CNN
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The man who thrilled the Democratic National Convention with an electrifying performance of his hit “Turn Down For What” is deeply into self-care these days.
During a recent interview with CNN, Lil Jon talked about what led to his focus on well-being. The acclaimed producer said he was going through a divorce a few years ago and facing a milestone birthday, when a friend helped him move beyond the personal meditations he would do each morning on the deck of his home by encouraging him to make some meditation music.
The result was his “Total Meditation” album, which he said folks were initially skeptical about.
“Some people were like, ‘What is this gonna sound like? Is he gonna be yelling?’” Lil Jon said, laughing. “Once it came out and people heard people were like, ‘Okay, this is actually pretty good.’ And I got so many messages of people telling me how they never meditated and how I helped them to meditate, or how specific songs helped them to deal with issues in their lives.”
For his second album, the now 52-year-old artist included some of his personal affirmations in tracks on “Manifest Abundance Affirmations for Personal Growth.”
He is happy to use his influence as a hip-hop star to get out the message of better health, especial to men of color, like him.
“It’s a journey that I’m on. I have probably still like five more albums worth of stuff that we didn’t drop yet. It is a priority to me,” he said. “Mental health is an extreme priority to me because, you know, Black men, we’re taught to just suck it up and hold it in. I’m trying to give people options of how to deal with their mental stress.”
Lil Jon has also dropped a remix of his 2002 hit “Get Low” for a special reason, partnering with Cologuard – the at-home colon cancer screening kit – to advocate for early disease detection.
“Where I am in my life right now with mental health being a priority, physical health being a priority, when they reached out about me working with the Cologuard tests, I was like, 100 percent,” he told CNN. “I got a colonoscopy about two years ago. Mine was clean. I probably would’ve used the Cologuard test if I had really known about it.”
From raising health awareness to bringing the hits, Lil Jon remains a trailblazer as one the first hip-hop producers to have a residency in Las Vegas, work that he’s still doing.
When it comes to any of his work, he wants it to be fun. That’s what, he said, he brought to the music video for “Get Low #2.”
“If Lil John, the guy known for partying is talking about this it might cause people to say let me check this out,” he said. “To help bring awareness and to push people that probably might not have checked out the Cologuard test before to check it out, I think is paramount.”
“You gotta get low to take a number two to screen for colon cancer. So yeah, it is just making it fun and lighthearted for a serious thing that’s sometimes hard to talk about.”
