Lil' Jon

Jonathan Smith (born 1970, in Atlanta, Georgia), better known by his stage name Lil Jon, is an American hip hop performer and record producer. He is best known as a pioneer of the sub-genre of hip hop known as "crunk", a c

Jonathan Smith (born 1970, in Atlanta, Georgia), better known by his stage name Lil Jon, is an American hip hop performer and record producer. He is best known as a pioneer of the sub-genre of hip hop known as "crunk", a combination of elements of Southern hip hop and bass music. His group, Lil Jon & the East Side Boyz, is one of the subgenre's most notable acts. He is one of only a few rappers who have been able to obtain street cred without the usual street, ghetto, or "hard-knock" life that many rappers have (or claim to have). According to an article on Lil Jon in XXL magazine, he often threw parties in his parents' six-story mansion.

Lil Jon graduated in 1988 from Atlanta's Douglass High School. He was working as a club D.J. when Jermaine Dupri discovered him and invited him to work as an A&R man for So So Def. Lil Jon also hosted a radio show on V103. He started doing remixes for artists Usher, Too Short, Xscape, and Total. He worked for So So Def between 1993 and 2000.