Many of us spend our whole lives assuming that we grew up with our biological parents. After all, we wouldn’t think they’d lie to us or that there would ever be any confusion. However, for Lil Jon, a random DNA test unraveled the entire fabric of what he thought he knew about his family.
In an interview with PEOPLE, the Atlanta legend revealed that the man who raised him actually wasn’t actually his biological father. He only learned this information because one of his cousins wanted to learn more about their extended family. After looking at the map, he found that their information didn’t match.
Consequently, this led him down a rabbit hole. If he’s technically not relatives with his cousin, then what does that say about the rest of his family? With neither parent still alive to answer his questions, Lil Jon was desperate to find out more.
“Neither one of my fathers are here anymore, nor my mother, so I can’t get answers,” he told the publication. “And that drives you crazy as well, until you get to the point where you have to accept that you will never get answers. I have had my brother and sister reach out on my biological dad’s side, but I haven’t been ready to process that yet and have that conversation, because it’s just so heavy, man. It’s just hard to process. It takes time.”
Lil Jon Learned That His Family Life Is Way Different Than He Thought It Was
Still, Jon embraced the fact that Willie, the man who raised him, was still his father even if it wasn’t by blood. He passed away in the early 2000s right when the rapper’s career was starting to take off due to bone marrow cancer. He believed the man who raised him would’ve been proud of who he became, even if Willie didn’t fully understand his love for the drums when he started playing at 6.
As for his mother, she got to witness Lil Jon take the world by storm. Ultimately, she was just happy to see her firstborn son thrive. She passed away in 2013 due to a stroke from diabetes complications.
With the loss of his own son and the new information about his family, the grief allowed him to have a newfound perspective on life. “The No. 1 lesson I tell people now is, don’t feel like you can put something off for tomorrow, because you don’t know how much time you have with people,” Lil Jon said. “Fatherhood has taught me that family is everything.”
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