Producer Lil Jon (real name Jonathan Smith) has gone from selling Crunk Juice to fine wine. The wine, tentatively titled Little Jonathan Winery, reportedly includes a merlot, chardonnay and cabernet sauvignon and has already being distributed in California and will hit shelves within the next two months. "I love wine and I think that it's an untapped market for the urban consumer. I wanted it to be the best, so we chose a world renowned wine maker, Alison Crowe, to bottle and create my Little Jonathan Winery," the Atlanta-bred rapper told gossip columnist Jawn Murray recently. "My business partners and I were discussing the winter X Games events we were planning and the idea of making an exclusive wine just for those events came up. We thought it would be a cool option to have for people that didn't want to drink hard liquor or beer that weekend," he explained. "My partners are in the wine business and when they mentioned the idea to their friends, who are wine brokers, they loved it and suggested we make the wine available for the masses. Of course I was down with the idea!"In January 2005, the rap mogul launched his energy juice, CRUNK!!! Energy Drink. The name of the drink was inspired by the hip-hopper's 2004 album, Crunk Juice.
In related news, the multi-platinum star is slated to release a new album, Crunk Rock at the end of this year. The tiny tycoon also co-hosts Pimp My Ride International, which is a version of the MTV show Pimp My Ride, along with rapper Fat(ass) Joe.
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