Lil Jon Reveals His Signature Hit ‘Get Low’ Almost Sounded Different

“Get Low” almost didn’t have fans going from the window to the wall.

During an appearance on the One Song podcast, Lil Jon revealed that the dance club classic was meant to have a hook completely different from the iconic one fans know and love from the 2002 collaboration with the East Side Boyz and the Ying Yang Twins.

“I go in the studio and try to get a chorus to it. And I think I come up with the wackest chorus I’ve ever done in my entire career,” the rapper, born Jonathan Smith, revealed, adding that he would premiere the previously unheard version on the podcast.

“This is the first place anyone but the engineers and whoever was in the studio with us has heard this,” he continued.

The rapper, 54, then presented hosts Diallo Riddle and Blake “LUXXURY” Robin with the “world premiere of the wackiest thing” he had ever done.

“Yeah. I don’t even remember who is saying this lyric,” he said of the original hook to “Get Low,” which was meant to be “let it go” instead of repeating the phrase “get low.”

“We didn’t come up with ‘get low’ yet. No. No. We thought ‘Let It Go’ is a smash,” Lil Jon said.

“We were just, you know, you coming up with ideas in the studio. We record this and it didn’t make the light of day. And it goes a little something like this.”

The “Turn Down for What” singer then played the introduction of the original “Let It Go” track.

Lil Jon added that it was “crazy” for the song to evolve from the sample he just played into a track heard at weddings, dance parties, clubs and more.

Elsewhere in the podcast, Lil Jon credited his engineers for making the version what it is today, sharing that the introductory beat was originally at the end of the song.

“That was like the vamp out,” he said. “My engineer, my mix engineer, Ray C, he chose to put it at the beginning. And I remember going to the studio to hear the mix. And I heard that I was like, ‘Oh man, that is crazy.’ I was like, ‘How did you think to do that? Like, why didn’t I think of that? Like, that’s amazing.’ ”

“That makes the song even catchier. It catches you from the very beginning,” the “Yeah!” rapper said.

Lil Jon thought that the track’s mixing was “genius,” adding, “I’m still working with him today.” The song peaked at No. 2 on the Billboard Hot 100 charts and spent 45 weeks there.

In 2022, the rapper spoke to PEOPLE about shifting from music to designing homes on HGTV in the series Lil Jon Wants to Do What?.

“There’s many facets of Lil Jon, as we all know from the Dave Chappelle sketches,” he said at the time. “It’s not all about screaming and partying on this HGTV show. It’s really about catching a vibe from people, listening to the homeowners, and [giving them] a place where they can create memories with their family.”

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As for what the rapper’s younger self would think of him expanding his talents beyond making music, Lil Jon said he would find it “cool,” because “that’s how you have longevity.”

“You have to grow, because the music is not going to always be relevant,” Lil Jon continued. “I learned early on, you’ve gotta be able to adapt and change and grow and always stay ahead, because if you’re kind of behind, you’re going to get left behind.”