1]^[2] The Rap world knows him by his stage name Lil Jon, Jon is an American producer, promoter, and rapper. He is best known as a pioneer of the hip hop sub-genre crunk. His work is recognizable by his distinctive hype shouts of "what?!","hey!", "yeah!", and "okay!".* Lil Jon started off his career with DJ'ing at a night club in Pheonix. Lil Jon became a huge rapper when a guy named, Jermaine Dupri thought he had a lot of talent and got him into the music business. In March of 2011, Lil Jon will be a part of the fourth season of The Celebrity Apprentice on NBC. ^[3]

Lil Jon came out with his first album with the East Side Boyz, Get Crunk, in 1997. Although he became a huge rapper, staring on the show "Pimp My Ride", Lil Jon was thought to be a geeky nerd in high school.

Lil Jon was born January 27, 1971 and raised in Atlanta, Georgia and graduated from Douglass High Schoo

l in 1989. He worked for So So Def between 1993 and 2000, which is where he got his stage name Lil Jon.^[2]
Lil Jon is a big fan of the Atlanta Thrashers of the NHL^[3] and writes a blog on NHL.com.^[4] He has also stated on the blog that his son plays hockey. Atlanta Thrashers goalie Kari Lehtonen also has a picture of Lil Jon on the back of his helmet.^[5] He also has his own energy drink, called CRUNK!!!^[6], and has his own line of Oakley Sunglasses.^[7]

Lil Jon says that he "was inspired by the synthesizer sounds of rave/dance music he heard playing in Atlanta strip clubs".^[8]
Before recording the album, Lil Jon severed his negotiation with record label TVT. Two years ago, Jon vowed never to record for TVT Records again, alleging that TVT owner Steve Gottlieb was shortchanging him.^[9]

“

After a long battle and negotiations with TVT, we worked out our differences. TVT cut the check and now it's time for me to get back to work.^[9]

”

Jon said in a statement: "Crunk Rock is going to be some next level shit".^[9]

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 compulsions and returned the rights to the master recordings of his constantly delayed LP, Crunk Rock.^[10]

Lil Jon was born and raised in Atlanta, Georgia. He lived in Bridgeport, Connecticut for a short time and many of his earliest influences stem from his time there. He attended Douglass High School, and later graduated from the Ohio State University in 1993, moving back to Atlanta to officially begin his music career.^[4] He worked for So So Def Recordings between 1993 and 2000.^[5] 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.^[6] 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.^[6]
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.^[6] 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).^[6]

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, 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".^[7]
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.^[8] 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 and the East Side Boyz signs and new deal with Rick Robinson aka Double R CEO and Founder of iMG Recordings which the album got pushed back to 2011 and the first single is with T-Pain ,.^[9]

“

After a long battle and negotiations with TVT, we worked out our differences. TVT cut the check and now it's time for me to get back to work.^[8]

”

MTV News reported in March 2008 that Crunk Rock was taking more time to complete than Lil' Jon already planned.^[10] 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' Crunk Rock features artists such as LMFAO, Soulja Boy, Ying Yang Twins, Waka Flocka Flame and Aaron Shaw'.^[11]

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".^[12] 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".^[13] Lil' Jon has also found influence in rock music, having worked with Rick Rubin and Korn.^[14] For Trick Daddy's "Let's Go", Lil' Jon sampled the bass line from Ozzy Osbourne's "Crazy Train".^[9].

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.^[15]^[16] 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.^[15] He launched his own line of Oakley Sunglasses in 2004,^[17] and his own brand of wine, Little Jonathan Winery, which produces a Merlot, a Chardonnay, and a Cabernet Sauvignon.^[18]^[19]
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.^[20]
In 2008, Lil' Jon was reported by Forbes to have received a total income of 11 million US Dollars.^[21]

Personal life

In 2004, Lil Jon was married.^[22] Lil Jon is a fan of Atlanta Thrashers, a hockey team of the NHL^[23] and writes a blog on the NHL website NHL.com.^[24] 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.^[25], Lil Jon has one known son. On October 30th 2010 Lil Jon performed his first live DJ set in Seattle as a headliner at the annual Freaknight event.