I Did The Lil Jon Guided Meditation & Here's How It Went
Life is stressful. With the grind of work, gym, kids, dating, travel, finances, whatever it is — we could all use a break to slow down and relax. Thankfully, Lil Jon is here to help.
On Friday, the Grammy-Award winning rapper released a new album called Total Meditation — a complete 180 from anything he's done before. For the album, Lil Jon teamed with producer Kabir Sehgal to put together 10 guided meditations to help you disconnect from the world and enjoy a moment of solitude.
Naturally, I had to try it. Admittedly, I am not much of a meditator. I've tried a few times but usually end up feeling silly, and my brain inevitably wanders. Most guided meditations just feel forced and a little hokey. But I'm willing to give Lil Jon a try.
So I poured up a CBD cocktail, got real nice and cozy on my couch, wrapped myself in a blanket like a human burrito (an Am-burrito, if you will) and pressed play.
For starters, you have to move past the fact that the guy leading you on a peaceful journey to total relaxation is the same guy who regularly blows out your eardrums with club anthems like "Turn Down for What." If all you can think about is Lil Jon screaming "YEAH" and "OKAY" on the track, you're simply not going to drift into a meditative state of zen.
So I, personally, find it helps to refer to him by his government name — Jonathan Smith.
Mr. Smith begins the album by immediately addressing the elephant in the room: This loud, high-energy DJ is not your typical meditation guru. Turns out, though, Lil Jon meditates before each show (to put him in the right state of mind) and after each show (to relax and unwind), and it's a practice he's repeated for years.
So with that out of the way, "We're going to be turning down the volume and listening to the voice within."
Lil Jon Gets Spiritual
The album contains 10 guided meditations — all with a different purpose. He covers everything from grief to gratitude to getting in touch with nature and even settling in for a deep sleep.
I do not recommend listening to them all at once. Mainly because an hour and 46 minutes is entirely too long to meditate. I think it would really just be a nap at that point. Instead, it's probably best to just pick whichever one speaks to you in that moment.
I did, however, listen to them all at once. How else could I give OutKick readers a full review?
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The album starts with a 10-minute practice on boosting focus. With the goal of "boosting awareness and increasing sensory presence," Lil Jon takes you through all five senses until you're hyper aware of your surroundings. This would be a good one to listen to before you start your work day or get rolling on an important project. Or, in my case, to get myself focused on meditating for an hour and 46 minutes.
Then, Mr. Smith encourages us to "get in touch with our inner wildness" in "Imagine Nature." This one was, hands down, my least favorite track. He tells you to imagine lying on a forest floor in a bed of moss and pine needles. All I could think about were pine needles poking me and the swarm of mosquitoes that would inevitably eat me alive. Not very zen.
He made up for it, though, in "Relieve Anxiety" — which had me melted into my couch and nearly asleep. I forgot all about the mosquitoes. Well played, Jonathan.
The next few meditations take you through expressing gratitude, nurturing friendships and coping with grief. I found the grief one surprisingly profound. In it, he explains that grief doesn't have to mean mourning a death. It could be grief over any loss — getting fired from work, breaking up with a boyfriend or girlfriend or even moving away from home. Lil Jon says that "impermanence is what makes every moment unique" and encourages you to re-frame your brain to "replace the pain of loss with the fondness of memory."
If I were currently experiencing any deep grief, I probably would have bawled my eyes out at that point.
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Anyway, then there's a couple mind-body connection exercises in "Body Scan" and "Mindful Breathing." The album ends with "Deep Sleep," which is pretty self-explanatory.
But my favorite track was No. 9: "Deep Relaxation." In this one, Mr. Smith transports you to your favorite place in the world and walks you through everything you see, smell, hear, taste and touch there. By the end of the 10 minutes, I was covered in coconut-scented dry oil with my toes in the water, ass in the sand and double fisting Mai Tais. Imagine my disappointment when I snapped back to reality, and I was just in my living room with my work email notification dinging on my laptop.
Fun while it lasted.
Overall, I was pretty impressed. I thought loud-yelling-rapper-guy doing guided meditations was going to be a weird fit, but it actually turned out pretty cool. On the other hand, if you're a hardcore meditator who's into sweet-sounding gurus and whispery, sing-song voices drowned out by over-dramatic spa music, this one might not be for you.
But if you want to take a few minutes to chill to something a little more casual, I recommend giving Total Meditation a shot. I'd consider it meditation — but approachable.
I'm not sure that I'd ever find myself at a Lil Jon concert. But if he led a wellness retreat, I'd sign up in a heartbeat. In fact, that's a great idea.
We'll call it: "Turn Down For This."