{"id":1679,"date":"2026-02-08T04:35:17","date_gmt":"2026-02-08T04:35:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/africahalloffame.org\/Home\/?p=1679"},"modified":"2026-02-08T04:35:17","modified_gmt":"2026-02-08T04:35:17","slug":"lil-jon-breaks-silence-on-sons-tragic-death-i-am-extremely-heartbroken","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/africahalloffame.org\/Home\/lil-jon-breaks-silence-on-sons-tragic-death-i-am-extremely-heartbroken\/","title":{"rendered":"Lil Jon Breaks Silence on Son\u2019s Tragic Death: \u201cI Am Extremely Heartbroken\u201d"},"content":{"rendered":"

Lil Jon has opened up about the tragic death of his son, DJ Young Slade<\/strong>. As reported, the 27 year old was confirmed deceased after going missing for several days. \u00a0He was found in a pond.<\/p>\n

Now, his father, famed for hits such as\u2018Yeah!\u2019<\/strong> and \u2018Turn Down For What,\u2019 <\/strong>has addressed the tragedy.<\/p>\n

\nTaking to Instagram, the 55-year-old emotionally wrote:<\/div>\n
<\/div>\n

\u201cI am extremely heartbroken for the tragic loss of our son, Nathan Smith.<\/strong>
\nHis mother [Nicole Smith] and I are devastated.<\/strong><\/p>\n

<\/div>\n

Nathan was the kindest human being you would ever meet. He was immensely caring, thoughtful, polite, passionate, and warmhearted \u2013 he loved his family and the friends in his life to the fullest.\u201d<\/strong><\/p>\n

<\/div>\n<\/blockquote>\n

Continuing, he shared:<\/p>\n

He was an amazingly talented young man; a music producer, an artist and engineer, and graduate of NYU.<\/strong><\/p>\n

<\/div>\n

We loved Nathan with all of our hearts and are incredibly proud of him. He was loved and appreciated, and in our last times together we\u2019re comforted in knowing that we expressed that very sentiment to him.\u201d<\/strong><\/p>\n

<\/div>\n<\/blockquote>\n

Concluding, Lil Jon added:<\/p>\n

<\/div>\n

\u201cThank you for all of the prayers and support in trying to locate him over the last several days. Thank you to the entire Milton police department involved: Detective Dula Milton, Investigators Sergeant Scott Lappin, Detective Randy Dula, Detective Sarah Moore, and Detective Daniel Williams. Sandy Springs police department, Fulton County sheriff\u2019s office, Haralson County Sheriff\u2019s Office, Cherokee Fire Department, Forsyth County Fire Department, Forsyth County Sheriff\u2019s Office, Georgia K9 Team Search and Recovery, and multiple volunteers, as well as the Milton Fire Department and Cherokee Rescue and Dive Team, and Craig Brazemen.<\/strong><\/p>\n

<\/div>\n

\u2013 Lil Jon & Nicole\u201d<\/strong><\/p><\/blockquote>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Lil Jon has opened up about the tragic death of his son, DJ Young Slade. As reported, the 27 year old was confirmed deceased after going missing for several days. \u00a0He was found in a pond. Now, his father, famed for hits such as\u2018Yeah!\u2019 and \u2018Turn Down For What,\u2019 has addressed the tragedy. Taking to […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":1644,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[],"ppma_author":[160],"class_list":["post-1679","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","author-urbanafrica"],"authors":[{"term_id":160,"user_id":2,"is_guest":0,"slug":"urbanafrica","display_name":"URBANAFRICA","avatar_url":{"url":"https:\/\/africahalloffame.org\/Home\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/cropped-FFB50F59-0D6C-491C-BACA-64123F72D056.jpg","url2x":"https:\/\/africahalloffame.org\/Home\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/cropped-FFB50F59-0D6C-491C-BACA-64123F72D056.jpg"},"0":null,"1":"","2":"","3":"","4":"","5":"","6":"","7":"","8":""}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/africahalloffame.org\/Home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1679","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/africahalloffame.org\/Home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/africahalloffame.org\/Home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/africahalloffame.org\/Home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/africahalloffame.org\/Home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1679"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/africahalloffame.org\/Home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1679\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1680,"href":"https:\/\/africahalloffame.org\/Home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1679\/revisions\/1680"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/africahalloffame.org\/Home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1644"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/africahalloffame.org\/Home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1679"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/africahalloffame.org\/Home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1679"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/africahalloffame.org\/Home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1679"},{"taxonomy":"author","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/africahalloffame.org\/Home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/ppma_author?post=1679"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}