Sorry D12, Lil Jon’s got the whole rap world in his hands. Who’s gonna defeat Mr. Skeet Skeet Skeet? Tilt your pimp cup and toast the A-Town rascal who has been running things since last summer. Okay!

He’s smack-dab in the middle of what you could call a scene from the Black Blue Lagoon. Engulfed by exotic foliage that shades him from the brilliant mid-afternoon sun, he’s weighed down slightly by the massive and sparkling diamond-encrusted chains hanging from his neck. To his right stands a you-can’t-take-your-eyes-off-her model by the name of Kerri. He has his arm around her exquisite waist.

Welcome to this year’s XXL Sex Issue cover shoot—currently in progress on a small private island near South Beach, Florida. As the camera clicks away and the top-notch photo team moves around the immaculate yard of a hacienda-style mini-mansion, let’s take a moment to reflect, shall we?

He might be chillin’ in the shade right now, but Lil Jon is hot. You know this. He’s so hot his teeth should sweat.

Without the help of Mr. Roarke or Tattoo, the 32-year-old Lil Jon has made many of his dreams come true. Hailing from S.W.A.T.S. (Southwest Atlanta), he grew up well-off, encouraged by supportive parents. He admits to being shy as a kid, but he came out of his shell when he started DJing and hosting what are now legendary high-school parties at his parents’ six-story mansion.

But no one can say he hasn’t earned his success. If R. Kelly is the R in R&B, then Jon is the J in J-O-B. He may very well be the hardest-working man in the rap business, and he’s been grindin’ for years. After coming up through the A&R department at Jermaine Dupri’s So So Def Recordings, Jon got together with his East Side Boyz, Big Sam and Lil Bo, and started tearing up A-town clubs back in 1996 with the hit “Who U Wit?” A couple of years later, he spun the groovy, laid-back fun of “I Like Dem Girlz,” before breaking nationwide with the end-of-the-world death blows of 2001’s “Bia’ Bia’.” He proved it to fans in the Dirty Dirty a long time ago—he’s smart, and he knows how to mix it up and still deliver.

Over the past year he has captured America’s imagination. Music lovers, top-billed comedians, energy-drink enthusiasts, adult-movie addicts—they all can’t get enough of this man’s tight-ass beats and raspy, wild-ass wailing. Lil Jon is a muthafuckin’ phenomenon. Ask Usher, ask Luda, ask Petey, the Youngbloodz, the Ying Yang Twins—hell, ask your mama.

Recognized the world over as the true king of the immensely popular brand of Southern rap known as crunk, Lil Jon brings to mind a new-and-improved version of old Midas. Crown on the dome, ass on the throne, sippin’ from the chalice in the palace, everything he touches seems to turn to gold—and then platinum. Is there anything that can stop this guy? Judging from his list of recent hits, and the length of the line of artists requesting his services, the answer would seem to be a definite “No.” And that should make us all let out a hearty “Yeah!”

XXL: What would you say has been the biggest accomplishment so far in your career?

JON: I guess the biggest couple of accomplishments was to have “Get Low” blow up as big as it did. And then right behind “Get Low” have “Damn!” do what it did. And then right behind “Damn!” have “Salt Shaker” and then to have “Yeah!” To have back-to-back-to-back-to-back hit records is very hard to do. To have ’em on the crossover side and on the urban side was incredible for me.

What’s the story behind Petey Pablo’s “Freek-A-Leek” beat and Usher’s “Yeah!” beat sounding so similar?

What happened was, it started off that Jive Records paid for me to go in the studio to do some tracks for Mystikal. What I usually do when the label puts me in a studio, I might do like 20 beats in a couple of days and then they pick the best beats. So I give the beats to Jive, and Jive says Mystikal only picked like one or two beats. So we like, “Let us know which beats he picked.” So they don’t really let us know what’s goin’ on. So months pass, my management is callin’ Jive tryin’ to find out what’s up: “Hey, are y’all gonna use the beats?” So they don’t really ever let us know nothin,’ so we gonna sell the tracks. That’s what producers do: sell beats. So we give the beat to this writer named Sean Garrett to write some stuff for Usher.

Around the same time, I see [Jive artist] Petey Pablo and he’s like, “Yo, I did some songs to your beats.” I’m like, “What?! The label ain’t tell me shit.” So he gives me the vinyl. The record company has taken the beat, recorded Petey on it, mixed and mastered the song, and I don’t even know nuthin’ about it. So I got Usher with the beat and I got Petey with the beat. So I tried to work it out with Jive like, “Let me just do a new beat for Petey.” ’Cause the Usher record I know is a monster and it’s gonna be big for my career. We can’t work it out so I ended up havin’ to do somethin’ else for Usher. And that’s how Usher and Petey got similar tracks. But it worked out for the good. And Petey is top-10 now too. So that’s another top-10 record that I got. It’s a blessing. 

Please tell us your reaction to the popular skits on Dave Chappelle’s show where he impersonates you. 

Well, I went and saw Dave the other day and he said that show has ruined his life. He was jokin’, but I feel him on that. ’Cause I can’t go nowhere without somebody sayin’, “Yeah!,” “What?!” or “Okay!” now to me. But it was a blessing. He basically made me an icon by doin’ that. A comedian with a number-one TV show don’t just talk about somebody that ain’t doin’ nuthin’. So I was just really pleased and happy and couldn’t believe it that he did something on me.

I went to New York to surprise him to say thank you. And I walked on the set and he was like, “Oh, wassup? Hey, hang around for a lil’ while.” So I hung around for a couple of hours on the set and we ended up doin’ the sketch together. Me, him and the other writer sat down and came up with a couple of basic ideas on a piece of paper and we just improv’d the whole sketch. The Dave Chappelle thing, he’s taken me to a whole ’nother level. ’Cause, like, now 60-year-old White women come up to me talkin’ ’bout “Yeah!” and “What?!” And that’s amazing.

How about the Chris Rock bit from Never Scared?

It was amazing, ’cause he was on tour and somebody called me from New York and was like, “Yo, you heard Chris Rock talkin’ ’bout you on his show?” I’m like, “What the fuck? For real?” Like, Wow. That’s big. And that was before the Dave Chappelle shit. So it was crazy. And I happened to be in LA and Chris happened to have a show. So we hollered at his peoples and he got me some tickets and shit and I went. And everybody in the audience knew I was there too, because I came in once everybody was seated and the lights were still on, so people saw me. So everybody was like lookin’ back at me. But that was cool, man. It made me feel like all these years of grindin’, payin’ all these dues and comin’ up through the chitlin circuit and people not respecting what we do and not understandin’ the records—like, all of that shit really has paid off when you got Chris Rock talkin’ ’bout the song.

You’re currently in talks with MTV about doing an animated series.

Yeah, we tryin’ to work it out with MTV to do this cartoon thing. Hopefully, they’ll come on in. I’m just tryin’ to do it while I can. When you’re hot, you gotta get in and get it. And plan for your future. ’Cause you’re not gonna be hot forever. I got a character that people like. So I’m just tryin’ to market myself to the world and keep makin’ records. That’s my main goal—to keep makin’ records. My background is as a DJ, so I love to make records that DJs like to play, that rock the party.