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Lil Jon Surprised By How Hard 'Celebrity Apprentice' Is

'Mentally and physically, it just wears on you,' Jon says.

Lil Jon has worn many hats in the hip-hop industry, from artist to DJ to label head. And the rowdy rapper will be drawing from those experiences and more during his stint on the upcoming season of [article id="1655931"]"Celebrity Apprentice."[/article]

The Atlanta star said the reality-TV challenge is one of the most difficult things he's had to take on. "Man, before we started filming the show, I watched the last two seasons of the show," Jon told MTV News. "I thought, this is hard but I can deal with it. Until you get into the season, though, and start dealing with it, you don't realize how hard it is.

"America has no idea how hard it is to do this show. You wake up in the morning, you have to do this task, basically in six or eight hours. It's just as hard, to me, as putting together an album. As an artist, it's hard to make an album. You're a perfectionist, you want to make it perfect and you want to give your audience the best you can give them. [The show] is just as hard or maybe harder. Because you don't know what you have to do in the morning. You get the task and you have to do it."

According to Jon, the hours are long and the arduous schedule only allows for one day off a week. "Mentally and physically, it just wears on you," he said.

With the roster of contestants this season coming from the worlds of TV, music, movies and elsewhere, including Gary Busey, LaToya Jackson and Mark McGrath, Jon has to be on his toes if he wants to take the top spot. His strategy "is to not lose," he said, laughing. " 'Cause if you lose, you have to go into the boardroom and that's where you get your head cut off. So no rivalries with me. I want to play together as a team and just win. It's ugly in that boardroom."

Despite the difficulties, however, Jon, who scored the spot with the help of his longtime publicist, admitted the decision to appear on the show was easy because of the charitable aspect.

"It's for the charity," he explained. "So when I get to a point where I wanna quit, I just think about the people that I'm helping out."

The new season of "Celebrity Apprentice" premieres March 6 on NBC.

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