Out all of the strange personalities who are involved in “Celebrity Apprentice,” most do so to get late career boosts that comes from primetime exposure. Not so Lil’ Jon, the laconic rapper and King of Crunk, who seemed an unusual part of the show the first time out, amid Gary Busey, NeNe Leakes and Meat Loaf in season 11.
Even more surprising, he’s back for the all-star edition that starts March 3, something he initially did not intend to do.
“I’m like, ‘Hell, no, I’m not coming back,’” he told me. “And then while I was thinking about it, my mother had a stroke.”
He thought her life-long diabetes was in remission. “Sometimes your parents don’t want you to know what’s going on and all of that. So it made me say, ‘You know what? Maybe I should go back to help bring awareness for friends and family of people with diabetes.’
Giving him more reason was a fellow rapper, finding out about the diabetes by Phife in a documentary about A Tribe Called Quest.
“You know, I’m a fan of Tribe Called Quest. I know Phife, and his struggle was he wasn’t taking care of himself while they were doing their thing in hip hop. He lost a kidney, and his wife had to give him one of her kidneys. So those two things touched me, and it made me say, ‘You know what? I can come back and compete and help bring awareness for this disease.’
So it was easy to choose the American Diabetes Association as his benefitting charity this time around.
As far as benefits to his career, Lil’ Jon says, ‘Well, grandmamas like me. For real. Like I can’t go nowhere without a 70 plus-year-old woman coming up to me saying, ‘You did so good on “Apprentice.” You should have won.’ So that’s one thing.
“I guess it gave people a different look of me,” he says. “I guess people saw that I was a nice guy.”
Concurs fellow contestant Marilu Henner: “He’s great guy.”
Concurs fellow contestant Marilu Henner: “He’s great guy.”
Other contestants this year include Trace Adkins, Gary Busey, Bret Michaels, Penn Jillette, La Toya Jackson, Lisa Renner, Dennis Rodman, Dee Snider, Stephen Baldwin, Claudia Jordan, Omarosa and Brande Roderick.