Lil Jon Resurrects Crunk on New Album
Lil Jon has been laying low over the past couple years, but don’t count him out. The King of Crunk has spent his time touring and DJing around the world, while working on his long-awaited album Crunk Rock.
“A lot of my black folk come up and tell me, ‘Where you been? We miss you,'” says Jon, who has remained relatively absent from radio, aside from features on hits from Pitbull, LMFAO, and the Paradiso Girls. “I’m like, ‘I’m coming back. I got the shit coming.'”
During the height of Usher’s club banger “Yeah!” in 2004, Lil Jon excitedly talked about recording Crunk Rock with everyone from Rick Rubin and Timbaland to Korn and R. Kelly. But due to legal woes with TVT Records, nothing has materialized until now. “TVT went bankrupt,” the 38-year-old rapper confesses. “Basically, TVT was over, so I went to Universal Republic.”
Armed with a new record deal, Crunk Rock will be released on November 24 with appearances from Snoop Dogg, The Game, 3OH!3, and more. As far as what to expect from his first album without the East Side Boyz, “Crunk music, crossover music, new stuff like rock music, the dance stuff like what me and Pitbull do—everything people know me from on a musical tip is on the record,” Jon exclusively tells staging-rapup.kinsta.cloud. “I’m hoping everyone is appreciative to the gift I’m trying to give.”
The first single, “I Do” featuring Snoop and Swizz Beatz, is currently getting spins, and fans can expect three more singles before the album drops.
–Monique Balcarran