LiL Jon Talks "Crunk Rock" & More

Last we heard from Lil Jon, he was telling anyone within yelling distance that crunk ain't dead. Then the rowdy producer's long-in-the works Crunk Rock somehow landed in limbo land, joining the likes of Dr. Dre's Detox. But according to Jon, the project is still coming along and slated to be released sometime in 2008. He said that he's finished with the "rock" half of the album and just has to finish the rap elements of it.

"It's probably really like 65 percent, maybe 70 percent done," Jon explained. "I'm still tweaking and coming up with other ideas and other collaborations I want to get done. [But] I'm back and forth so much now from Atlanta to L.A.; I'm trying to get more of the rap tracks down. Half of the album is going to be fusion rap and rock stuff, and half of it is going to be the stuff they normally know me from."

In between putting tracks together, Jon actually took a break from recording, he said, and started DJing again. He just got back from spinning in Australia, and over the summer he had gigs at Las Vegas rock club Body English. These spin-doctor escapades resulted in him and DJ Spider putting out two Rock Box mixtapes: The first is rock-oriented, featuring Guns N' Roses, Joan Jett and Nirvana, while the second includes New Wave acts like Frankie Goes to Hollywood and Gary Numan.

"I'm starting to have fun again," Jon said. "It became a job, because I was so busy, I had so much going on. I had to support too many acts; I had to get so many records done. But now it's slowed down. I took a break, and now I'm having fun again. That's why I started DJing again — it got me back to my core. I needed to do something to help relieve the stress. I love going to the club. I love to party. And when I was a DJ and started, I loved to make people dance. That's what I'm getting back to."

Jon recently finished recording a track with Pitbull for his upcoming album, November 27's The Boatlife, and he said his BME acts — Lil Scrappy, E-40 and a new artist, Korean pop singer Min — are all in the studio. Aside from music, Jon has spent his time in L.A. getting into the cartoon world. He's developed his own series, "A-Town," which will feature comedian Katt Williams in the first episode. Jon said Comedy Central had expressed interest before, but currently he's leaning toward launching the series on Will Ferrell's FunnyorDie.com video Web site. The producer is also scheduled to voice Santa Claus on the Christmas special of Andre 3000's Cartoon Network show, "Class of 3000."

"I guess having a distinct voice, you can get some work in Hollywood," he laughed. ...