Lil Jon on His Biggest Hits, Family, Faith, and Finding Happiness

My next guest has been turning us all the way up for more than 30 years. He's a Grammy-winning producer, rapper, and DJ who helped put "crunk" on the map. Gave us massive hits like "Get Low," "Turn Down for What," and "Yeah," and became one of the most recognizable voices in music. But after all these years, he says we've only seen one version of him. Now in his new memoir, I only shout so you can hear me. He's finally letting us into the world beyond the music, the catchphrases, and the larger-than-life persona. Baby, this is Lil' John. ♪ This is Kate, Kate, baby, this is Keke Palmer, yeah. ♪ Today's episode is brought to you by Apple Watch. We've been so much time checking in on everybody else, but wins the last time you checked in on your heart. Apple Watch Series 12 has an all-new health-sensing system that unlocks even more powerful health insights. And health, heart is everything. Now, let's get into today's show. Where you at, hey! I'm in here. Oh, my God, you're so good. I can't believe I'm here. I can't believe that you're here, either. I'm so happy. Hey, you got me some stuff. I brought you some crunk cowboy shirts. Thank you so much. I love it. It's so weird seeing you in person, because I know you for all my life, even though I never met you in my life. Same. Oh my God. And you feel like one of my cousins, I feel like I already know you. Your personality matches like, I'm sure you get this all the time, but family members. Oh my gosh. When anybody, when anybody time, that somebody tells me that, I feel so happy. There's no greater compliment than feeling like family. Because you're real, like you, I've never met you, but you seem like you are yourself when you're on camera, whenever you say whatever. And you just happy too. Oh my gosh. Thank you. I do try to keep the spirit high, which I feel like we relate on. I feel like you always bring in the high energy. Yes. And so I'm so happy to have you on the show and to talk about all those things. Before we get into them, though, I got to do my pre show. Pull up. Okay. And so I actually don't believe that I can't believe I don't know your sign. What sign are you? Capricorn. I got the same birthday as Betty White, Steve Harvey, the 17th. It's a bunch of it. Capricorn is my perfect match. Virgo, I don't know if you, do you see get along with Virgo? I don't really know too many Virgos. Oh, wow. That's crazy. Yeah. Okay. So Virgo, a son, do you know your moon arising? I have no idea. You don't even know that stuff. I do not know that part. Okay. Boom. Okay. Now, what is your love language, meaning like how do you receive love, like recognize what somebody loves you, and then how do you give love? Well, I guess it goes back to how my mother loved on me. So I like to be like hugged and kissed and just have someone next to me. So my love language is just spending time with somebody and just being in their presence. That's what it's about for me. So your mom is a very affectionate person. That's how I am with my son. I love to hear that because my son now, as he's getting older, he's three now. Going from when he was a baby and I was hugging him, kissing him, everything. Now he said, can I have a hug and kiss? It's like I'm sitting there. It melts your heart, right? Yeah. Yeah, my daughter is like that now. It is so cute. She's too. She's about to be too. She's about to be too glad. Congratulations on that. Thank you, thank you. To your partner as well. Thank you. Okay. So no matter how much money you have, what is one thing you'll splurge on? My family. Oh, excuse me. You'll never splurge on. Oh. What is one thing you'll never splurge on? My bad. My bad. I try to not splurge on things that are like going to go away like, you know what I mean? I want something that's going to lie. If I'm going to spend a lot of money on something, I want it to be able to last. I feel the exact same way. I mean, every now and then for a little item or something, but you know, I used to feel guilty about jewelry. But then I realized like, no, jewelry is an investment. It's an investment. Yeah. So then I started getting a little bit too crazy on that. I got to calm down. Yeah. I hear you. You know, gold is never going to, gold is always going to be useful, you know. So if you get some gold diamonds, I don't know, but gold in itself is always going to be useful. Woo. It's always going to be currency. Come on. Let's go take it back to the new Egyptians. They was getting buried with their ****. That's so crazy. I had some billionaires tell me get gold blocks. And it was like, put your money, put some of your money into gold, bought into gold bars. Because if anything goes, the currency goes away, we still going to have gold. You got to think back in the day, they was gold coins. Yeah. And it's materials from the earth, so it's like, it has some type of energy to it. We probably don't know. Yeah. We're going to find out. Okay. What is your most unpopular opinion if you even have one that's sometimes that's hard to think about? I don't know. I know that's hard one. You know, these days, you can't even damn share your damn unpopular opinions. So I'm keeping my unpopular opinion to myself. No, seriously. Seriously. Y'all just saying, we can't, like, I don't get you. That's the thing about today, compared to being born in the 70s and then raised in the 80s. Oh, my God. Everybody's opinion, then damn matter. No. Everybody wasn't offended so easily. Yeah. You get what I'm saying? So we can't say what we used to say. Yeah. It's interesting, though, because when it comes to the opinion, it does feel like everybody opinions matter so much. Yeah. But actually, I don't even know you. Right. And they don't matter. And they don't care what you think. Right. We don't. Sorry. Okay. Last one. The one thing in your fridge you'll never round out of is. For me, it's eggs. I'm going always little. Yes. I do two eggs a day. The family does two eggs. Everybody in the family does two eggs a day. I always got, I drink this drink called Zevia. It's no sugar. Come on. And it's a soda. And so we stay stocked up on Zevia's because you can get a soda fix with none of the guilt. Like no calories, no bad stuff. It's zero. Everything. You know what I started getting into just thinking about the taste, but not whatever comes with it. I started getting into some non-acaholic wine. Okay. No wine, but taste like wine, but it ain't got none of the alcohol. I'm winning. I also start to feel like I'm getting into it, even though I ain't in there. Everything is in your mind, you know, we create our own reality. So if you feel like you're getting the buzz and you're feeling good, then that's what you're getting. Exactly. Exactly. Okay. So like I said, I feel like I know you all my life. I mean, it's giving. Yeah. What? Okay. That was pretty good. You know, I tried to put it out there, but now you're saying hold on like, let me let y'all really know what I'm about. And you have your memoir coming out, which is I only shout so you can hear me. And I love that title. Thank you. I love that title. Yeah. It kind of came about. We were trying to figure out a title and we were just on a conference call one day and it just kind of came out. And it's basically what it means to me is I'm deeper than you think. You think I'm just these three words, but I'm way deeper than that. And it's also because people a lot of times think I'm just, I got lucky and I'm always screaming and hollering and it's no depth to me and it's no like I'm very calculated and everything I do throughout my entire musical career. And some people just think I'm just an idiot, you know, dumb and just screaming and hollering and I'm like, no, it's a lot more to me. I remember when I was coming up in the game and I would be in the studio sessions and stuff like that. Something that the people always said was little John is one of the most intelligent people in the game. I always would hear that coming up. I never got a chance to meet you, but people would always say I'd be in Atlanta in the scene, whatever. And they would always say like, yo, he'd be on some next level stuff. And so it's so cool that at this point, you know, you want to share kind of what is behind that because it's true. People perceive you and I even feel like I experienced that too myself where people only see clips of you. They only see what it is you're putting out there, but they're not knowing everything that goes into it. Right. And why are you shouting? Right. You know what I'm saying? Right. Right. So you described yourself as a new human being. Yeah. Obviously, we always are becoming new versions of ourselves. If you're not, then that's like crazy, right? Right. Especially every five to ten years. Yeah, exactly. What is something that would have surprised the 20 year old you about who you are today? That I would kind of slow down on partying because I've been partying like since 16 years old, like in a major way, because I was, I had the house. Everybody came to, I threw the craziest parties in high school. Yeah. No, you said your parents let you turn the basement into little parties. Yeah. I had basically my own apartment in the basement. So I had turntables down there and whenever we want to have a party, we just get on the phone and just put the word out and then the party is just crazy. So I've been partying since 16 and I thought I would never like slow down on that. And then I slowed down. I never thought I would be. be in the meditation and helping to heal people through meditation and I never thought I was going to be who I am. When I was younger, when I was a teenager and when I was elementary school, I was a quiet, I was quiet as a elementary school kid. I was just kind of more reserved and quiet. But as a teenager, I got into the punk rock music and punk rock scene and skateboarding before. I'm never a teenager and maybe come on punk rock. But it wasn't cool then. This was the 80s. Right, right. We were no black punk rock kids or black skater kids in Atlanta. It was only a small community of us, about 10, 15 of us, right? So I never would have thought that I would become a rapper because I grew up listening to Big Daddy Kane, Slick Rick, you know, all of those artists. I never would have imagined I would be an entertainer, yet alone being in pop culture the way I am. So none of that I would have ever, ever imagined. So let's go back to the beginning because, you know, you were shy as a kid, but you know, you kind of got into playing the drums because you had a crush on your music teacher. Yeah, I had a crush on this teacher and I was like, I want to learn how to play drums because of her. And so I got my mom to get me private lessons. So I can have that private teacher. That's so funny. That was crazy is the things that we learn as kids can, you know, help us out as adults because drumming, drumming and DJing are the foundations of how I produce music. And starting in drums and then being in high school and in drums and middle school, it taught me like how to make music in the sense of how it was formatted. Like, everything had a place, you know, kind of mathematical. Yeah. Most drummers know that are producers understand space. A lot of guys that learn more, you know, keyboards and all of that, they get more to, they overproduce sometime. Sure, sure. And drummers, we kind of simplify things and strip it back so everything's got a spot. So I think that helped me to become a great producer as well. Yeah. What do you think it was that you felt with music that obviously taken out of the reason, the initial reason why you want to get into it. When you started actually drumming and then obviously eventually DJing, et cetera, what wasn't that kept you coming back to that practice? It was. So DJing, I was just jumping to it from DJing. One time I was having a party at my house and this way it made me want to be a DJ. My boy, Cersei, he was the DJ for the crew. Shout out to Cersei. Yeah. And I just was amazed one night how he could control the emotion and the energy of a party by playing different types of music. So I was like, that's why I want to learn how to DJ. And that's what keeps me coming back to music is the energy. And I realized through making music and DJing that I kid, I give people a good time. Like I understand that's part of my purpose. Earlier in my life, my purpose is to give people music that makes them feel good, to release and forget the problems of their life. And now I have a different purpose, but I understand, you know, even we just finished the American leg of this tour. I'm back tour. I'm doing with Pitbull. And we get ready to go back to Europe and just looking out on the crowd and seeing different generations of people singing the songs and seeing them have a good time just makes me feel good. So yeah, it's the energy. But it's interesting, right? Because even when we think about the, the somebody might see all the music being totally different from the meditation or the things you're doing now, but they're actually the same thing because it's a transference of that energy. You started and that's the interesting about like pads. And I always talk about that with people that are like I want to be this person. I want to be that purpose on the function of why you're doing something. You know, and that will lead you to a million different things. That could show up being a meditation teacher, being a yoga teacher, being a musician, DJ, producer, rapper, because you really, you know what it is you actually love about it, which is that transference of that energy. You have to be open to receiving too, because sometimes people push away things that they don't think that they need to do or they don't understand. When you got to be open, like meditation kind of came to me because I was going through a divorce and I didn't like the way my mindset was. I'm a very positive individual. And I was like, I don't like the way I'm thinking right now. This has got me off. So I was like, let me start saying affirmations every day. So I could change my mindset because that's the key to welcoming good things back into your life is to change your mindset and think positive things. So I was like, let me start sending these affirmations. So I would drink tea every morning and sit in this pyramid. I had a copper pyramid fabulous copper. I would go sit in the pyramid and say my affirmations and then around the same time, my good friend Doug Davis introduced me to a guy named Kabir Segal and he was in that space. So I'm meditating basically every day and he's in that space and then we start to come together and talk and we decide to collaborate and just start doing these meditations album. So that just kind of came, you know, that was the path the guy was steering me towards. And I accepted the calling and so many people after I dropped these albums would hit me and say I never meditated before. Thank you for helping me meditate. Your meditations helped me sleep, helped me to sleep better. Your meditation helped me to deal with grief, you know. So all of that makes me feel good because I feel like the music it did a certain amount of good too. But to be able to help and heal is a whole another level of answering the call and the God has for us all. Yes. Oh my gosh. I love everything that you said. I know this book is going to touch so many people and again, it all happens in God's time and because all the people that you touched went from your entry point, they get to be also a part of this new chapter to you. So it's like if everything is in God's timing. So I really love that. Something also that you reveal in your book is that you've recently found out the man that raised you was not your biological father. Now that's T. How did you get into that? It's real crazy because it was a family rumor that my, you know, we love that. It's definitely giving seven. Yeah. So I was trying to put this family rumor to be it like, man, you come on. Y'all don't believe that. Let me just go get this DNA done. And I realized as in doing this, my one of my cousins on my dad's side. Yeah. He has his full DNA profile and the same company that I do. And then when I started to look at it, he wasn't popping up as a relative. And he's my first cousin. So I was like, something off here. And then so I got the real forensic DNA stuff done. And they were like, no, he's not. But this person over here is your brother. And this person over here is your sister. And I'm like, whoa. So it's crazy because it knocked me backwards of million feet because I had just seen a movie about this chick. And she found out her dad was not her biological dad. And it's things that you see in movies that you like, that would never happen to me. Oh, that's crazy. That happened to that person. And then it happens to you. And it's like, wow. So that was a, I dealt with a rollercoaster of emotions. And my mother's not here. My father's not here. My biological father's not here. So I can't even go to any of them and ask them questions, you know. Now that's tough. Yeah. That's tough. When you look back on your childhood, are there were there certain things that started to come to you or that you reflected on? I've never had an inkling that my brother weren't my, you know, 100% blood brothers like that. And I never, we kind of thought we didn't look alike sometimes. But you know, that's family. Sometimes the kids don't look alike. I'm like 1000%. But I never would have thought. And like I said, I just did the test to like, to just put the rumors to bed and be like, no, y'all tripping. I don't believe that. But it's more even intense in the book when y'all read the book, you'll get more of the story. But yeah, it was just so shocking. I just could not believe it. And my biological siblings reached out to me through the DNA site. But I just mentally haven't been able to talk to them yet. I will. But I just had, it was so heavy because you think, you know, your life is, I'm 50 some years old when I find this out. And I've lived an entire life. And then you realize your life wasn't the life that you thought it was. Yeah. Yeah. Your story is different. It can sometimes make you question your identity, you know what I mean? But it's interesting because you don't actually have the ability to have those conversations with your parents. That's what hurts the most because I can't go talk to my biological father and say, what's your favorite food? What's your favorite color? Let's go to a movie. I didn't ever get a memory of him taking me to a baseball game. I can't have no conversation. I don't know anything about him. I got some pictures because shout out to my, you know, my biological siblings, they sent me some pictures. So I see what he looks like. And we do look alike. And one picture they sent me, he was in the club. I was like, oh, that's probably, that's what I get it from. I probably get some of that from him. And my mom. Do you feel like he knew about you? I don't think he did. Wow. Because they also said in the DNA, T, he had other kids that he did not know about too. So I got some Latino family members too. (laughing) So maybe that's why I'm so connected in the Latino community with all of this stuff I do. - I'm gonna call that. - Yeah, so it's crazy. - Oh my gosh, that is so interesting. I've always wondered that too with me and where it's like, oh my gosh, what would you do if you found out that you had kids you never do? You know what I mean? Or even dudes that go and give this firm to banks, it's like you might have 40 up out there. - Right. - You ain't got no clue. So I wanna talk about the glasses 'cause in hip-hop culture, image and branding is everything. I mean, in in pop culture period, you know what I'm saying? We think about left eye, you know what I'm saying? We think about Alia in the early days. But something actually did happen to your eye when you were younger. That brought you to doing the whole sunglasses. - Yeah, it was a couple of things. So initially when I started becoming artists, I was like, I wanna stand out. I'm always marketing. I'm always thinking of, you know, how can I stand out in the crowd of other Southern artists? And even in the group, I was in Lou John Eesai boys. So I initially started with these Elvis glasses. I was like, I'm gonna do something really off the wall. I'm gonna get these Elvis sunglasses and I started with the Elvis sunglasses. But yes, it's also, I had an eye injury when I was a kid. I poked myself in the eye with a syringe, playing around with it. My mother was a diabetic and I got into her syringes and I poked myself in the eye. And I was like seven years old. So I had all these eye surgeries and like I had a traumatic cataract and I had to get up my lens replaced. - Oh God. - So as a kid, I think this is also what helped to mold being who I am today. It's because I had to endure so much as a child and be tough and work hard because I had to do all these eye exercises 'cause the muscles in my eye got weakened. So my eye would drift a little bit. - My son has a bit of a lazy eye. - So all of that helped me to have to work hard. I had to learn to work hard as a kid to strengthen my eye and then the endure going to school with an eye patch on or my eye drifting a little bit and all of that. So yeah, I had issues with my eyes from my early age and then so I would wear sunglasses also to kind of hide if my eye drifted or whatever, but. - Yeah. - Yeah, it was just stuff that, you know, I wouldn't go back and change anything. People, I like to get into that sometimes because people say, "Would you change anything?" And I'm like, "No, because if I change anything, I wouldn't be who I am today." Everything that I went through in my life gave me knowledge, experiences, and molded me to be who I am. I might not have the creativity that I have. I might not have the work ethic that I have if I change anything. So yeah, it was tough to endure that going through school and certain parts of life, but it made me who I am. - Yeah, I couldn't agree with you more. It's like that butterfly effect. I don't know if you've ever seen that movie, but it's like one small change and everything's ain't gonna be the same. So I'm cool with it. You know, you also had your own HGTV show, which it was all about interior design, but you found your way into interior design and just from trying to do your own house? Like, what was the storyline with it? - So we had a flood in our house. We were living in California back and forth between LA and Atlanta. And the water was running on the top floor of our house for a week. So it ruined the entire house. We had to gut the house. And so in trying to put the house back together, I was watching home renovation shows on TV. And so I came across this show and it was called Megadens and it was this designer named Anita Mechadon. And I really loved her work. And I was like, I'm gonna reach out and see if she wanna do something, help me out. So I reached out, she was like, yeah, let's get together and do something. So me and her started to put together my house and that's how I fell in love with interior design. And it's really just being creative, just like music. She has all of the book smarts and on the job training and all of the history. And I just have creative ideas. And so we come together and she helps me to play off of each other, but she helps my crazy ideas come to life. And so yeah, we put back together my house. And my house came out to be really nice. And her husband, who's behind the scenes, manager and stuff, he was like, y'all worked really good together and your designs are crazy. Like we should kind of shop y'all to try to do a TV show. So we shot a pilot and we got on HDTV for two seasons. - That is so fire. Again, following the flow in the vibe. - Yeah. - You get what I mean? It's like it's so interesting. People are like, why are you getting that? Just being true to me. That's how I found myself up in there. 'Cause also I found out when I was getting ready for this, you was a bodybuilder too. You were bodybuildin' competition. And you made it actually to third place? - Yeah. - Okay, what made you say I'm about to get slow? How come you going from getting low to getting slow? - What's crazy is, it started from Super Bowl. (upbeat music) - This message is a paid partnership with Apple Watch. Our heart can tell us a lot about our health. And most of us are just out here ignoring it like an unread text from someone who's right. I've learned that one of the best indicators of how you're really doing is your heart. Apple Watch Series 12 has the most accurate heart rate sensing in-awareable. And the readiness score gives you one simple number every morning that says, yes, go conquer. Or maybe sit this one down. It pulls from your recent activity, your vitals, your sleep, and it adjusts throughout the day. So you know when to push and when to pull back. Oh, and the vitals app now tracks HRV or heart rate variability, which is basically your body's inside scoop on stress and recovery. And you can check vitals day or night to catch shifts in your health status before they even think about becoming a whole thing. And that's on self-care, honey. Your heart tells the story of your health and with Apple Watch Series 12, you can understand it better than ever. Visit apple.com/applewatchseries12 to learn more. The features described are for wellness purposes only and not for medical use. iPhone 11 or later required heart rate accuracy based on Apple conducted study August, 2026. Visit apple.com/hracuracy. I've been scrolling Airbnb planning Thanksgiving and I already know I want to take the family somewhere instead of hosting at home this year. I'm thinking Hudson Valley Orches. Farm to table restaurants, maybe a cider tasting that turns into a whole afternoon. I want to hit a local market the morning of and get everything fresh. Find a bakery for the pies because let's be clear. I do not bake. I perform other talents. Walk through town after dinner when everyone's too full to function but too happy to go inside. And then we'll come back to the cozy home at the end of the night to relax, get comfy. And of course, enjoy those leftovers at midnight. That's what I love about booking trips with Airbnb. You get the comforts of home while exploring new neighborhood, discovering local gyms and living your best life. If a cozy holiday getaway is in your future, play your next family gathering with Airbnb. - I got the call from usher that I want you to work on this show but I want you to be in the show. - Okay. - And so I was like to myself, I need to look fly on this stage. I was like, I'm not about to look crazy up here. I'm not about to be overweight and look not. So one of my homies that I used to party with, we used to drink and eat pizza at five in the morning. He moved to LA and he became a bodybuilder. He got ripped and he was competing. So I went to him and was like, yo, can you train me to get ready for Super Bowl? So we got me, with me in the shape, got nice shape. And then after that, he kind of, he went and competed at Muscle Beach, Venice Muscle Beach. And he was telling me, yo, you know, your category, I'm 50 or eight years old. So he was like, your category 50 and up, it's 45 and up. You probably could have won. If we would have trained right and got you in there. And so I was like, he's like, should we, you know, you want to do it next year, maybe? I was like, yeah, let's do it. So we started training. So it was rough because I was still on the road. I'm still doing shows, I'm still doing night clubs. So we trained, trained, trained, and I eventually, what's crazy is the day before I was all the way in like Connecticut or something, or Boston. So I had to take two flights to get to LA just to be there for the competition in the morning. So we like, so I meant the night before I'm on stage jumping around at nine o'clock at night. When most bodybuilders are just relaxing and getting ready to eat and the right stuff, I don't know. Definitely not on the plane getting framed. Exactly. So I come to LA, go to Venice and I enter and I get third place. So that was a major accomplishment. And that's huge. You know, I thought that's a great motivation for so many people, like, especially people in my age. I'm 50 years, I'm 54 now. That was like 52, 53. You look great. Thank you. So I thought, you know, this is also motivated. That was like, no matter what place I come in, it's gonna be good because it's gonna motivate others to get help. that you get in shape and that they could also just try it. - Yes, or some of the things in that discipline that you feel like, even though you might not always be competing every day, that you're like, I wanna keep this from the bodybuilder world. 'Cause it's so, in order for them to do that, it's a lot of discipline. - It's 100% discipline to your life. - 'Cause people, most people can't stop eating the (beep) - Yeah, yeah. - And drinking the (beep) they can't put the freaking soldiers down, they can't stop the sweeps, they can't stop braiding. - It gets us all. - Yep. - And so for me, I don't really do, once you, once for me, once I get myself into a rhythm, I don't crave things anymore. Like so, I don't really do the sweeps anymore. I don't really, you know, I don't do the soldiers. Like I said, I got the healthy soldiers I take and I realized I need to put more quality protein in my diet, little bit of carbs and no bread. And once you get into it, it's like normal. Like so now I'm like 24/7, I'm generally eating pretty healthy. - Oh, I love that. That made me think about my boy, Jermaine Dupri, 'cause obviously also, you all ended up working together so so definitely. I mean, he was telling me, he was vegan. He'd been vegan since before. People was talking about vegan. I'm like, it's crazy. - We try to get his ass to work out, too. He ain't trying. 'Cause the guy, his shout out, Jay Galvin, he's both of our friends. I made him through Jermaine. - Yeah, yeah. So he used to look out for us in New York, but we try to get Jermaine in him. He and the studio, so you know, he ain't got time. - Exactly. - You actually, even from the terror chips. - I don't want to hear people say, I ain't got time. You make time for what's the priority to you. - It's true. - And I only work out three days a week. You only, you don't have to work out seven days a week. You can work out three days and be good. - Because they say that eating is the 80% in the waiting out is the 20%, which I believe. Protein, high protein, and then you don't have to run. You just get on an incline. One secret for y'all, real easy. Stop eating a (beep) number one. Number two, incline of treadmill, 15, 15 incline. You do that for 20 minutes a day. Wait, gonna fall off. I'm telling you, it worked for me. I didn't believe it is. I thought I had to run. 'Cause I used to run here and there when I was trying to get myself in shape. - Yup. - And it hurt my ankles. So, but walk on that incline, 15 incline. It's gonna drop the pounds off of you. - It's so true. I do that. My workout, I'm very low-impact. I try to work out at least three times a week. All low-impact, Pilates, yoga, nothing crazy intense. And that 15 incline, it's incredible. - It's gonna kick your ass for the first month. But once you get used to it, it's easy. - Yeah. So how did you end up working with your man? Was y'all just out in the scene? Was the East Side Boys already a thing? - I was DJing around the city. - Cool. - He had Xavier in the straight jackets. He had silk times leather. These are his early groups. This is when we met. So this was early '90s. And we just used to see each other all the time everywhere. And then I started DJing at this one club called the Phoenix. And he tells the story that he came in there one night with like, can you play my record? And I played his record. And he was like, what the (beep) I ain't nobody ever done that. And so we got cool. And whenever I saw he had a show with some of his groups, I go support and he would come to the club. And then one day he was like, yo, I'm starting my label, 1993. I remember 'cause I started '93. He said, I'm starting my label. I want you to come over and be A&R in street promotions. 'Cause you're everywhere in the streets. I want you to be A&R in street promotions. I was like, what the (beep) is A&R? 'Cause I was just DJing in the club. I don't know what the hell that is. - Right. - And so he was like, just come over and you know, find talent and just you do you, be out. You know, so that's how we ended up clicking up. And I thank him a lot because I was able to learn the ins and outs of record companies and the music business like from the beginning. Because he was a major but he kind of operated like, differently because he had his own thing, but he was on Columbia. So I got to like, knowledge that you can't really get, I was able to get because I'm dealing with, you know, his side but I was also talking to the people in New York at the big label so I was able to learn so much. And he just gave me a lot of opportunities. And he also like hired me to do remixes on some, like I did remixes on, you make me wanna. I think that was like one of my first big remixes on a major artist. So that's foreshadowing because you make me wanna remix and then yeah. - Later I do yeah. - When we have a new year come, I mean yeah, it's yeah, yeah. We don't think about usher with that little chain. I mean, what was happening that got y'all to do that song? What made you say, what made y'all do that? - So it's an interesting story. So I was still working there, so so deaf. And this young lady her name was Delicia Hassan. I got a shout, shout her out because she's the reason the writer Sean Garrett got the beat. - Come on Sean. - So Delicia had my beats and Sean said he, he said he was trying to get in touch with me but I don't know about that. So he called Delicia 'cause he knows she could get access to me. He was like, you got some little John Beats. So she was like, yeah, so she gave him a beat CD and so he wrote, yeah, to the beat that is now Fricka Leak. So it's a long story. - Fricka Leak. - What is your, I would go in the studio for labels and like say, they would book me a circle house for a week. And I would do as many beats as I can. So this was for Jive Records. This was Jive Records at the time. And they book me doing mystical beats. So I'm doing beats for mystical. So I do a week in circle house. All these beats are done. One of the beats is that beat that turned out to be Fricka Leak. And that was for mystical and he turned the beat down. He didn't like the beat. So the beat CD is sitting, well Jive has the beats. Little did I know that one of my homies named C.O. that's a writer from Miami shot out C.O. He kind of wrote part of Fricka Leak and gave it to Jive. And then Petey ended up recording it. - Yep. - We don't even notice. Like we know this is behind the scenes. - Petey, Pablo. - And another thing is that when you hear, yeah, little John on Fricka Leak, that's not me. That's C.O. He did that as a demo, a dummy track. Just imitating me. And he wanted me to do that later. And they ended up mixing the song. I never, like I said, I didn't know. So they ended up mixing the song. So the engineer didn't know it wasn't me. So he kept it. So on the other side, we had the beat CD. Sean has it. He writes, yeah, we go recorded. We think it's a smash. And I remember it was around Christmas time. The album is done. Usher's album is done. First single is going to be burned. So the album is done. L.A. Reed calls Jermaine, his Christmas time. And his curse is in Jermaine out. Jermaine calls me on three-way. L.A. is like, what the fuck is going on? Why the fuck is this Usher song playing in Miami on the radio? The Fricka Leak bed was being used on the radio for them to talk over. So we're like, what the fuck? I don't know what the fuck is going on. So we find out Petey Pablo uses the beat. So then we try to get Petey to take another beat. They're like, no, we keeping this song. So me and my crew shout out to El Rock, my boy El Rock, we go in the studio back in Circle House in Miami. I say, I don't think this Petey song going to be that big. Let's just keep the drum, take all the music off. So if y'all wondering why the beat sound similar is because I used the exact same drums because I didn't think the Petey Pablo record was going to be big. It's huge. So yeah, I got lucky. So we take all of the music off, keep the drums, and then he's messing around with lines, and then he goes, plays the bun up, bun up. That's it, that's it, that's it right there. That's it, lay that, then I lay something else, and I'm like, all right, let's go to the club. Woo, we outta here. Come on, let's go to the club. But the blessing is, yeah, is a better song with the beat that it has now, then yeah, over Fricka Leak. Yeah, I can't even imagine it, it's a great song, a great song is a great song, but I can't even imagine it with that, but I know what you mean by the similarities. That's just history. When you were doing it, I'm sure there was no way that you knew it would be history, but when you think about the impact of that record now and all the different spaces that it lives in, the moment that it comes on, it transports people back. How do you really, can you really feel that impact? Yeah, I remember when yeah came out, and I remember I was like in a hood, hood, and I was seeing somebody bumping it in a car, I heard them bumping it in a car, and then I was somewhere else and it's white girls planning. It's like the reach of it was like this. Yeah. And then just the fact that all of the craziness, you know, as an artist, you know, when this crazy stuff that happens, that's when you know you got to hit. So all of the crazy stuff, we almost didn't get the video shot in time, and then we get hyped to do the videos, an incredible video and then hype at the end, it's like, yo, take this mic. No, something that y'all didn't know, it's a little nugget. When Usher is doing all his dancing, his big numbers, I'm on the mic, hyping him up. I'm like, crank it up. Crank, I'm like hyping him up. So he's getting a little extra gear. And then at the end, hype was like, why don't you just do these chants at the end? And that's why it's only in the videos because we just did it live, and that's live in the video. Oh my God. So that turned icon. but it is crazy to reach the fact that we went from having to redo the beat to being at the Super Bowl performing it is, that's like such a blessing man, that's God. - And it's also so you. It's so your, it's little John. Like you, your personality, it's your whole vibe. And how did you, 'cause I know before you. - Thank you, Sean. - Yeah, hey, Sean, you know me, I love him. So you said, you kind of became an artist accidentally, but how do you become one of the most defining voices in hip hop accidentally? - It's because, like we said, we just go along with the flow. We go where we relate, like I didn't fight things. You know, doors opened up and I walked through the doors or I saw an opportunity, the door cracked and I opened the door. You know, we can't just sit back and expect everything to come to us, we have to go fight for it and we have to, you know, we get a, God will show you something but you have to choose the path. You know, so I, I just kept not giving up and just kept, you know, season opportunities and doing the work and yeah, it just kind of happened. I became like every, like I said in the book, everything is calculated. Like I saw something just going over here and I'm like, we should go over here and do this over here and then like the image changes and the music changes or whatever it is, I just don't fight things. I just let it flow. - Being in alignment, don't push against physics. It's so real that God will lead you there. There's no way God. - That's why people relationships fail. - Come on, let's wake that to you up. (laughing) You trying to put, what does it say for us a square in the peg hole? - I'm just saying, man, they come on. You see, the signs is, you can always go back and see the sign that you ignored. - Oh my gosh, Virgo's are good for that. We just sit back collecting data. Don't nobody care about your data, girl. (laughing) By the end of it, we got a saliliquity and this is how I know you are who you are. Girl, they already knew that. - Right. - It was hoping you didn't find out so soon. - Exactly. - Child. So how did you say, hey, this is Cronk music? 'Cause in the beginning, people were kind of like, okay, it's chanting. They didn't really know you were defining what your sound became and what Lil' John is. In the beginning, how was it navigating that when people really didn't get what they know to be now? - Yeah, so at the beginning, when me and the East Side Boys came together, the first song we ever recorded was this song called "Who You With." And we just wanted to make a song for Atlanta people to get Cronk to in the club. That's all we wanted to do. And at the time, Master P was popping. Eight ball MJG was popping. Later, three, six mafia came. We were listening to all these other artists in the club that we would turn up to and tear the club up to. But it wasn't really much Atlanta stuff like that. So 1995, '96, 'cause when we went in the club and we did this first song, first song we ever recorded turned into a hit. Anthem for freak me, like 1996. And so that started, like, I wasn't trying to be an artist, but the song became a hit and we had to do an album then. And then each album, we got better and better at it. So the sound started to emerge from all of the influences and then just being in the club, we would notice things and we, like, I would say, hey, let's make a record out of that or I know that's how certain stuff made the people move and it just kind of just grew. It just kind of grew from just normal progression. - Yeah, I'm curious of what you think about timing, especially in an era that we're in now. Everybody's expecting everything to happen so fast. But nobody is built overnight, right? Like when I think about when Lil' John named, became Lil' John, it was the early 2000s. However, you're talking about '93, '96. This is like so many years before then. And some people might have been like, oh, he came out of nowhere, but you didn't. So I'm curious of what you would say to artists, people that are creating and just trying to get the things off the ground around that, around timing and when things are gonna happen. - Timing is everything. Everybody wants to rush now with the internet. Everybody thinks they can jump steps and jump ahead. And it don't work like that for everybody. Some like Casanoid and all these other streamers, they have been doing it for a long time. It might seem like they just got popping in two years, but they've been doing it a long time and building, building, building, the same thing with me and a lot of artists, other artists from my era. We built slowly. And then being from the South, we had a bigger fight because Southern artists weren't respected like they are now. Southern hip hop runs the game, but back in the '90s, it wasn't, you know what I mean? That's why Jermaine, I think, has looked at not as he should be. Jermaine is one of the greatest songwriters of all time and great producer as well. And if he was from New York, he would be looked at differently. I feel like the same thing with me. If I was from New York, they would look at me differently. But that's just the time we were coming up and we just had to fight a lot harder. And we had to stop being the first. Right, no matter what accolades we had, it was still, we needed to triple those to be on the same level as where hip hop started and so on and so forth, so. Yeah. Yeah. And then it's interesting, 'cause it's all this success, but another important thing that I think we ought to always think about and sometimes it ends up happening when we are forced to, it's the business piece. 'Cause you were dealing with, you know, battling your record label, why you mean why you're having all of these huge hits on the radio, but you'd like, where my money at? So what was, what did you kind of have to learn in those early days of like, okay, I gotta get my business right? Yeah. Early on, I had a partner when I was doing my producing that he taught me like, yo, you need to get, put your money away for your taxes. Sure. Shout out to Paul Lewis, my brother Paul Lewis. He kind of was like mentor with me and we were like producing a lot of records together. And he showed me stuff early on, but some stuff I didn't listen. Like, you know, make sure you get a attorney to look over your right paperwork. At attorney's serious. So I ended up signing a deal and it was like a, to get that first single out, right? To get that who you wit song out. We ended up doing some paperwork. I can't remember if it was on that single on the album, but I was basically gonna be stuck in this lifetime contract. And I didn't know it until two short came to me and wanted to work with me and sign me to his label. And we found out, you know, I'm in this terrible deal and dudes don't wanna let me out. I thought we had a great, you know, relationship and we did this work together, but, you know, I didn't know I was locked in like this forever. And so, slavery basis. Lessing is two short, gives me out of that situation, gives me opportunity to work with him, work with, in his studio and co-signs me with one of the biggest things that an artist can get from an established artist, like two short, let's get the co-sign. So get out of that situation and then I ended up signing the TBT and I'm in some difficult positions in that deal and we end up fighting pit bulls the same way he's fighting the label. I ended up getting off the label, but it was a fight and pit gets caught up in the same type of situation. He ends up getting out when I think TBT, I think we all got out when TBT went bankrupt. - Okay. - Because of some legal stuff. So they had this big deaf jam fight they had with Leo Cohen and I think it ended up getting the label up out of there. But yeah, you gotta, you know, I learned that you gotta take time, don't sign anything without your attorney. That's what I learned. Although all those situations taught me that. And so now I don't care what it is. I don't care if it's just some simple. My attorney got to look at everything. - Mm-hmm, that's how I feel. Me and my attorney, like yes, 'cause I was a leather. - Yeah, baby. - Okay, okay. So I love getting all the TBT's behind the scenes, right? So like with Ludacris in the book. He brought you a demo and you ain't know if it was a hit for real. Like, and then you had me thinkin' really differently about goodies that used to be called cookies. - Yeah. - And you did it like it originally. So tell me about how you came in and you know, put your, put your spin on it. - So we worked with Sierra. I worked with Sierra and shout out Sean Garrett again. - Sean Garrett, the pin. - Yeah, Sean the pin. So him and Sierra wrote, I remember, I did the beat in Miami again. - Come on. - I remember how I think I was an audio vision this time, but I did the beat, get it to Sean and Sierra. They come back like, oh, we got it. We got another one. We got it, we got it. I don't know, you want the cookies? What the hell is that? Cookie, that's terrible. So myself, along with Rest in Peace, Shakir Stewart, was like, no, that ain't it. Y'all gotta go back in. So we go back in the studio in Miami and I just leave them in there. And then all they do is change cookies to goodies. And then you can, so an interesting tip for y'all. If you listen to the song, she says, I know you want the goodies 'cause they're in the jar. It's because it was cookies in the damn cookie jar. So they only changed one word and it went from a flop to a, up the top at the top. - 'Cause I'm my goodies, not my goodies. - Yeah, can you imagine my cookies, not my cookies? - You mean me, you mean me, you mean me, why did everybody love me? That ticky type thing, baby. ♪ You ain't do something ♪ - I knew it was so bad. - That's the old school R&B. We need it back. We need it back. - Y'all, we need that back. And it was also like that. It was like pop. Like it's R&B, but it was so undeniable. - Right. - That it is, it creates the landscape for pop culture. - It's the sound. It's the sound. It wasn't, like you said, it was pop. It was R&B vocals, but this different kind of sounding synthesizer. And it's steel, but it still had the knock. - Yep. - That's the difference in that type of pop. - Yes. - Basically, the records that I was doing, they had the brightness, but then they had that hood, that got to, if you might say. - Okay, the little John. - Yeah, gotta have a knock. If it wasn't beaten in the Cadillac, I wanna hear the Cadillac trunks rattle. That was my gauge. - Woo. - So if they was riding by and the Cadillac, and then you got it. - Okay, so we have to take it to the Super Bowl of it all. I just wanna know how you felt. Obviously you talked about it a little bit. I should call you up. And you're like experiencing the history of what you've created on stage at one of the most insane times of the year. Not just for America, but worldwide. This is a Super Bowl. What was going through your mind? - So one main thing is when I was part of the team that did the musical production. So I put this show together, too. And the biggest residency, too. So I was a part of all of that. That's why he called me also for Super Bowl to put it together. So I was just kinda like, this is the biggest thing I'm gonna ever do with my life. And at one point, we put, turned out for what in the show. I was like, I hope you don't take that out. 'Cause he could have took that (beep) and he could have easily said, nah, (beep) this my show (beep) but he let it stay in there. And so I remember when we went to rehearsals and they showed me what it was gonna be. And I'm like, oh, I'ma be in the crowd with these people. That's a layup for me. Lil John in a crowd of people is pandemonium. So I was just like, wow. And when we ran through it the first time in the stadium, I was just like, this is gonna look insane. So I would just feel, I have so much gratitude every single day, every day I wake up, I'm happy. Every day I can get out of the strength to get out of bed. I have gratitude. So to be there, to be a part of it, I have gratitude. To be there to perform, yeah, gratitude. But to be there and to have my own moment is so huge and that's an iconic moment. I even had a picture of that saved on my screen, saved on my phone because it was such a pivotal moment. And the interesting thing is that 10 years after year, turned out for what came out. And I got a number one with turned out for what. So most artists don't have that kind of longevity where you can have a song. I'm not gonna say it's as big as yeah, but it was a worldwide monster number one smash. 10 years after my biggest song in my career. So I'm just to be able to be on that, so many artists can't be on a Super Bowl stage. And to be in a part of it the way I was and to close it out with yeah, with my brother's Usher and Chris on that stage. It's just man, that's once in a lifetime. And now that's why we start the book with it because it's the pivotal moment, pivotal. It's a pivotal. I'll give it a pivotal blow though. Yeah, pivotal blow, pivotal blow, pivotal blow. Say that's f**king fast. It's a top moment in my career. Straight up. It's literally the top. So yeah, man. I'm trying to Chris too, I love him. Yeah. He's dope. Well, I mean, the height of your success, this just, people's just to get you in a room. We're not even talking about the success of the song becoming a hit. It was giving $100,000 dollars just to get Lil Jon to sit down and talk to him. Yeah. And then around 2008, you kind of was burnt out from it all. I couldn't do it anymore. What did, 'cause we're talking about burned out a lot nowadays. I feel like in our generation, everybody's like, I'm experiencing burnout, you know what I mean? But back then, I don't know, people probably thought it was crazy for, I don't know. Like how was your experience of discovering I'm experiencing burnout and it's best for me to stop? Baby, this is, you keep calling, yeah. You know how every episode I go deep on whatever I can't stop thinking about? Well, lately, it's been my living room. I walked into my local IKEA store last week just to look around and left with a whole new vision for my space. Because here's the thing people don't realize. There are hundreds of new products every season, new colors, new patterns, whole new collections. I had never seen before. It's not just about style for me. It's the functionality of it all. I found new storage pieces. I saw problems I'd been ignoring for months. Plus, some design updates that made my space feel fresh. I feel like every time I go back, there's something new waiting for me. So, if you haven't visited in a while, trust me. Go see what's new. Discover what's new at IKEA. Shop the latest products in store or online at IKEA.us/discovernew. So, here's something that genuinely surprised me. Over 80% of Americans are not getting enough Omega-3s from food alone. 80%. That means most of us are walking around with a gap in our nutrition and don't even realize it. That's where Nordic Naturals ultimate Omega soft gels come in. EPA and DHA Omega-3s support your heart, your brain, your immune system, your eyes, your mood. These are foundational nutrients that show up everywhere in your body, doing important work. And most of us are just not getting enough. And before you say, "Fish oil," no, thank you. Let me stop you. Nordic Naturals has a clean lemon taste. Plus, every batch is thoroughly tested for purity, potency, and freshness to meet strict international quality standards. Clean ingredients, no drama. Use promo code Nordic-n-o-r-d-i-c for 15% off your next order at Nordic.com and discover the power of Omega-3 with Nordic Naturals, the number one selling Omega-3 brand in the U.S. Supplements are not evaluated by the FDA and are not intended to diagnose, treat, cure, or prevent diseases. Coming up. Let's close our eyes and let's take three deep breaths in through your nose and out through your mouth. I want everyone to think of three things you're grateful for. To be able to create so easily, and then that just get dried up, it's like fear. It's a fear, and it's like you continue to try to do what you always have done, and it's still not coming out. And you realize you just gotta take a step back. And I just realized I was going so hard, so long, so many years producing so many artists. We had our own label, we did so much, I did so much, and I just gave too much of myself out. And I realized I needed to take a step back. And I remember it's in the book, Reggie Bush invited me out when he was playing with the Saints to the first game back in the Superdome since Katrina. And after that game, he had a party, and it was a DJ killing it that night. It shot out DJ Spider, and he just inspired me a lot because it was just something that brought me back to what I loved about music in the beginning. He was the way he was mixing, the way he was flipping the songs, and I was just like, I need to start DJing again. So I got his number and then was crazy is in the airport leaving the next day. Some white kid comes up to me like, hey, what's up, bro? He's me, I'm like, who the (beep) you? He's like, I'm the DJ from last night. I was like, oh, (beep) my bad dog. So after that, that was God to me, that was God putting in my path to say, make sure you connect because this is going to be something that helps you to go somewhere else. So we connected, and that became my dog, and we started, he got me back into DJing again, and I started to get into that DJ wave before a lot of people even was on it. So in the open format scene, so me and Spider-star DJing together, doing a couple of mixed tapes, and he just got me back into the club scene where I started, where I found the passion and love. And that opened up a whole another scene, eventually for me, getting in the Vegas, having Vegas residency, starting in '08. So yeah, that's how I got back into it. And that's where maybe, you know, follow the love. - 'Cause a lot of times, especially when you're thinking about the success that you've experienced, it becomes a thing that you're not gonna say up against, but it becomes kind of this thing where every, no longer is am I just able to practice the thing and do the thing, it's now attached to a particular outcome or otherwise it's seen as it's a failure. And the industry, the music industry is big for that. - Yeah. - Suddenly, if it's not platinum, or if it's not diamond, and it goes platinum, you ain't what you used to be. Yeah, I definitely experienced the same people. that was picking up your calls, not picking up your calls, and not messing with you. And even my team was like, you want a DJ? Like bro, you make a hundred grand of beat. They didn't understand that the creativity was no longer there. But I am always able to pivot and start and move somewhere else. And so I was able to move into the DJ world. And that just, and that actually is what happened to open up the lanes for me to work with Steve Ayoki and Ella Mayfayot, and all of those guys, because I was in the open format world, which is part, house music is a part of that. And being at festivals and all of that stuff. So I was able to go work with all of these guys and create a whole 'nother lane. And I remember the hip hop community was like, what is he doing this EDM, this house music, and then 10 years later after that? I was already in it. Everybody start wanting to get in it and do records and so on and so forth. But I've always been early. I'm always, I always tell people, I'm in the future, I'm always thinking ahead. Even like, with the Super Bowl, I was manifesting, before I got on the stage, I already manifested, I rocked that and I had moved on to something else. Because I'm already there, I already see it. Wow, what do you think that that comes from? Is it just you just so tapped in with source? Or how do you actually like know the difference between, this is an idea that came from something that is being pushed on me just in the world to, oh, my antenna. This is the information. How do you know? You gotta learn to listen to your spirit and not like your mind. It's two different things. Your spirit is never gonna leave you wrong. Never, my spirit, if I'm at a stop sign and in my head it says go right, but my spirit says go left, I'm gonna listen to my spirit. 'Cause your head, you just thinking. You don't know, but your spirit knows everything. Your spirit is connected to every single thing, it knows everything, soul and so forth. So I'm always gonna listen to my spirit and that's what music, that's what music is, it's spiritual. That's why when you hear a Rita Franklin sing, it goes through your chest and hits your heart. I remember hearing Whitney Houston sing "Happy Birthday" to Bobby Brown at Tavern on the green in New York on a (beep) system that was the house system for the restaurant and it gave me (beep) chills through my body. That was her spirit going through me. So if you're spiritually connected and aligned, then you're gonna always follow the right paths and you're never gonna be led astray. So that's what I learned. I don't tap into my spirit and let it guide me. - I really love that. And I really thank you for sharing that with me and everybody watching 'cause those are important things that you can know propositionally, but you have to experience. So you've experienced so many things. So to hear you share that, it's very, very useful. But that doesn't mean you didn't experience unhappy times. You talk about that in your book too, which I think is important. People think gratitude means always happy or knowing how to be guided means everything's gonna, that doesn't mean that you've lived in the nuance. And so I'm curious how much of you're being honest about what doesn't make you happy. 'Cause I'm speaking about specifically when you turn 50, you ask yourself. What makes me happy, which then made you kind of, yeah, really consider the question. So how do you answer that for yourself today? - Well, yeah, it was interesting to go back to what you was talking about is, I was just woke up one day and was like, I'm 50 (beep) years old. Like, I don't know how much time I got left. Like, I realized I'm not happy in my life. And I was like, what makes you happy? And I could not tell myself what made me happy but doing other stuff for other people. Like, what makes you happy though? And I couldn't answer that. And I said, I need to go find my happiness so I can live my life and be happy. I need to go find my happiness. And so that's what made me institute change in my life. And I think a lot I did because that led me down all these new paths and it got me, God was slowing me down to get me ready for so many things, you know, and I didn't know it. And I even reflect now even around that time, my son came to me and was like, I wanna have a better relationship with you. Let's talk more, let's do more things together. All of those things were starting to happen around 51. So I just always just try to, all of the things I've been through in the last four years have just spiritually elevated me so much. I'm vibrating at such a high frequency, I keep negativity away from me. I, one thing that I started to do at 50 was eliminate when I started to do those affirmations. I eliminated negative thoughts. Eliminated them from my psyche. I don't wish ill upon anyone. Always say, a log on deal with them. God gonna deal with them. God gonna, anybody do any negativity, negative things to me? I just step back. God gonna handle it, you know? I don't put any negative because whatever you put in the universe, whatever you say, whatever you think, the universe don't know what you want and what you don't want. It only knows what you put out. So whatever you put out is gonna come. So if you put nothing but love and goodness and positivity out, that's what's gonna come. And you have to also realize, you have to let things go to be able to receive the blessings that are truly meant for you. We, we hold on to so much, and we hold on to so many thoughts and emotions that don't matter that are not contributing to anything in our life. You have to cleanse, free and open. And then you can receive the blessings. We all got blessings. We all can get blessings. And we also have to realize that you create your own reality. If you're not happy and you constantly saying, "I'm not happy," what the (beep) you think is gonna happen every day? You're gonna be unhappy. If you say, "I'm happy, I'm loving life," then you're gonna open yourself up to bringing in things in that can help you love and live. But you have to truly believe it. You can't say it and then have doubt. Doubt is like a, it's a cancer in your mind. So if you have doubt, it's blocking the blessings too. So you have to truly open yourself up and be willing to just accept what comes, you know? And another thing that I do too is, no matter what happens to me, it's always some positive that can come out of that situation. So it's, like I said, I totally eliminate negative thoughts. So no matter what happens to me, oh, this might have been bad, but I learned from that. You know, this happened, but maybe God is choosing me to be someone that can speak and inspire and help someone else that might have been giving up on life. You know, like with the loss of my son, I've been able to, you know, I'm so giving and forthcoming of what I was going through because I believe God has chosen me as a vessel to speak and inspire and to uplift and to be able to give people someone they can relate to. Someone that's full of joy and party. If it can happen to me, it can happen to anyone. And if I can get through it, you can get through it. You know, and I even say that in my shows, if somebody's out here dealing with loss, understand that you have to keep living. Your God brought your loved one or friend home, but you are here. You're, he's chose you to keep living. So you have to keep living. You have to enjoy life. And your loved one would want you to keep living and enjoying life and not give up. 'Cause if you want to give up, they would love to trade places when you come back, you know what I mean? But we have to keep living. We have to keep spreading love. We have to keep spreading joy. And that gives me to another thing real quick. Don't be real quick. I'm just going through all of it. Going through my grief, going through my loss of my son, I realized I was just in a, of course, I'm in a not dark, but I'm just in a very down place. I'm in a crying every day. I'm just on the couch. And I realized I had to pick myself up because my daughter and my partner don't need to see the worst of me. They need to get the best of me. They deserve that. So it made me pick myself up and, you know, smile. I had to learn to smile again. And I had to learn to laugh again because I think I talk about it in the book. But my first, I remember the first party I had to do after burying my son and it just felt wrong to smile. Every day, when I was something whatever, it would feel wrong to just be happy about. And I had to change that. And being on this tour with Pitbull, I broke down on the last show we had in America because I realized that day that I needed to be out on the road. I needed to feel all of that energy from all of those people in every city to see those smiling faces, to see them having a good time. I needed to be around the crew, my crew. People making me laugh again, making me joke, have a good time. I needed all of that to uplift me. that helped me that helped me to get through the darkness of of loss because loss can become a dark place. But all of those things, realizing for myself, I needed to be better for my daughter because I would look at my daughter like I said. And she would just be looking sometimes like, or just come next to me and it would lift me back up. But realizing I didn't need to be the dark in that dark place around her and my partner. And then like I said, being on the road, all of that helped me to be able to laugh again. It's something just so poetic about all the love and energy that you were giving out in your music all these years at the toughest time of your life, those saying people could give it back to you. - Yeah, that's exactly-- - That is really, that is really-- - Because that's exactly what it is. And I talk about in the show, I say, you know, I lost my son and I thank everybody for all of their prayers and their concern and their positivity. And I said, that's what helped me to be able to get to the stage. Because it was a lot, I had to, you know, put the show together. We were still putting the show together when I lost my son. So I had to fight through all of that and get it together. And then I was also shot out to Tony O. Armani. He's a southern soul artist that I started to work with him the year before. And he had hit me right after I buried my son and he gave me something to focus on, too, by working on his project. So his project, getting the tour together and then getting on the road, all of that helped me to come back to life, you know? - Oh, my God. - And not just being in my darkness, you know? - Everything you just said for the past, I don't even know five minutes. I feel like I was lost in-- I feel like you put me into a transcendent state, right? I feel, everything that you just said, I know I needed to hear it. From the beginning to this last part, and starting with everything you were saying about, just how you remove the negativity from your life, how you allow yourself to be an alignment with what you say. So easily, I've had to check myself on this because I've been talking a lot about what I want, what I want, but then I'm looking at what I'm spending my time doing. And I love how you put that, whether the universe is trying to, you know, don't fight physics, it's trying to keep up with you. It's trying to be an alignment with you, but what you're saying and what you're doing are not matching. So how can it be an alignment with you? I had two situations that happened to me this past week while I've been talking about what I want. And then two situations that are completely opposite of what I want, showed up in my life and I ignored them. Literally, the next following couple days, what I was saying that I'm interested in, came into my world. Just came into my stratosphere, right? Just came into, it was just, if anything, it was the God. It was a universe saying, remember your promise to yourself. And let's keep it at this frequency. So we can just flow and vibe out. But I just appreciate you allowing yourself to be used. You can, you can just tell when somebody is letting, when those words were flowing through you, it's a blessing. And I really want to say, I'm so sorry for your loss. God bless Nathan, your son, and hope that he's resting beautifully in peace. But I really do appreciate you for your testimony and for you sharing that. Because it felt, I felt that in my core. Yeah, I mean, I really did. What helped me to open up, because I've been private my whole career. I always want to keep family private. And then my team, like two, two years ago, we started on this book. My team was like, yo, we need to tell your story. Like, you know, you've done so much, you've accomplished so much. We need to tell you a story. So we started to write. And then when I hit 50 in all of these life changes started to happen. It allowed me to open up and be vulnerable and share. Because I could have easily taken out what happened with my mom. You know, that my biological father's not mine. I could have easily said, I don't want to write about what happened with my son. But I want to share everything, because I, like I said, with the meditation, people would hit me and say, you helped me. And I think God was showing me that you've been able to give people positivity through music and give people good times through this. But you can also do it this way too. With this meditation, you can help people. You can so on and so forth. So I just feel like that opened me up to understanding. We have to be, when God chooses us to be a vessel, we have to let it flow. So I talked to my co-writer when this stuff happened with my son. And I was just letting him hear everything that was my sentiment. What I was feeling like, everything that was going on in my head, I wanted it true. And I want people to hear those words and see those words. Because somebody else is going through the same ****, you know. And I wanted to be able to say, if I can get through it, the party guy can get through it, you can get through it, you know. So I'm, like I said, I have so much more gratitude every day. I have gratitude for a lot for giving me my son for 27 years. I appreciate every memory. I appreciate every single day. I don't forsake, never forsake God because it's a reason everything happens to us. So even when I've heard my son was found, I did not curse God or forsake God. I immediately knew I was going to have to step up and be a vessel for God and to help others. And it's only, I think it's partly because of my reach and who, what I am known for that I can show people that you like, I keep saying, if I can get through it, you can get through it. So I'm here to share that's who I am now. I'm the God of shares. And I cry every day, not every day, but I'm way more open to letting the more you vibrate at a higher frequency, you let these energies and emotions come through you and flow. It's okay to cry men. Men out there. It's okay to cry. Be one with your emotion. That means you have a heart, you have a soul. If you don't cry, you hold it in and you're always, you don't, you could still be a tough guy if you freaking cry. You got a mom, don't you? You know, you got children. You wouldn't cry for your kids, you wouldn't cry for your mother. You can cry. It's okay to cry. Let those emotions out. Let it out. Be one with them. Don't fight it. We tend to bottle up and try to be so tough for the world. But you have to be one with yourself. You are your own world. Be your world. Be happy in your world first. And then let that shine outward. And then nobody can like affect you. You know, I'm going to give two more things of advice for people. One thing I learned recently. So, starting at 50, the key to it life is acceptance. The key to life is acceptance because if you accept things, it can't hurt you. It can't bother you. And if you accept it, that means you acknowledge what lessons are being taught to you, whatever, it just doesn't harm you if you have acceptance. And a lot of people try to fight the positions that they're in and what they're given because they want something else. But you have to have acceptance for what you have and not be angry and try to force what you want because God don't give you what you want, He gives you what you need. You know, sometimes we're looking out of our means and we realize that later, oh, this is what God was trying to show me. This is what I needed to learn, you know, so I have acceptance. And number two, number two, these two things, you do these two things, you're going to have a wonderful life. Let God drive the car. Trust God. If you trust God and have faith, it's going to be okay. It's going to be okay. I've learned to trust God. And I started to eliminate those negative thoughts at the same time I trusted, I learned to trust God. I learned to trust a lot. Let him drive and I don't have no questions. Is this where you're taking me? All right. I'm going to get out the car and do what I got to do. Is this where you want to drop me off? I understand. I'm not going to question it. I'm going to go on the journey and see where it leads me. And then I understand why by I get time, I get to the end. Those two things is what are helping me to have a happy your life, you know. Even if we go through some **** up tough ****, but we're supposed to. We're supposed to go through it because it makes us better, you know. You don't learn by getting it easy. You learn by the stuff you go through. So yeah, I had to learn some tough lessons to being angry, being mad. You know, like why is this happening to me? You know, not forsaken God, but just like you just sometimes like in general, in general, you like damn, but it's given us knowledge and it sometimes pushes us out of the comfort zone that we're used to. And we get to a place of that. then, like I said now, I'm in a vibrating and extremely high frequency, I'm at peace every day, I'm at peace. And some affirmations I would say all the time was I am happy, I am healthy, I am at peace every single day. And after a while, I noticed that that's what I had in my life. You know, I had originally had us close out with a game, but I'm curious if you would be not to put you out on the line, but would there want to be maybe some affirmations or a quick moment of meditation or something that you want to take me in the listeners through? Yeah, why not? We just ended with, I'm happy, I'm healthy at peace. And I think what we're going to do right now is just give gratitude, I want everyone to think of. Three things you are grateful for, think of three things that make you happy. And I want you to say, I am happy for whatever, I'm grateful for whatever, say it to yourself and we're just going to give gratitude because gratitude is also a key to being happy in life. We have to be thankful for the things we have, not for the things we don't have, but we have so much more than somebody else out there in life right now. So we have to be thankful and give gratitude to the love and the universe for everything we have. So let's take the moment and give gratitude. And I want to give gratitude to Kiki for having me on her show, I want to give gratitude for Kiki for bringing so many wonderful guests on her show and sharing, sharing her positivity and her beautiful heart and her beautiful spirit and reaching so many people out here in the world. And I'm giving gratitude to everyone in my life and all of the crew here today that's making it possible to do this show. Thank everyone and we're going to have a blessed day. And remember, eliminate those negative thoughts from your head, only think about the good and I guarantee your life will be a better life and the sun will shine more often. All right, whenever you want to come back, you can come back slowly and you can let out a deep breath. Little John, what a blessing. Life is good. What a blessing you've been to the show, to me, to people that are going to be listening to this. I really do thank you. Thank you. I really do. Thank you for having me. I'm so, I'm so glad. Wow. That is just too awesome. Wow, you're making me cry too. You know what I love about Little John? He spent his whole career getting everybody else to turn up, but somewhere along the way he discovered the power of turning down and listening to himself. And I think that's a reminder that we don't have to just be one version of ourselves. We can grow, change and discover new parts of who we are without losing what makes us us. Because sometimes the most important voice you need to hear is your own. Until next time, baby, this is Kiki Palmer.