Rapper Lil Jon Directing Two Videos for Vivid

LOS ANGELES – Multi-platinum hip-hop artist Lil Jon has signed a two-picture deal with Vivid Entertainment. Under the agreement, Lil Jon will direct and create music for two hardcore videos. The rapper and his band, The East Side Boyz, also will appear in the videos in non-sex roles.

Filming has already started for the first 90-minute feature, "Lil Jon & the East Side Boyz Vivid Vegas Party," set for release in the second quarter of 2005. The second video, "Lil Jon & the East Side Boyz Nightclubbin'," will begin shooting later this year and is set for release in early 2006. Both videos feature Latina porn star Mercedez.

The films will be part of Vivid’s Lil Jon & The East Side Boyz: American Sex Series, produced by Afro-Centric Productions and Legacy DVD Works.

“Working with Vivid means we’ve gone right to the top of the adult industry,” Lil Jon said of the partnership. “We’re gonna have some fun, with hot sex and lots of crunk-ass parties.”

Lil Jon is widely known in the music community as the King of Crunk, a heavy, Southern brand of hip-hop that’s popular in dance clubs. Early last year, the dreadlocked, metal-toothed rapper and producer introduced a pomegranate-flavored energy drink under the Crunk brand name.

The venture into adult filmmaking has been long in the making for Lil Jon and his band. When asked his opinion of adult films in a recent Playboy interview, he replied, “Yeah, I like porn. I’ll watch it with the ladies once in a while, but I mostly watch it for market research.”