How Lil Jon became the star of the Democratic National Convention

Lil Jon's brief but stirring performance at the Democratic National Convention, where he represented the state of Georgia in a musical roll call, may have seemed like a random treat to some viewers. In fact, it was the culmination of a weeks-old viral meme linking the rapper to vice presidential candidate Tim Walz … and also a conclusion to a 10-year-old campaign by Lil Jon to get voters to the polls.

Surprising the DNC with a surprise performance by the hip-hop star was the idea of ​​two women – political activist Ashley Spillane and Lil Jon's longtime press agent Tamar Judah – who approached the White House and the Kamala Harris campaign with the idea of ​​capitalizing on the current convention meme. Campaign officials responded with the idea of ​​incorporating Lil Jon into a state-by-state musical recital, the only live performer amid a playlist otherwise curated by DJ Cassidy. It turned out to be an even bigger hit than even they expected.

The meme in question began when TikTokers and others reacted to Harris' choice of Walz as her vice president by changing the lyrics of Lil Jon's “Get Low” from “to the window, to the wall” to “to the window, to the Walz.” Spillane and Judah had worked together on a Rock the Vote campaign a decade ago, in which the lyrics of another Lil Jon's hit, the 8x platinum hit “Turn Down for What,” became “Turn Out for What.” So they set out to turn that viral song into something that could actually excite voters… not to mention the delegates themselves. On the phone with diversitythey explained the story of how this moment came about.

Where does this begin chronologically?

Ashley Game: Going back chronologically, Tamar, Jon and I worked on a Rock the Vote campaign in 2014. Tamar and I became close friends then and we're both political and hip-hop junkies and always on the lookout for those cultural moments. Very naturally on the internet, people who were, I think, excited about the new vice presidential candidate came up with these funny memes: “From the Window to the Walz,” and so we immediately started sending each other all the memes that came out. The social media component of it exploded that way, so we reached out to see what we could figure out together in real time. I asked Tamar if she thought Jon would be interested in doing something with it, and I said I would check with the campaign to see what they thought, and we kind of reached out to those people in parallel.

I first spoke to Colleen Loper at the White House, who put me in touch with Carla Frank, the director of surrogate engagement for the campaign, who now works for the Walz team. She immediately wrote back and said, “That would be great. So let's make it happen.”

Tamar Judah: When I went back to Jon and asked him, “Hey, would you be interested in the DNC and the White House doing something with you, since 'From the Windows to the Walz' is now a viral moment, would you be open to it?” he said, “Absolutely. Let's come up with something that will have a big impact and be a lot of fun for everyone.”

Game: So he was all in, and Tamar, Carla from the campaign and I got to work, planning everything and making it happen.

Judah: I think it's a wonderful moment that all women are coming together to create this moment for Kamala and her campaign, no matter what the specific issues are on the ballot – and all women know what those issues are. As a woman in my position, working with Ashley and the women in the DNC and the White House on this has been an absolute honor. And I know Jon himself is extremely proud that it was women who pulled this off in this moment.

Game: Colleen Loper and Carla Frank, in the White House and on the campaign trail, came up with the idea for the Roll Call, and then we all worked together to work out what it could do. That was a call where Tamar and I talked about, OK, what if we brought back “Turn Out for What?” And Carla Frank said, “What if we put 'Get Low' in there too?” So this group of women came in and kind of produced it.

Judah: It was extremely important for Jon to also flip the lyrics for “Get Low” to get a combination of Kamala Harris or VP Harris and Governor Walz. So Jon and I kind of worked through that together and then he came up with exactly what he wanted to say. And then Jon said to me, “I really want to include 'We are not going back.' That's very important to me. Because it's important and it's part of the wording that Kamala uses.” So it was Jon's decision to include that as well. And as you can see, he included it in his live performance. If you watch the clip before he got to the chant of “VP Harris, Governor Walz” in “Get Low,” he cut in there in the transition from “Turn Out for What” to “Get Low” with “We are not going back.”

To prepare the music, Jon first got “Turn Down for What.” I had him get the file he made with Rock the Vote and that became “Turn Out for What.” He put that in there. Then he went to “Get Low” and put that in a file. He sent me the file and then I sent it to DJ Cassidy.

We decided not to have Jon there (for the rehearsal) because the DNC made it clear that journalists and press would be there. To keep it a secret, we sent Jon's road manager instead and Jon stayed behind. They just went through the motions, like the physicality and blocking with the camera.

Lil Jon [via email]: I was actually first asked to DJ for the GA delegates at their DNC party to kick off the week. My publicist, Tamar Juda, has a connection with the DNC [through Ashley Spillane at Impactual] and they worked together to have me do some sort of performance on stage for the General Assembly roll call…I thought that would be pretty crazy, so I was all in! With “Turn Down For What,” I knew it would rock the arena, and it was very important to me to not only change the lyrics from “Get Low” to “VP Harris…Governor Walz,” but also to incorporate Kamala Harris's slogan “We're not going back” into the performance. It was an honor to create an iconic moment.

Game: I was the president of Rock the Vote in 2014 and we worked together on an anthem for the 2014 midterm elections. At the time, “Turn Down for What” was just everywhere, the hit of the year. At Rock the Vote, we talked about it and said, “What if he recorded that anthem as 'Turn Out for What' and we made it an anthem for the election?” And he was just an incredible collaborator and focused on making sure we got more people to the polls.

Judah: Jon loved the idea of ​​replacing it with “Turn Out for What” for the Rock the Vote campaign, so that it was about the issue that you care about and motivates you to vote. He was just excited that it all fit together so seamlessly.

Game: So when he brought back “Turn Out for What?” at the convention, it was a full-circle moment of the last ten years. And I knew this political group of people was going to go crazy, and I think we were all excited and optimistic that it was going to be a great part of the night, but we're over the moon that it became one of the most viral moments of the entire week.

I actually worked for now-Governor Walz in 2010. Now I have my own social impact consulting firm, and we work with philanthropists, celebrities, and corporations to encourage civic engagement. But again, the many circular, overlapping friendships that have existed for 10 or 15 years are all women who have conspired to make this possible – and women who also, just to be clear, work behind the scenes. So it was just a really beautiful, incredibly fun thing that we were able to do together. Those moments are really important. You know, I work in politics, and there are very few moments in my life where people who aren't in politics start reaching out about political things, and this was one of those moments where my phone just went completely crazy. It's really exciting when something like that happens because you know you're reaching the audience that you want to reach, people that we want to excite and engage.

Judah: This has raised people's expectations even further for future roll calls. Lil Jon's team is very grateful to the DNC for trusting them to pull this moment off and make it a great moment for them – and for hip-hop. We are very grateful that they put that trust in Jon. Jon is an integral part of Atlanta, Georgia, and I know it was one of the greatest honors of his life for him to be a part of this and to truly represent Georgia.

Game: I'm excited to continue making plans with Tamar about what else we can do, and I'm sure we'll find some fun things to do together, you bet on it.

Some examples of the viral “To the Walz” meme that inspired the convention appearance: