When you meet the man who is considered the hottest producer in hip-hop today, you expect him to be hype all the time. But Atlanta's Jonathan Smith aka Lil Jon was anything but when we sat down to discuss the new album, "Crunk Juice," which drops November 16th on TVT Records. For the past 2 years, Lil Jon has lended his production and vocals to huge hit singles for the Youngbloodz "Damn," Usher "Yeah," and the current #1 Billboard hip-hop/R&B single by Ciara "Goodies."
"You can't be crunk all the time," Lil Jon says. "When I'm in the studio, I'm usually all business. The artists I work with know that you have to have your mind straight behind the scene so that it comes off right. I'm a workaholic when it come to production so if you're not up to the task, I don't want you with me in the studio."
If there is a man who knows how to make hit records, it is definitely Lil Jon. When we spoke with him months before Usher's "Confessions" was released, he was telling us about a song called "Yeah" that he had just wrapped up that also featured Ludacris. At the time, he told us, "it's going to be the biggest record of the year." Boy was he right. Usher has gone on to sell the most CDs of any album in 2004 with Soundscans of over 5 million units.
In addition, Lil Jon has lent his production to the current radio single by artists such as Young Buck, Petey Pablo, Kanye West, Trick Daddy, and I-20. With this onslaught, its hard to believe that Lil Jon and the Eastside Boyz don't even have a major label record deal. They have Soundscanned over 2 million units of their album "Kings of Crunk" which was released on the independent label TVT Records, thanks to the commercial success of the single "Get Low" which also features crunksters Ying Yang Twins.
Now Lil Jon promises more of the same on the new album "Crunk Juice." "We have the commercial success now, but we're not changing anything. Listen to our sound on our first album [Put Yo Hood Up] and it's the same stuff you hear now. Radio changed for us. We didn't change for radio. You have to keep it the same for the fans that were down from day 1 when we were just another local Atlanta group trying to make it."
With 3 singles already leaked to radio, "What U Gon' Do" featuring Lil Scrappy, "Role Call" featuring Ice Cube, and "Grand Finale" featuring Nas, T.I., Jadakiss, and Ice Cube. Other notable tracks that as of press time had not been determined if they would be included on "Crunk Juice" are collabo tracks with Nas, Bun B of UGK, and Jadakiss and a track with a collaborative production effort by Lil Jon and Timbaland which features the same trio of Lil Jon, Usher, and Ludacris. Guest artists for Crunk Juice include Christina Milian, Ice Cube, Ludacris, Nas, Nate Dogg, Outkast, R. Kelly, Snoop Dogg, T.I., Bad Brains, UGK, Ying Yang Twins, Jadakiss, Usher, Will Smith, Rick Rubin, Tommy Lee of Motley Crue, Jamie Foxx, and a slew of others.
Lil Jon is back in the studio working on the new solo album from Lil Scrappy titled "Bred To Die," the next project from platinum recording artists Ying Yang Twins, and a few tracks from the upcoming Aaliyah (R.I.P.) duets album
