I Let Lil Jon Guide My Meditations
I Let Lil Jon Guide My Meditations
Finding my center between the window and the wall
Lil Jon has been screaming at me since the fifth grade.
Quick, loud interjections of “YAYUH” and “WHAT” and “OKAY” dotted the soundtrack of my youth, amplified by skits on “Chappelle’s Show,”embedded themselves in memories of school dances and the like. He’s made quite a tidy living yelling at us over the years, and despite the cartooniness of it all, has never truly faded to obscurity.
It’s hard to become a caricature when you start as one.
But even the characters with the most predictable vocal patterns can find ways to surprise us. And everyone has an interior life that we’re seldom aware of. Artists search for new ways to feel creatively fulfilled and explore new worlds. André 3000 has his flute album. Lil Jon has his guided meditation album.
I’ve written about my relationship with meditation before. I took to it during/after my treatment. I read books about it. I tried sensory deprivation tanks. And, like most people who have given meditation a real, earnest try, I’ve found results from it. I go in waves of doing it regularly and then falling off, then re-committing then re-uncomitting. I have yet to truly find my center, I think, but what they don’t tell you is that you never really find it in meditation. The journey is the destination. The real quest for Nirvana was the friends we made along the way, etc.
Coming off of a period of non-meditation, where I’ve felt that familiar buzz of anxiety, I knew I wanted to get back to a regularly scheduled practice.
This coincided with the surprise release of Lil Jon’s guided meditation album Total Meditation.
With the desire to relocate a bit of the inner peace I’ve lost, I did what I don’t think I’ve ever done, and search “Lil Jon” on Spotify, turning to the man who has spent years specializing in being loud to help me turn down (for what) the noise around me.
Each track has a goal for the meditation. That goal might be connecting to nature or mindful breathing, or something heavier like coping with grief. The kids Lil Jon has been yelling at over the years are now real adults with office jobs – jobs that require focus and productivity (“Boost Focus”) – friendships that require more effort (“Nurturing Friendships”), caffeine addictions that hamper restful sleep (“Deep Sleep”) and compounding physical ailments (“Body Scan”).
An entire generation followed Lil Jon’s directions when he yelled at them to back, back, back it up, and now they are doing the same when he tells them to inhale through the nose and exhale through the mouth, and feel the tension leave their body.
Lil Jon introduces the album by explaining the whole point of this project – to share meditation, which he’s found to help him over the years, with the masses. It seemed genuine. So, if he was going to give it his honest effort, I really would try to do my best job meditating alongside him. No goofs, and even though I had an inkling that I’d turn this into content in some form, I tried my best to save any mental notes for after, gently guiding away the intrusive thoughts during my 10-minute sessions.
The results were mixed.
There were moments where you could tell Lil Jon had the self-awareness to inject humor here and there, like telling us to “say ‘Yeah’ to meditation.” Solid. Wonderful.
Other times, he showed he was potentially out of his depth when trying to get you to engage with your senses and practice presence.
Is your mouth dry or wet? Maybe you’re waiting to eat until later. Mm. If you don’t taste anything, that’s OK.
To quote the man himself: What?
On a more nitpicky meditation note, I also took issue with him giving permission to let your mind wander, as he explains his often does. Maybe I’m just a more militant meditator than Lil Jon, but I thought the whole point was to catch your mind wandering and regain control, getting yourself back on track to focusing on nothing.
Other times I blame the producer more than Lil Jon, like when he’s guiding you through breathing and going way too fast.
I connected the most with “Relieve Anxiety,” the third “track” on the “album.” Shocker.
I have been pretty open with my anxiety throughout my life, and figured anything I could throw at the problem could help. A 10-minute mindful breathing sesh certainly wouldn’t hurt. I chose 3 PM on a weekday, which is typically when I get some sort of wave of nondescript anxiety that comes at the crossroads of professional life and normal life.
It felt good, honestly. I forgot that I was listening to the same guy who helped popularize the term “skeet” and allowed myself to sink into a real, honest to goodness meditation to try to relieve a bit of the tension. As I said, if he was going to give his all, I would too.
The meditation ended with Lil Jon instructing the listener to let their anxieties go with each exhale, repeating “Let it go. Let it go. Let it go” over the ambient tones.
If you didn’t know better, you’d say it sounded a lot like “Get low.”
Today’s Snakes and Sparklers musical guest is Snarls.