Lil Jon Interview – Super Bowl Performance, Meditation Album

February 13, 2024 17

Everyone knows his ad-libs and the sound of his booming voice, and as shown by his performance at Usher’s Super Bowl halftime show earlier this week, everyone knows there’s no turning down when Lil Jon picks up a mic. The Atlanta rapper speaks to XXL about the legendary moment in an exclusive interview.

During his first Super Bowl performance ever on Sunday (Feb. 11), the rapper—who also served as the show’s musical director—fittingly emerged from a mosh pit to perform “Turn Down for What” and then moved into “Yeah!” with Usher and Ludacris. The stomp-and-holler energy of his performance alone demonstrated why he remains a commanding force in rap all these years later.

“It was quite a process to do,” Jon tells XXL of putting the show together. “It was a lot of hard work. It was a lot of figuring out the proper setlists. I think we were up to like 180 different versions of the setlists by the time we got to the end.”

The final show was perfectly executed, and the energy was palpable. Overall, Lil Jon is arguably the master of getting people to lose their minds, which makes it ironic that the rapper will soon ask his fans to slow themselves down and align their chakras. Lil Jon will be releasing a guided meditation album on Friday (Feb. 16).

The album is titled Total Meditation and will include 10 tracks that aim to “relieve anxiety, boost focus and find peace,” according to Jon.

“I’ve always kind of meditated a little bit,” Jon shares, “but when I turned 50, started going through a lot of things. Started going through a divorce, I’m separated now, and all the emotions from the divorce and all that process was really getting to me. So, I found I had to start to go within to calm myself.”

Watch the full conversation with Lil Jon below, in which he reflects on his Super Bowl performance, career milestones, what fans can expect from a meditative rap album, becoming a certified herbalist, his HGTV show and more.