Lil Jon acknowledges ‘tragic loss’ of son after body pulled from Georgia pond
Rapper Lil Jon has confirmed the death of his 27-year-old son after Georgia state police say the body recovered from a pond is believed to be that of his 27-year-old son.
The cause of Lil Jon’s son Nathan Smith’s death was revealed after the 27-year-old’s body was recovered from a pond near his home in Georgia on February 6th.
The Fulton County Coroner confirmed Smith’s cause of death was “drowning in the context of psilocybin use,” according to People and E! News reported citing the autopsy report.
According to E!, the autopsy also stated that Smith’s blood tested positive for “psilocybin, a hallucinogenic mushroom that is a pharmacologically active hallucinogenic compound.” News and people.
USA TODAY has reached out to the Fulton County Coroner’s Office.
Smith, who went by the stage name DJ Young Slade, was found dead around 6 a.m. on February 3 after he ran out of his home without his cell phone, according to a missing persons report. Milton Police in Milton, Georgia, said at the time that the man was “disoriented and may require assistance.”
After police confirmed Smith’s death on February 6, Lil Jon released a statement saying he and Smith’s mother, Nicole Smith, were “deeply heartbroken” and “devastated.”
“Nathan was the kindest human being I have ever met. He was extremely caring, thoughtful, polite, passionate, and warm-hearted.”
“He loved his family and his lifelong friends to the fullest. He was an incredibly talented young man – a music producer, artist, engineer, and graduate of New York University,” the statement continued. “We love Nathan dearly and are so proud of him. He was loved and appreciated, and we take comfort in knowing that we expressed those exact feelings to him the last time we spent together.”
Lil Jon and Nicole Smith got married in 2004 and then separated in 2022. The rapper is also the father of daughter Nahara with girlfriend Jamila Sozada.
Who is DJ Young Slade?
Nathan Smith, just like his father Lil Jon, was a DJ and musician.
“Reid released this when he graduated from college. He was so happy to express his art and do it himself. I was so proud of him for doing it all himself,” Lil Jon wrote on Instagram promoting the song “Move Through Fire.”
Under the stage name DJ Young Slade, Smith aimed to forge his own path while following in his father’s footsteps. In March 2025, he released a new single titled “Feels”, which premiered on MTV.
“It’s great to thank my dad and show him respect and look at everything he’s done. It’s great to take the torch and do my own thing,” Smith told The Quintessential Gentleman after releasing the song in March. “It’s like it’s from him, but at the same time I’m making sure I’m taking it and making it my own.”
According to People magazine, Lil Jon previously said that his son started DJing at the age of 11 and graduated from the Scratch DJ Academy in Los Angeles at the age of 12. As a teenager, he DJed at various clubs in LA before making his own music.
“It’s literally in your child’s genes to do what you do,” he told People. “It’s in their genes. It’s in their DNA. We pass on everything we gain and learn to our children. So he was destined to be in the music business and do music.”
Contributors: Anika Reed and Anna Kaufman
