I Started With the Book. Then I Became Curious About the Writer.
Lil Jon’s memoir, I Only Shout So You Can Hear Me, tells the story of an artist whose voice and music became part of popular culture.
But the more I learned about Paul Cantor, the more I wanted to talk about the person helping shape that story.
Before the bylines and books, Cantor began his career as a music producer. He went on to become a journalist, write the biography Most Dope: The Extraordinary Life of Mac Miller, and co-write Lil Jon’s memoir.
That path puts him in a distinctive place: he has made music, written about artists, and worked alongside one as a story took shape.
I wanted to hear what each of those experiences taught him about listening.
— Johnny B.
The Ear Behind the Writing
Writing about music takes more than knowing the songs. It means understanding the choices behind them: how a sound develops, what an artist is trying to express, and how a scene shapes the work.
Cantor’s own route began in music production before turning toward journalism. That gives us a conversation about how a producer listens, how a journalist follows a story, and what happens when those instincts meet on the page.
What does a writer hear that a casual listener might miss?
And how does a lifetime around music change the way you tell the story of a musician?
From Writing About an Artist to Writing With One
A journalist usually interprets an artist’s story for the reader. A co-writer has a different role: working with the artist as the story is told.
Cantor’s collaboration with Lil Jon opens up questions about that process.
How do you find the through-line in a life that spans music, fame, reinvention, and change? How do you shape a narrative while preserving the artist’s voice? And how do two collaborators decide what belongs on the page?
This is a conversation about the work of making a memoir: the listening, the choices, the structure, and the trust it takes to tell a story together.
When the Voice Is Already Famous
Lil Jon’s voice is instantly recognizable. The memoir gives readers a chance to encounter the person and creative journey behind that public identity.
That creates a compelling challenge for a writer. How do you bring a familiar voice onto the page without reducing the person to the persona? How do you help readers see the work behind a sound they may already know by heart?
Those questions connect the specific story of this book to a larger one: how artists become known, how their work evolves, and how a writer can help readers understand more than the public image.
A Conversation About the Craft
With Most Dope, Cantor wrote a biography of Mac Miller. With Lil Jon’s memoir, he has taken on his first co-written memoir. These are different forms, with different relationships between writer and subject.
We’ll talk about what changes when a writer moves from researching a life to building a book in collaboration with the person who lived it.
What does the subject know that no amount of reporting can uncover? What does the writer contribute? And how do those perspectives come together to create a story neither could tell in quite the same way alone?
The Question Underneath the Interview
Paul Cantor has moved through several roles in music: producer, journalist, biographer, and now memoir co-writer.
What has he learned about telling an artist’s story from each position?
And when the music stops, the interviews are over, and the manuscript is finished, what does a writer hope readers understand about the person behind the songs?
That’s where this conversation begins.
About Paul Cantor
Paul Cantor is a music journalist and author of Most Dope: The Extraordinary Life of Mac Miller. His writing has appeared in The New York Times, Vulture, Rolling Stone, XXL, Esquire, and Billboard. He began his career as a music producer. I Only Shout So You Can Hear Me, written by Lil Jon with Paul Cantor, is Cantor’s first co-written memoir.
Why This Conversation Belongs on On Air with Johnny B.
The best interviews go beyond a guest’s credits to explore the ideas, decisions, and experiences behind the work.
That’s the spirit of On Air with Johnny B.: a thoughtful conversation with a music journalist who has occupied several sides of the same story—from making music, to covering artists, to helping one tell his life in his own voice.
About Johnny B.
John “Johnny B” Bowman is a U.S. Army veteran, host of On Air with Johnny B., and founder of Mil-Spec Digital. His interviews explore the human stories beneath careers, public identities, and creative work.