Rapper Lil Jon had to call on US Embassy representatives for help in Vietnam after he was detained by airport customs officials.

The rapper called the representatives on November 15.

The "Yeah!" hitmaker, real name Jonathan Smith, had been due to fly out of Ho Chi Minh City's Tan Son Nhat International Airport following a show when he was stopped by customs agents, who took issue with the huge haul of jewellery he had brought with him, reports aceshowbiz.com.

He shared a photograph of officials going through his gold chains and other accessories on Instagram, and captioned it: "Vietnam got me hemmed up (detained) over my iceeeee (jewellery) smh (shaking my head)".

Lil Jon has since shared that he was unaware he had to declare any jewellery worth over $12,000 to authorities, and his collection far exceeded the allowance, as his collection was valued at more than $400,000.

He was held for questioning but was able to have his team members reach out to the US Embassy for assistance, and a representative was sent to the airport to come to his rescue and clear up the matter.

Lil Jon was subsequently released with a warning, and was able to get a flight to Macau to honour another concert commitment he had lined up for this weekend.

Expressing his gratitude to authorities, he told tmz.com: "It's amazin' to know that no matter where I travel in the world, if something happens... the US Embassy's got their citizens' back! I'm super grateful to them".