"Lil John is the self-professed ""King of Crunk"" and he wears the title proudly as he carries his signature pimp chalice. He is not afraid to speak his mind and his charismatic persona has made him a favorite collaborator of some of the top names in rap and R&B. This rapper hails from the South and was born Jonathan Smith in Atlanta, Georgia on January 27, 1971. He got his start with one of the best labels in the business, So So Def, run by Jermaine Dupri. He worked both as a rapper and a producer, but the latter is what first made him famous.In the mid 1990s, Lil Jon singed with Atlanta's Mirror Image Records as part of Lil Jon & the East Side Boyz, which also featured Big Sam and Lil Bo. Together they released the single ""Get Crunk"" followed by the album Get Crunk Who U Wit, Da Album. He was producing more, leading to their follow up album, We Still Crunk, not being released until 2000. Put Yo Hood Up came next in 2001 followed by Kings of Crunk in 2002. Kings of Crunk also marked the beginning of a string of hit collaborations for Lil Jon with the release of the single ""Get Low"" with the Ying Yang Twins.After that, he again hit gold by appearing with Usher on the single ""Yeah!,"" which had so much airplay that the hit comedian Dave Chappelle based one of his skits on Lil Jon's performance. He continued to release albums like Certified Crunk (2003) and Crunk Juice (2003) while collaborating with artists like Ludacris. After the release of Crunk Juice, Lil Jon again went to producing and worked with artists like YoungBloodZ and Lil Scrappy. His more recent release, Crunk Rock, dropped in 2006 and shot to the top of the Top Rap Albums and the Top Independent Albums charts."