Lil Jon and the East Side Boyz

We call ourselves the black Beastie Boys of the 2000 era," says Lil Jon, 31, the current star of Atlanta's massive hip-hop scene. "We drink some, have a good time, and we definitely party." But for the rapper and his sidekicks, the East Side Boyz, this would be a severe understatement.

Crunk is the word they use down South when the club gets truly unruly, when elbows are wildly thrown and moshlike mayhem erupts on the dance floor. And crunk is what Lil Jon and Co. do best, as evidenced by their aptly titled fourth album, Kings of Crunk. The songs are brutal and direct -- pneumatic beats paired with simple chants, delivered in impossibly loud shouts by Jon (the frontman with flailing dreadlocks and a mouthful of diamonds and gold) and his burly sidemen, both thirty years old, Big Sam and Lil Bo.

The trio first teamed up on 1996's "Who U Wit," after a raucous night out at the club. Remembers Sam, "We was chanting that phrase, and Jon looked at me and said, 'We gonna do a record.' I was like, 'Man, whatever,' but he called me three days later; we wrote the song in ten minutes."

Collectively, they've mastered the art of penning instant, universal rap hits -- "Bia' Bia'," "Put Yo Hood Up" -- without being particularly good rappers themselves. "We not walking about with no book bag full of rhymes," says Jon, who actually got his start as a club DJ and, later, worked as an A&R director for Jermaine Dupri's So So Def Records. Instead, after Jon and the Boyz write the crunchy, catchy hooks, they invite their favorite rappers -- Jadakiss, Trick Daddy, Fat Joe, Ludacris and others -- to rap over them.

Though Kings of Crunk was released almost a year ago, it's only recently been certified gold and has just birthed a Top Ten single -- "Get Low," a staticky, synth-jabbing, hollering ode to flexible females, featuring fellow hip-hop Atlantans Ying Yang Twins "All we want to do is get motherfuckers crunk and rowdy," says Jon. "And we got that undeniable shit."

JON CARAMANICA
(August 27, 2003)