{"id":464363,"date":"2026-02-07T12:16:09","date_gmt":"2026-02-07T12:16:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/464363\/"},"modified":"2026-02-07T12:16:09","modified_gmt":"2026-02-07T12:16:09","slug":"hip-hop-legend-lil-jon-confirms-tragic-death-of-son-27","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/464363\/","title":{"rendered":"Hip Hop Legend Lil Jon Confirms Tragic Death of Son, 27"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"c-paragraph\">Nathan Smith, the son of legendary rapper Lil Jon, has died at the age of 27. <\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph\">Lil Jon, whose real name is Jonathan Smith, confirmed his son\u2019s death in a statement to <a onclick=\"_sendArticleBodyInlineLinkClickAnalytics(&#039;https:\/\/people.com\/heartbroken-lil-jon-breaks-silence-on-death-of-son-nathan-smith-11901690&#039;)\" href=\"https:\/\/people.com\/heartbroken-lil-jon-breaks-silence-on-death-of-son-nathan-smith-11901690\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer nofollow noopener\" title=\"https:\/\/people.com\/heartbroken-lil-jon-breaks-silence-on-death-of-son-nathan-smith-11901690\">People Magazine<\/a> on Friday. <\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph\">\u201cI am extremely heartbroken for the tragic loss of our son, Nathan Smith,\u201d said the \u201cGet Low\u201d singer, 55. \u201cHis mother [Nicole] and I are devastated.\u201d<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" data-chromatic=\"ignore\" alt=\"Lil Jon, Nicole Smith, and Nathan Smith.\" class=\"c-image\" loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/TM25ICT2WJDHRAUPFR2CZ32JJ4.webp.jpeg\"  width=\"800\" height=\"533\"\/>Lil Jon, Nicole Smith, and Nathan Smith. Steven Ferdman \/ Getty Images <\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph\">\u201cNathan was the kindest human being you would ever meet. He was immensely caring, thoughtful, polite, passionate, and warmhearted\u2014he loved his family and the friends in his life to the fullest.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph\">He added, \u201cHe was an amazingly talented young man; a music producer, an artist and engineer, and graduate of NYU.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph\">\u201cWe loved Nathan with all of our hearts and are incredibly proud of him. He was loved and appreciated, and in our last times together, we\u2019re comforted in knowing that we expressed that very sentiment to him.\u201d<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" data-chromatic=\"ignore\" alt=\"cheats\/2016\/10\/15\/lil-jon-responds-to-trump-s-uncle-tom-comments\/161015-lil-jon-trump-uncle-tom-cheat_wsxd0k\" class=\"c-image\" loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/D7ECCGZPQRM3RFEXLPKIPJHIQY.jpg\"  width=\"800\" height=\"449\"\/>Lil Jon pioneered the southern hip hop genre known as crunk. Gus Ruelas\/Reuters <\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph\">Nathan Smith reportedly ran barefoot out of his house without a phone on Tuesday, Feb. 3. He was reported missing, setting off a search that ended in tragedy.<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph\">Cherokee County Fire Department divers located and recovered Nathan\u2019s body from a pond in Mayfield Park, near Smith\u2019s home in Milton, on Friday morning. Authorities extended their search to include the pond after failing to find him for several days. <\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph\">The Milton County Police Department announced they had recovered the body earlier on Friday. <\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph\">\u201cBased on the investigation to date, there is no indication of foul play,\u201d the department <a onclick=\"_sendArticleBodyInlineLinkClickAnalytics(&#039;https:\/\/myemail.constantcontact.com\/Body-recovered-in-Milton-pond-believed-to-be-that-of-Nathan-Smith.html?soid=1101538339397&amp;aid=433rdkCWyRw&#039;)\" href=\"https:\/\/myemail.constantcontact.com\/Body-recovered-in-Milton-pond-believed-to-be-that-of-Nathan-Smith.html?soid=1101538339397&amp;aid=433rdkCWyRw\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer nofollow noopener\" title=\"https:\/\/myemail.constantcontact.com\/Body-recovered-in-Milton-pond-believed-to-be-that-of-Nathan-Smith.html?soid=1101538339397&amp;aid=433rdkCWyRw\">said in a statement<\/a>. \u201cHowever, the Milton Police Department Criminal Investigations Division will continue to treat this as an open and active investigation.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph\">Nathan was a musician who performed under the name DJ Young Slade and had a small following on Soundcloud. His last single, \u201cFeels,\u201d was released in March 2025.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph\">In a 2025 interview with <a onclick=\"_sendArticleBodyInlineLinkClickAnalytics(&#039;https:\/\/www.theqgentleman.com\/post\/2025-03-slade-talks-mtvs-family-legacy-and-the-moment-his-father-lil-jon-inspired-him-to-pursue-music\/&#039;)\" href=\"https:\/\/www.theqgentleman.com\/post\/2025-03-slade-talks-mtvs-family-legacy-and-the-moment-his-father-lil-jon-inspired-him-to-pursue-music\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer nofollow noopener\" title=\"https:\/\/www.theqgentleman.com\/post\/2025-03-slade-talks-mtvs-family-legacy-and-the-moment-his-father-lil-jon-inspired-him-to-pursue-music\/\">The Quintissential Gentleman<\/a>, Nathan expressed gratitude for how his father allowed him to grow into his own artist.<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph\">\u201cIt\u2019s dope to appreciate my dad, show respect, and just look at all the things he\u2019s done, and it\u2019s nice to get the torch passed down and do my own thing,\u201d he said. \u201cBecause it\u2019s like it comes from him, but also I\u2019m definitely taking it and making it my own.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Nathan Smith, the son of legendary rapper Lil Jon, has died at the age of 27. Lil Jon,&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":464364,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[32],"tags":[64,63,447,1300,134,6994,82690,136],"class_list":{"0":"post-464363","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-celebrities","8":"tag-au","9":"tag-australia","10":"tag-celebrities","11":"tag-death","12":"tag-entertainment","13":"tag-hip-hop","14":"tag-lil-jon","15":"tag-music"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/464363","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=464363"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/464363\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/464364"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=464363"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=464363"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=464363"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}