Lil Jon Details Gut-Wrenching Final Conversation With Late Son Nathan

Eight months after the rapper’s 27-year-old son Nathan Smith died after drowning while under the influence of mushrooms, Lil Jon details Smith’s final days in his new memoir, I Only Shout So You Can Hear Me.

Within the pages of the memoir, according to USA Today, Lil Jon wrote that his son had been dealing with “intense,” unexplained physical pain and how he felt his son’s struggles were from stress, trauma and anxiety.

He went on to detail what would be their last conversation, a phone call during which Lil Jon expressed his support for his son.

“He'd called to say, 'I love you.' I told him I loved him, too,’” Lil Jon wrote, 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.’” 

And though the “Get Low” artist—dad to Smith with ex Nicole Smith, and daughter Nahara, 23 months, with Jamila Sozahdah—said the pair ended the call in a good place, he also suspected his son felt he was being too hard on him. 

“It felt like something was left unsettled,” he wrote. “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.’” 

Kevin Mazur/Getty Images for Pencils Of Promise

Smith also wrote that he knew their family only argues because it comes from a place of caring.

“'I do care a lot,’” Lil Jon (real name Jonathan Smith) wrote back. “‘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.'’”

In fact, to drive home that message of support, the 55-year-old even picked up the phone one more time.

“'I see that you're trying, and I want you to know that you are seen,’” Lil Jon recalled 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."

Indeed, heartbreakingly, Smith, 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. 

“Just as nothing can prepare you for the moment your child enters the world,” Lil Jon wrote in his memoir, “nothing can prepare you for the moment your child leaves the world."

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