By Jawn Murray, BlackVoices.com
Rap superstar Lil' Jon (real name: Jonathan Smith) is expanding into the spirit business with the launch of his new wine line, Little Jonathan Winery.
The crunk connoisseur, known for his ubiquitous hip-hop hit 'Get Low,' recently unveiled the wines in
"I love wine and I think that it's an untapped market for the urban consumer. I wanted it to be the best, so we chose a world renowned wine maker, Alison Crowe, to bottle and create my Little Jonathan Winery," the Atlanta-bred rapper told me exclusively.
The 36-year-old rapper/producer is offering a merlot, chardonnay and cabernet sauvignon.
"My business partners and I were discussing the winter X Games events we were planning and the idea of making an exclusive wine just for those events came up. We thought it would be a cool option to have for people that didn't want to drink hard liquor or beer that weekend," he explained. "My partners are in the wine business and when they mentioned the idea to their friends, who are wine brokers, they loved it and suggested we make the wine available for the masses. Of course I was down with the idea!"
In January 2005, the rap mogul launched his energy juice, CRUNK!!! Energy Drink. The name of the drink was inspired by the hip-hopper's 2004 album, 'Crunk Juice.'
The multi-platinum star is slated to release a new album, 'Crunk Rock,' later this year, however, Lil Jon is signed to TVT Records and the label announced on Feb. 19, 2008 that is was closing its operation.
1. i think that is T-PAIN and not LIL JOHN
curtis at 12:51PM on Mar 7th 2008