Lil Jon Reveals How His 10-Month-Old Daughter Helps Inspire His Fitness Competition Journey: ‘Want to Be Here as Long as I Can’ (Exclusive)

Lil Jon has his 10-month-old daughter to thank for inspiring him to keep pushing at the gym.

The “Turn Down for What” rapper, 54, revealed his biggest inspiration for living a healthier lifestyle to PopCulture.com after making his fitness competition debut last month at the annual Muscle Beach championship at Venice Beach in Los Angeles, where he placed third in the Men’s Physique Master’s Over 45 category.

Lil Jon told PopCulture that his fitness journey first started “about 10 years ago,” when he started eating healthier and working with a trainer after watching a close friend undergo triple bypass surgery.

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His work in the gym admittedly “fell to the wayside” a bit over the years, however, until he signed on to perform alongside Usher at Super Bowl LVIII.

“I was like, ‘I want to look good on the Super Bowl stage,’” Lil Jon recalled while discussing his new partnership with Hyundai. Working with trainer Jay Galvin, the artist was introduced to the world of fitness competitions, which Galvin assured him were well within his wheelhouse.

“I was like, ‘You know what? Alright, after the Super Bowl, we’ll start training for that,’” Lil Jon remembered. “For me, it’s more than just the competition; it’s a lifestyle change for me.”

“I want to be here a long time,” he continued. “I have a daughter, you know, 10 months old now, and just want to be here as long as I can. I just want to reverse any of the things that were going on in my body from drinking and eating bad food and so on and so forth.”

Fitting in competition training while on the road as a working artist is a little “hard,” but Lil Jon said he’s “dedicated” to this new way of life.

“It’s a lifestyle change. It’s not just for me, it’s for my daughter,” he told PopCulture, “so I’m gonna keep it up.”

Lil Jon is also embracing a new aspect of life on the road after lending his stamp of approval to the 2026 Hyundai Palisade Hybrid in a new ads featuring his signature tagline of “OKAY!”

The Grammy winner appears in the new “I See You” campaign for Hyundai, which fuses “music, style and authentic storytelling to capture the heart of the modern Black family SUV shopper.”

“I’m the perfect fit,” Lil Jon said of his partnership with Hyundai. “Because me, I’m synonymous with the word ‘Okay.’ So I was like, ‘Okay, Hyundai!’ Okay, easy!”

The “coolest part” of working with Hyundai was actually getting in the 2026 Hyundai Palisade Hybrid for the first time “and realizing, wow, Hyundai can do luxury,” Lil Jon continued. “I had never been in a Hyundai ever in my life before this. …It’s a fly looking car, too. I was like, ‘Okay!’ I was literally like, ‘Okay, Hyundai!’ Like it made me say what the commercial says!”