Lil Jon’s son, Nathan Smith, died earlier in February at the age of 27. The Fulton County Medical Examiner’s Office revealed in a statement to Billboard on Friday (Feb. 27) that Smith’s cause of death was the result of drowning.

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The medical examiner listed Smith’s death as a “drowning in the setting of psilocybin use,” while the manner of his passing has been ruled an accident.

Psilocybin, also known as magic mushrooms, is a chemical in some types of mushrooms that “can cause people to experience distorted sights and sounds and lose their sense of time and space,” according to the National Institutes of Health. However, as the NIH notes, the National Institute of Drug Abuse is one of several of the federal agency’s partners that also supports research into whether or not psilocybin could potentially work to treat substance abuse as well as mental health issues.

Smith, who produced under the alias DJ Young Slade, was reported missing on Feb. 3, and was discovered by authorities on Feb. 6 in a Georgia pond near his residence.

“On Feb. 6, 2026, at approximately 11:53 a.m., divers with the Cherokee County Fire Department located and recovered a body from the pond,” a statement from the Milton Police Department’s Facebook account that day read. “The individual is believed to be Nathan Smith, pending official confirmation by the Fulton County Medical Examiner’s Office.”

Lil Jon expressed the devastation he felt at the loss of his son, an NYU graduate, in a statement to Billboard earlier in February.

“I am extremely heartbroken for the tragic loss of my son, Nathan Smith,” the Atlanta native shared at the time. “His mother and I are devastated. Nathan was the kindest human being you would ever meet. He was immensely caring, thoughtful, polite, passionate, and warmhearted — he loved his family and the friends in his life to the fullest.”

He continued: “We loved Nathan with all of our hearts and are incredibly proud of him. He was loved and appreciated, and in our last times together we’re comforted in knowing that we expressed that very sentiment to him.”

Lil Jon penned a heartfelt tribute to his late son with a post to Instagram on Feb. 19 featuring a slideshow of photos with Nathan, and revealed he had been laid to rest.

Nathan was the only son of Lil Jon and his estranged wife, Nicole Smith, who were married for 18 years before separating in 2022. The crunk pioneer also shares a 1-year-old daughter with his current girlfriend, Jamila Sozahdah.