Lil Jon was able to remedy the grief of losing his son, Nathan Smith, by returning to live shows.
The crunk music pioneer and hype man discussed the untimely death of his son on the Tuesday (Oct. 27) episode of podcast Baby, This Is Keke Palmer. In February, Smith, also known as DJ Young Slade, was found deceased after being discovered in a retention pond in Milton, Georgia, after days of searching. The cause of death of the 27-year-old was accidental drowning under the effects of psilocybin use. Lil Jon shared his son with his estranged wife, Nicole Smith.
“Going through my grief, going through my loss of my son, I realized I was just in a very down place,” Lil Jon said around the 1:08:00 mark of the video below. “I'm 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.”
In 2024, the hitmaker welcomed a daughter, Nahara, with his girlfriend Jamila Sozahdah.
“I had to learn to smile again and I had to learn to laugh again,” Lil Jon continued, adding that it “felt wrong to smile” during the first party he attended after his son was buried.
The rapper also explained why he “broke down” on the last U.S. date of his tour with Pitbull.
“I realized that day that I needed to be out on the road. I needed to be 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,” he said. “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.”
Lil Jon covers the passing of his son at length in his debut memoir I Only Shout So You Can Hear Me, which was released on Oct. 20. Among memories shared with his son, the entertainer recounted giving Smith a final apology shortly before he went missing.
