Atlanta DJ and rap singer Lil Jon proved to be a great competitor the first time he parried with Donald Trump on NBC's "Celebrity Apprentice" in 2011.

He worked professionally and creatively, avoiding most of the drama unleashed by the likes of actor Gary Busey, TV personality Star Jones and reality star and actress NeNe Leakes.  In the end, Trump placed Lil Jon fourth, behind winner and country singer John Rich, actress Marlee Matlin and rock star Meatloaf, earning $80,000 for the United Methodist Children's Home, which has been helping foster kids in Decatur for more than 140 years.

When the show was seeking celebrities to come back for the all-star edition debuting Sunday, March 3 at 9 p.m., Lil Jon was initially inclined to say no but two reasons got him back in the game: his mother has Type 2 Diabetes and suffered a stroke. Then he watched a friend in the band a Tribe Called Quest deal with the consequences of diabetes in a documentary on the seminal rap group.

He decided to try to raise funds for the American Diabetes Association: "I want to bring awareness for friends and family members with diabetes. We need to stay no top of our loved ones and make sure they take care of themselves. Exercising, taking their meds, checking their blood sugars."

Trump didn't break the teams into men vs. women, as he usually does. Instead, he had the third "Celebrity Apprentice" winner and rocker Bret Michaels and the first celebrity runner-up country star Trace Adkins pick teams, schoolyard style. Michaels selected Lil Jon second, after Omarosa, famous for being the evil one on the original non-celebrity "Apprentice" nearly a decade ago.

"He wanted to keep her close," Lil Jon said, of Michaels' curious move. "But it could backfire." In the first episode I've already screened, Omarosa shows zero loyalty to Michaels. Lil Jon's strategy in dealing with her: "Watch your back. She will bring up any missteps in the boardroom if we lose."

He was a bit more wary of the contestants this time around because all the celebrities have played the game before. "Everyone is posturing and watching each other," he said. "We're all on eggshells."

Curiously, Adkins entire team is the older, white folks including Busey, Stephen Baldwin, Marilu Henner and Penn Jillette. Michaels picked all five black celebrities, including Denis Rodman and La Toya Jackson. Lil Jon's team jokes about it in the first episode, but Trump doesn't bring it up at all in the boardroom (or if he did, the editors didn't show it.)

The one celebrity that annoyed Lil Jon during his first run, Busey, is back. "When it comes down to crunch times, pressure situations, he can be a distraction," he noted. "I'm sure you'll see that soon." Indeed, he noted, "You see all the promos and all you see is Gary!"

Before he joined "Celebrity Apprentice," he was known mostly in the hip-hop world and not much beyond that. The show expanded his base. Elderly white folks will come to him and compliment his performance on the show. "I gave people a different view of rappers," he said. "We're intelligent. We have business sense."

Currently, he is doing DJ gigs all over the world, including a residency with the Wynn casinos in Vegas last year.

Last week, he performed with Usher and Ludacris at the Fox Theatre for the 20th anniverary of So So Def Records. He flew in that morning from Cancun, where he had a DJ gig, made it for soundcheck, then relaxed with a lot of old friends. "Everything flowed smooth," he said. "It was great to see all those artists get together and support Jermaine, to see him get some props for all the hard work he's done over the years, all the artists he's helped out. I just felt great to be part of that."

You can watch video from the concert here.

And here's a trailer for the show with plenty of Busey:

http://youtu.be/2x9yi5NYC-w

TV preview

"Celebrity Apprentice: All Star Edition," 9 p.m. Sundays, starting March 3, NBC