color guard cancer screening :: Article CreatorLil Jon Reveals Moment He Decided To Take His Health Seriously
Lil Jon started to take his health seriously after learning that someone he knew had undergone major heart surgery, the rap icon has revealed to Newsweek.
While he burst onto the scene in the early aughts as the "King of Crunk" by producing and appearing on such raucous hits as "Get Low," "Salt Shaker," "Freek-a-Leek," and Yeah!" Lil Jon, 52, has shown a different side to himself in more recent years.
The hip-hop star, whose given name is Jonathan Smith, has released two guided meditation albums in 2024 alone—Total Meditation in February, and Manifest Abundance: Affirmations of Personal Growth in May.
As well as taking care of his mental well-being through meditation, he has also focused on his physical health through workouts, cleaner eating and ditching alcohol.
The Atlanta native told Newsweek that he embarked on his journey toward a healthier lifestyle more than a decade ago after learning of another man's issues.
Lil Jon is pictured May 8, 2024 in Los Angeles, California. The musician has spoken with Newsweek about his health and wellness journey. Lil Jon is pictured May 8, 2024 in Los Angeles, California. The musician has spoken with Newsweek about his health and wellness journey. Natasha Campos/Getty Images
"I first started to take my health, more seriously when I had a driver that used to drive me whenever I was in L.A.," he recalled. "One day, we were talking. He was like, 'I had a triple bypass.' ... He was 10, 15 years younger than me.
"It just kind of shocked me, and it made me say, 'I need to take more my health more serious, and I'm older than him.' So what I've done in my past, the older I get, the harder it's going to be to reverse whatever could be happening to me."
Jumping into action soon afterward, Lil Jon said he "started do my own research. I got a trainer. I started to open my mind to holistic and herbal medicines and remedies."
"A lot of people, we think we're going to be young forever," he added. "We think we're superheroes, like nothing can happen to us. But [there are] people dying all around us from various things, and it's because of lifestyle—doing the same thing forever and ever, thinking it's not going to catch up to you.
"You can't eat fried foods and greasy foods your whole life and expect to not one day have high cholesterol, you know?"
Colon Health Screening
Lil Jon's emergence as a face of health and wellness goes a long way to explain why he's joined forces with Cologuard, which provides at-home colon cancer screening tests for adults aged 45 and older who are at average risk of developing the disease.
In a marriage of the past and present, Lil Jon has repurposed his enduring hit "Get Low" for a newly unveiled Cologuard campaign. Instead of persuading listeners to "get low" for the purposes of shaking their posteriors, in "Get Low #2" he's advising them to assume the position for the purposes of checking their colon health.
"We're making it fun for something that's serious," Lil Jon explained. "It makes it more palatable for some people—especially using a song like 'Get Low' that everybody knows."
"We basically, I redid the entire song from scratch," he went on. "I redid the beat. I called the Ying Yang Twins in, they redid their parts with some lyric reworks. I redid my parts. The lyric reworks are basically telling people how to use the Cologuard test, then it gets screened. It's just a fun way of putting it out there for people to go to get tested."
"If you were partying to 'Get Low' in the 2000s in the club, you're probably at the age to take the test and get screened."
Lil Jon has repurposed his enduring hit "Get Low" for a newly unveiled Cologuard campaign. In "Get Low #2," the star advises listeners on using the home test kits. Lil Jon has repurposed his enduring hit "Get Low" for a newly unveiled Cologuard campaign. In "Get Low #2," the star advises listeners on using the home test kits. GRAVITY WELL STUDIO
Fun though the campaign may be, Lil Jon stresses that the subject matter is serious. Although the cancer mortality in the U.S. Has declined over the past 30 years—saving around 4 million lives due to smoking reduction, early detection, and treatment advances—colorectal cancer is rising among those under 55.
Black Panther star Chadwick Boseman died in August 2020, at the age of 43 after a private battle with colon cancer.
Colorectal cancer is now the top cancer killer in men and second in women under 50, potentially due to lifestyle changes beginning with those born around 1950, according to the American Cancer Society.
Lil Jon told Newsweek that he hopes fronting the Cologuard campaign will serve as representation for those who might be reluctant to take the leap and get tested.
"Especially people of color, we have fears of going to the doctor. You know, we don't like to go to the doctor," he said. "We wait until something's wrong to go to the doctor. So for someone like me, that's known for partying, if I'm saying, 'Hey, you should use the Cologuard test and get screened for colon cancer,' it might make someone more likely to check it out."
There's also a personal attachment to Lil Jon's decision to join the campaign.
"I definitely know people that have had colon cancer and passed away," he said. "Some of our hip-hop legends have had colon cancer."
A New Direction
The musician's continued health and wellness journey has become so entwined with other aspects of his life that his most recent album launch was one to remember.
"I had a wellness retreat for the release of my last album that I put out, Manifest Abundance: Affirmations of Personal Growth," he recalled. "It went over extremely well. I led a live meditation with live sound bowls and all of that.
"So that was pretty crazy, because I never in a million years would have imagined myself doing a live guided meditation with a sound bath going."
Lil Jon's new direction has seen him win support from fans and contemporaries alike. Andre 3000, the revered rapper who rose to fame as a part of Outkast, was among them—perhaps fittingly so, as he last year released his instrumental album New Blue Sun, in which he showcased his performances on the flute.
"I talked to Andre 3000 right after his album was released, maybe a couple of months after that," Lil Jon said. "We had a conversation and he was giving me kudos for doing what I'm doing and not being afraid to step out and embark on a new journey. He was saying that we've got to evolve and grow.
"That was a great conversation. We talked about potentially collaborating on some things later. It's crazy because he went on tour and he hasn't stopped. He thought he was gonna be on tour a little bit and he just he's just going and going."
Like Andre 3000, Lil Jon is allowing his life experiences to guide his progression. "I'm still going to do music, but I'm not the guy I was in the early 2000s or the guy was in the 2010s. I'm getting old. I'm 52 years old, 53 next January.
"If you look at Jay-Z, he doesn't rap about the same things he rapped about 20 years ago because he's evolved. He's grown.
"So meditation is a part of my life. I have about five or six more albums that are already ready to go in the can. They'll be dropping next year. And I'm gonna keep doing hip-hop—or music; I don't even like to categorize it anymore, because I do all so many types of things, but this is also who I am now."
"I'm going to keep growing and growing in this wellness space," he added.
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