EXCLUSIVELil Jon Says His Son DJ Young Slade Plays His Hit Tune 'Get Low' at Parties: 'I've Given Him a Lot of Advice'
Lil Jon exclusively tells OK! about how his son, DJ Young Slade, is following in his footsteps.
Dec. 2 2024, Published 10:26 a.m. ET
It looks like music runs in Lil Jon's family!
Lil Jon & the East Side Boyz, featuring American hip hop duo Ying Yang Twins, released "Get Low" as a single in 2003, and it's still played to this day — including when his son DJ Young Slade, a.k.a. Nathan Smith, puts it on at parties.
"He's 26 now, and he's in the music business. He's an engineer and an artist. He started off as a DJ, and he knows it's one of those songs you have to play. We haven't talked about how he feels about it, but I'm sure he likes it," the star, 53, who is partnering with Exact Sciences, exclusively tells OK! while talking about how he remixed the song to "Get Low #2," which will now be the soundtrack to the first step in non-invasive colon cancer screening.
Lil Jon shares son DJ Young Slade with ex Nicole Smith.
"It's cool he's in the same business as me. I didn't know what he was going to be when he was younger. I wasn't trying to influence him to be in music. He had a natural musical ear. I remember he was 11 years old and we were in the car and the DJ was mixing on the radio and he could tell what song was coming in before it came on," he recalls. "I got him a scholarship at Scratch DJ Academy, and he learned how to be a DJ. He fell in love with music, so he ended up going to NYU and was in the Tisch program. He learned every aspect of the music business and started producing in high school. When he got to college, he kind of released his own songs. He's gotten more into producing his own music and other people's music. We've actually produced a bunch of songs together, so that's cool. When he was going to college, he would come home and be my engineer."
Lil Jon, whose real name is Jonathan H. Smith, notes he's been working with his kiddo for "a while," which is a lot of fun for the both of them.
"I've given him a lot of advice," he shares. "As he's gotten older, he talks to me a lot more and asks for more advice because he literally got an encyclopedia of music right here. He will come and talk to me and ask me things and even play me some of music. He doesn't like to play me his music all the time because I'm kind of critical, but he will play me his music, and he'll make the changes or it might inspire something else. He'll be like, 'I needed that. Thank you for listening,' so we have a good relationship."
The star said his son helped him record his meditation albums.
Nathan even helped his dad, who split from Nicole Smith in February, with his meditation album, Total Meditation, which was released on February 16.
"He would record it. We've been working together for a while, so that's really, cool. It was amazing to work with him on that album and to see the evolution of his father be on this journey of mental well-being," the Georgia native says. "We put out two albums — the first one was Total Meditation and the second was Manifest Abundance: Affirmations for Personal Growth. They are two different styles. The first album was guided meditation, and the second one was manifestations and affirmations. Everybody needs to say affirmations every day — that is what got me through some tough times."
For the performer, the second album "meant a lot" to him as he was trying to stay in a positive "mental state" during that time period. "I was really happy to share those things with people, and even on the first album, a lot of people would send me messages and say, 'I never meditated before. I never thought about meditating before, but I did it because of you.' This helped me get through my grief and relax more. he states. "It makes me feel good that I'm putting something out into the world that's helping people."
Since the "Yeah!" artist is all about making people feel good, it was a no-brainer for him to remix his song to make "Get Low #2," which is all about educating people about the non-invasive colon cancer screening.
Colon cancer is the second-leading cancer-related cause of death in America and disproportionately impacts the Black community. Black Americans are 20 percent more likely to get colon cancer and 40 percent more likely to die from it, compared to most other groups.
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Lil Jon has been on a 'health journey' for quite some time.
"I've been on a health journey for some time now, and I had a colonoscopy about two years ago. Being on top of your health is really paramount and a priority to me," he says. "Someone like me, who is known for partying, is partnering up with Exact Sciences and pushing it out there for people to get tested with the Cologuard test. I'm here all about health, and we made it fun! We did 'Get Low #2,' because you got to go No. 2 in order to screen for colon cancer! It made sense because if you were partying in the club to 'Get Low' in 2002, you're likely 45 years old and up, which means it's time to get screened. I've changed my habits since then, and it's a good way to push out the message in a fun way and urge people to go get tested."
"We redid everything. I redid the music, my parts, I called the Yin Yang Twins, and they redid their part. We really reworked the song for the campaign. It was easy to work with the team and we just reworked the lyrics to basically tell people how to get screened using the Cologuard test," he notes about receiving the product, which is available for someone aged 45+ who is at average risk. (They must get a prescription from their doctor. You can also request a prescription online at GetLow2.com.)
Lil Jon remixed 'Get Low' to 'Get Low #2' to promote awareness about getting screened for colon cancer.
When the hip-hop star revisited the beat, which he made in the late nineties, he said it brought back some fun memories. "I was like, 'Wow, this is pretty crazy.' It was cool to think about the fact that I'm doing something that could help people while bringing awareness to a serious subject," he says. "Colon cancer is the second-leading cancer-related cause of death in America, so it's raising awareness in a fun way."
Lil Jon's 'Get Low' soundtrack is still played to this day!
The upbeat track still gets played today, but the artist still recalls when Sandra Bullock sang the lyrics in The Proposal. "She had to learn the lyrics and my part. I was like, 'That's Sandra Bullock!' That was one of the biggest moments — to have it reach Sandra Bullock and then Betty White is dancing to your song. It's all amazing. It's crazy how songs can transcend into something else," he concludes.
