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Lil Jon encouraged his son, Nathan Smith, to “take care of himself” in their final conversation before the latter’s tragic death at 27.
“He’d called to say, ‘I love you.’ I told him I loved him, too,’” the rapper recalls in his new memoir, “I Only Shout So You Can Hear Me,” per USA Today.
“I was always encouraging him to take care of himself. On the call, I leaned into him a bit. ‘I’m on you because I love you,’ I said. ‘I care about you. I want you to get better.’”
“’I’m getting there,’” Smith replied, per the memoir, “’I’ve been going through a lot. I’m working through it. Give me some credit.’”
The “Get Low” rapper said he and Nathan ended the call in a good place, but he also suspected his son felt he was being too hard on him.
“It felt like something was left unsettled,” he writes.
“He must have felt the same way, because at 12:48 a.m. Saturday morning, he sent me a message: ‘Love you dad, got so much love for you. I’m gonna try communicating better and stop letting fear hold me back.’”
Lil Jon texted him back, “I do care a lot. You are my only son, and I worry about you a lot. You are so talented and extremely smart. Nothing should be holding you back. I pray for the days you have no more discomfort and no more fear. Those days are coming. Love you.”
The record producer picked up the phone again to drive home the message of support for his only son, who he claims was dealing with “intense,” unexplained physical pain stemming from stress, trauma and anxiety.
“’I see that you’re trying, and I want you to know that you are seen,’” Lil Jon recalls saying. “’All the effort you’ve been putting in — I see it. And I see you.’ Little did I know that was the last time I would talk to him.”
Tragically, Nathan, who performed under the moniker DJ Young Slade, was found dead near his home in Georgia on Feb. 6, three days after he was reported missing.
“I am extremely heartbroken for the tragic loss of our son, Nathan Smith. His mother [Nicole Smith] and I are devastated,” Lil Jon told Page Six in a statement at the time.
“Nathan was the kindest human being you would ever meet. He was immensely caring, thoughtful, polite, passionate and warmhearted — he loved his family and the friends in his life to the fullest.”
His cause of death was declared as “drowning in the setting of psilocybin use” and the manner was ruled an accident.
Per the Fulton County Medical Examiner’s report, psilocybin — the primary active ingredient in hallucinogenic mushrooms — was found in Nathan’s system.
Two weeks after his passing, the New York University graduate was laid to rest.
“On the first day of Ramadan yesterday, We laid my only son to rest,” the rapper wrote via Instagram alongside a montage of photos from Nathan’s life.
“I love you, son. Life will never be the same without you. Allah, give me strength.”