New Year’s Eve is just a week and a half away — what are your plans? Deciding on how best to greet the new year is a toughie, there are just too many parties out there and on the occasion that you’ve decided to host your own, setting the right vibe is of the utmost importance. In many ways, this is the biggest party of the year. Sure, a lot of that has to do with the fact that it’s the last party of the year, but still… throwing a fresh New Year’s Eve party is tough.
If your drink of choice is tequila, Postmates and Lil Jon — to be clear, not the one from Robin Hood — are trying to make things a little easier. In select markets, if you order Don Julio tequila through Postmates between December 27th and December 31st, you’ll be eligible to receive a complimentary party pack to your order, curated by rapper, producer, DJ, Lil Jon. What’s in said party pack? Ingredients for Don Julio and Lil Jon’s signature drink, Tequila in the Club, which consists of Don Julio Blanco Tequila, Topo Chico mineral water, and bitters.
That’s all well and good, but as you can imagine — there is a lot more to throwing a great New Year’s Eve party than tequila sodas. So we asked Lil Jon if he could give us some tips on how to turn up. After all, the man has made his career out of knowing how to set a vibe, he used to drink from a chalice for God’s sake.
You’ve partied all around the world, what are three ingredients that make for an amazing, unforgettable New Year’s Eve party?
Good people, good music, good tequila.
What kind of cocktail are you carrying around in that chalice for New Year’s Eve?
Well, we’re going to have what we’re making, where we’re providing people ingredients where they can make at home, not just in the club. No more pimp cups, so it’s just like a regular cup. But it’s Tequila in the Club, it’s called Tequila in the Club. It’s basically Don Julio Blanco, some bitters, and… what the hell else is it? I forgot, but with one more ingredient. Oh, club soda, and you can add a little lime.
So that’s what we drinking.
What music needs to go on our New Year’s Eve playlist?
I mean, I’m a little bit of everything. You know, we’re in a generation now where we’re what they call the iPod generation, even though we don’t have iPods anymore, but that basically means where people are listening to hip-hop at one minute and then they might listen to some rock, then some Janice Joplin or whatever, you can literally play any kind of music. So whatever gets you going and gets you loose, I think that’s what needs to be on the playlist because everybody’s different.
What’s your number one song to play when the ball drops?
Shots. I think either Shots …. I mean, I’m sorry I made so many hit records, yeah. But no, Shots or Turn Down for What? Either one works, but I think Shots is going to probably work the best because I mean, it’s New Year’s Eve, everybody’s drinking, everybody’s got a drink in their hand. Every single person in the club has a drink in their hand at midnight. So Shots, I think it’d be perfect.
What would you say the perfect hour is to start getting that buzz going on New Year’s Eve?
I would say … Yeah, I mean, if you don’t normally drink like me, I would say 10 o’clock, so you don’t get too inebriated by midnight.
What kind of food should we be serving at the best New Year’s Eve party? What do you like to see going around?
Well, you know, I’m from Atlanta, we love chicken wings. So you got to have some chicken wings. You got to have some tacos. The good thing about light foods, you can eat a bunch of light food and it doesn’t like fill you up, then you can keep drinking. Because the key to being able to party all night is to eat, drink, eat, drink, eat, drink, and that works when you got finger foods. Chicken wings, some tacos, some tapas, you know what I mean? All of that helps you where you don’t get too full and you can still just keep going.
And what’s on the menu for beating the harsh morning after New Year’s Eve?
Well, I have a lot of remedies. The first remedy is before you go out drinking, you should find whatever your favorite brand of electrolyte. Get an electrolyte pack that you can pour into a bottle of water. So you drink some electrolytes or you pour the pack in the water, you drink that before you go out and before you go to bed, and you should wake up fine. And if you don’t drink a lot on the regular, you should drink water in between every two drinks.
A whole bottle of water. Yeah, and then you should be good. And if there’s food there, eat, because the food soaks up the alcohol, of course.
Do you have a go-to New Year’s Day breakfast?
I actually don’t eat breakfast anymore. I stopped eating breakfast. I do like the intermittent fasting, so I don’t eat till after one o’clock. I eat after 1:00 and then I stopped by 10:00 or 11:00.
How often do people ask you to shout out one of your famous catchphrases?
Well, any and everywhere I go, no matter how hyped I look or how tired I look, people are screaming at me, expecting me to scream back. But I’m just trying to get to the damn airport or the grocery line or get to my dental appointment, or exercise. Like just, “Okay, it’s okay to just say hello.” So yeah, all day, every day and it’s funny when people hang out with me that have never really hung out and they like, “Don’t that get annoying?” I’m like, “Yeah, it does get annoying.” I actually don’t hear it anymore, I just ignore it. I tune the people out.
But they get annoyed after they hear it like three times and I’m like, “Oh, that’s nothing.”
