Lil Jon drops meditation album: Here's what inspired him
Lil Jon performs during halftime of Super Bowl LVIII between the Kansas City Chiefs and the San Francisco 49ers at Allegiant Stadium on February 11, 2024 in Las Vegas, NV. (Photo by Perry Knotts/Getty Images)
Lil Jon has a new meditation album to help you turn down for inner peace.
"Hey, it’s Lil Jon," the rapper calmly says in the welcome message to "Total Meditation." He describes the album as "10 guided meditations to relieve anxiety, boost focus, and find peace." It's a 180 from the rapper's other hits that include "Turn Down for What," and "Yeah!"
Fresh off his Super Bowl halftime performance with Usher, Alicia Keys and Ludacris, the rapper – who was also the halftime show’s music director – told XXL magazine the album was inspired by his personal struggles, mainly, his divorce.
"I've always kind of meditated a little bit," Jon said, "but when I turned 50, started going through a lot of things. Started going through a divorce, I'm separated now, and all the emotions from the divorce and all that process was really getting to me. So, I found I had to start to go within to calm myself."
Meditation, the practice of mental and physical techniques to improve one’s well-being, has several health benefits, experts say, including improving your mood, reducing anxiety and even improving sleep patterns.
According to a 2022 study published in the journal JAMA Psychiatry, mindfulness meditation worked as well as a standard drug for treating anxiety in the first head-to-head comparison.
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The study tested a widely used mindfulness program that includes 2 1/2 hours of classes weekly and 45 minutes of daily practice at home. Participants were randomly assigned to the program or daily use of a generic drug sold under the brand name Lexapro for depression and anxiety.
After two months, anxiety as measured on a severity scale declined by about 30% in both groups and continued to decrease during the following four months.
The study "is reaffirming about how useful mindfulness can be when practiced effectively,’’ said psychologist Sheehan Fisher, an associate professor at Northwestern University’s Feinberg School of Medicine who was not involved in the study.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.