Mental health is an extreme priority to me

Lil Jon has opened up about his pair of albums of guided meditation, saying that mental health is “an extreme priority” for him.

The Atlanta rapper, crucial to the breakthrough of crunk music in the 2000s, has made the left turn to releasing albums of meditation in 2024, with February’s ‘Total Meditation’ and May’s ‘Manifest Abundance: Affirmations Of Personal Growth’.

The ambient tracks contain positive affirmations from the rapper – get a taste of them below.

He has given a new interview to CNN where he speaks about people’s initial reaction to the albums. “Some people were like, ‘What is this gonna sound like? Is he gonna be yelling?’” he said.

“Once it came out and people heard, people were like, ‘Okay, this is actually pretty good.’ And I got so many messages of people telling me how they never meditated and how I helped them to meditate, or how specific songs helped them to deal with issues in their lives.”

Talking about the inspiration for the records, he added: “It’s a journey that I’m on. I have probably still like five more albums worth of stuff that we didn’t drop yet. It is a priority to me.”

“Mental health is an extreme priority to me because, you know, Black men, we’re taught to just suck it up and hold it in. I’m trying to give people options of how to deal with their mental stress.”

Speaking to Rolling Stone about ‘Total Meditation’ earlier this year, Lil Jon revealed how he came across guided meditation during a turbulent time in his personal life.

“Once I turned 50, a lot of things started to happen. I started going through a divorce. I’m separated right now. Going through that and all of the emotions of the divorce—anger and frustration and all of the ups and downs — I found meditation to calm me and to bring me more at peace; to look at life and situations in a different manner. I really got into meditating and saying my affirmations every day and also into manifestation. All of that tied together.”

Additionally, he said he hopes ‘Total Meditation’ will help change people’s perspective of him: “Part of the reason I want to do this project is [because] people that look like me and then people that look at me like, ‘Oh, this crazy party guy,’ [are] going to listen to me in a different manner than they would like a doctor or their mom or their dad. They relate to me a little bit more.”

Despite having been in the industry for three decades, Lil Jon has only released one prior solo album, 2010’s ‘Crunk Rock’. Apart from that, the rapper has featured on several collaborative albums with the East Side Boyz, as well as numerous rap and dance tracks over his career.

Lil Jon will join Pitbull for a series of huge shows across the UK and Europe in 2025, kicking off in Dublin in February. See the full list of shows here and find tickets here.