Tomorrow, Lil Jon's new memoir I Only Shout So You Can Hear Me hits the shelves. Written with literary and media critic Paul Cantor, the book reveals the rapper's recent discovery that the man who raised him wasn't his biological father. He discussed the topic in a new interview with People.
The hip hop star born Jonathan Smith was raised by his mother Carrie and Willie, who he thought was his biological father. He was raised with two biological brothers, Willie Junior and Chris, as well as adopted siblings Mario and Sheena. In the early 2000s, Willie passed away from bone marrow cancer. "He didn't really see me become a star," Lil John says. As for his mother: "She was just so happy because I was the firstborn, so I was the baby," he says. In 2013, she died after having a stroke as a result of complications from diabetes.
When a cousin took a DNA test to learn more about their family, Jon found out Willie was not his biological father. "He shared his map with me," he says of his cousin. "We weren't matching for some reason."
"Neither one of my fathers are here anymore, nor my mother, so I can't get answers," he says. "And that drives you crazy as well, until you get to the point where you have to accept that you will never get answers." However, even more recently, his brother and sister on his biological father's side reached out to him, but "I haven't been ready to process that yet and have that conversation, because it's just so heavy, man," he says. "It's just hard to process. It takes time."
Read the full interview here.