Best known for his contributions to hip-hop and car-racing cinema, Ludacris is an icon
with countless accolades. He might be one of the most recognizable names in entertainment
today, but there's still a lot that you probably don't know about this talented multi-hyphenate.
Before he was known as Ludacris, Chris Bridges was making a name for himself as Chris Lova
Lova on Atlanta radio. It all started during college when he landed an internship at Hot
97.5, now Hot 107.9, the only hip-hop station in Atlanta at the time. Working at a radio
station was all part of the aspiring rapper's plan. In a 2020 interview with The Mogul Mixtapes,
he explained that being where industry insiders were was the perfect opportunity for him to
get his own foot in the door. As he put it,
"If I could become a permanent fixture at this radio station, you've got all these artists
and all these producers that come through every single day. So, it's only a matter of
time before somebody latches on, or at least I can get one of them to lend an ear to this
music."
"I was like, what better place than to, you know, make a job for myself where I can constantly
give all these people my music every damn day and make the right connections?"
Eventually, Bridges went from intern to on-air personality, making himself known as DJ Chris
Lova Lova. His time on the airwaves soon paid off, as he made some life-changing connections
with industry bigwigs and record companies across Atlanta, including the likes of Jermaine
Dupri, Dallas Austin, and LaFace Records.
If you didn't know already, it's not hard to figure out that Ludacris is from Atlanta.
His music clearly gives you a sense of how proud he is of being from the Dirty South.
As his iHeartRadio biography puts it, he is, quote, "arguably the most commercially successful
Southern rapper of the time." But what exactly made him stand out so much within the Southern
hip-hop scene as he went on to reach a national audience? It may just have been the fact that
he actually grew up somewhere else. Ludacris' early years were actually spent in Illinois,
as he didn't move to Atlanta until he was in high school. As Stereogum described him
in a 2020 profile,
"That meant that Ludacris rapped without the gooey, marbled accent that made Southern rappers
such a tough sell for so many East Coast listeners."
His upbringing also influenced his writing style. While typical rap lyrics of the time
referenced the darker aspects of street life, Ludacris tended to take a humorous approach
towards lighter topics like money and partying. As he explained to The Mogul Mixtapes in 2020,
"I think I brought a certain light to hip-hop that wasn't necessarily always talking about
having to shoot guns. You know, the street life is great [...] a lot of people have gone
through that, but it's also okay to smile and laugh and actually joke around."
When Ludacris released his debut album in 1999, he had no major label backing. It was
released independently on his own indie label Disturbing tha Peace and sold 50,000 copies
in the South through his own grassroots efforts. As Ludacris told MTV,
"When I put out [the album], it was a real struggle; I had to save up money to do everything,
sell it out the trunk and get it in the stores."
The rapper had saved up the money he earned from working at Hot 97.5 to make a down payment
on a 1993 gold Acura Legend. As he recalled to a.list in 2017,
"People would call it the drug dealer car. I had to have one of those cars because even
though I wasn't dealing drugs, I was definitely dealing music out of the trunk!"
Over two decades later, Ludacris still hasn't gotten rid of that iconic first car, even
passing it down to his daughter to test drive.
"How many miles does it have?"
"Over 283,000 miles."
"283,000 miles?! Have you- you've had to replace everything."
"I did. I did have to replace everything."
During Ludacris' time as Chris Lova Lova, employees at Hot 97.5 were required to put
in hours towards community service each week. As he recalled to a.list in 2017,
"At that age, I didn't truly understand why they were making us do it. But I really saw
the impact I had on kids when I was just a local celebrity in Atlanta."
Even as Ludacris started becoming a star on a national scale, giving back to the community
remained at the top of his agenda. In 2001, just a year after the release of his first
major label album, Back for the First Time, he founded The Ludacris Foundation. With the
mission of inspiring "urban youth to live their dreams and envision new possibilities,"
the foundation organizes programs and partnerships focused on the 3L's: Leadership and Education,
LudaCares, and Living Healthy Lifestyles. "LudaCares," in case you're wondering, refers
to community service. Headed by Ludacris as the chairman and his mother Roberta Shields
as the president, The Ludacris Foundation has partnered with organizations like Feeding
America, the Make-A-Wish Foundation, and Boys and Girls Clubs of America to give back to
communities in the rapper's hometown of Atlanta and beyond.
"It's just dear to my heart, and again, during times like this, we want to make sure we help."
In 2002, Ludacris partnered with Pepsi for a major TV ad campaign. But soon, former Fox
News host Bill O'Reilly called on his viewers to boycott Pepsi, as he declared,
"I’m calling for all responsible Americans to fight back and punish Pepsi for using a
man who degrades women, who encourages substance abuse, and does all the things that hurt particularly
the poor in our society."
The outrage from O'Reilly and his base had its intended effect, as Pepsi pulled the spot
from the air. But then six months later, the soda brand appeared somewhat hypocritical
when they aired a Super Bowl commercial with Ozzy Osbourne, whose own discography doesn't
exactly fit the wholesome image they seemed so concerned about with Ludacris.
In response, music mogul Russell Simmons and the Hip-Hop Summit Action Network threatened
their own boycott. They demanded that PepsiCo apologize to Ludacris, put his commercial
back on the air, and donate $5 million to his Foundation. Ultimately, the company agreed
to work with the hip-hop network and foundation by donating an annual $1 million for three
years, but Ludacris' commercial was never aired again, and no public apology ever was
issued.
In 2006, Ludacris found himself at the United States District Court in New York to defend
a three-year-old song. The tune in question was his 2003 hit "Stand Up," as both Ludacris
and Kanye West, who produced the track, were being sued for copyright infringement. The
case alleged that "Stand Up" ripped off the 2001 song "Straight Like That" by a New Jersey
group named I.O.F, although "Straight Like That" never received air time beyond a brief
stint on college radio.
Both songs repeated the phrase "like that" more than 80 times. But it seemed that the
similarities were of no issue to the jury, as it took them less than a day to conclude
that there was no infringement. For his part, Ludacris was confident in his own creative
originality during the whole ordeal. He felt no sympathy for the plaintiffs, and after
the verdict he said that he noticed one of them fall asleep during the trial, and he
decided that he wasn't going to let someone like that ruin his reputation.
When Ludacris starred in the 2005 film Crash, he was just getting his feet wet in the acting
scene. At the time, he was a novice actor in a star-studded cast. He was able to land
the high-profile role thanks in part to the support of one of his co-stars, Don Cheadle.
Cheadle was also one of the film's producers, and he immediately recognized Ludacris' star
potential after reviewing his audition tape. As fellow producer Cathy Schulman told SFGate
in 2005,
"As soon as Don saw that first raw tape, he said it doesn't matter if he's losing lines
or this and that, this guy is a star. The camera loves Chris, and it was very much at
Don's urging that he got cast."
By the time awards season rolled around, Ludacris was celebrating several wins with his castmates,
including a surprise Best Picture trophy at the Academy Awards. The role gave him some
content to rap about in his song "Tell Me What They Mad For," as he made a proud declaration
about being one of the few rappers to have won both a Grammy and an Oscar. However, that's
not exactly true, as Eminem also holds that distinction, and Luda didn't actually receive
an Oscar for Crash.
Ludacris has quite a long list of gigs on his resume, including restaurateur. In 2016,
he opened up the eatery "Chicken + Beer," which serves up Southern classics and local
craft beers. The name is a nod to his 2003 multi-platinum album Chicken-N-Beer. Located
in Atlanta's Hartsfield-Jackson International Airport, the restaurant was a hit, as it even
became the first airport restaurant in the country to contend for the James Beard Award.
But before his success with Chicken + Beer, Ludacris had some struggles in the culinary
world. His previous restaurant Straits, an Asian fusion joint also located in Atlanta,
had to close down due to low turnout. But the ambitious rapper refused to see it as
a failure. In a 2017 interview with a.list, he explained how closing down Straits was
the right decision. As he put it,
"Shutting Straits down was the best thing that could have happened to me because I got
my feet wet in the restaurant business; people took me seriously. That was some of the best
four years of my life. That's what allowed me to even consider something like Chicken
+ Beer."
Before Ludacris was Ludacris, and even before he was Chris Lova Lova, he was just Christopher
Bridges, an undergraduate student at Georgia State University. But having a career in the
music industry was always part of his plan, as he studied music management in anticipation
of his big break as a hip-hop star
Two decades later, Ludacris once again found himself on the Georgia State campus. In 2019,
he joined the university's Creative Media Industries Institute as an artist-in-residence.
He worked with professors and mentored students with a focus on entrepreneurship in music
and film. He also partnered with the College of Law and stopped by to offer some insights
to students in the "Legal Life of Ludacris" course.
In a 2017 interview with XXL, Ludacris declared,
"I’m kind of an adrenaline junkie myself, which is something a lot of people don’t
know."
The topic of adrenaline came up because he was serving as the host of the MTV revival
of the stunt-riddled game show Fear Factor. He was clearly excited by the opportunity
to get a front-row seat to all the extreme challenges that the contestants had to undertake.
He was typically too busy hosting to partake in the challenges himself, but he did reveal
to TV Guide that he preferred the thrill of heights to any kind of rush that comes with
eating or drinking something gross. As he put it,
"Anything that has to do with taste aversion is something I really don't like. Basically
having to drink and eat nasty food is something that is going to be the most difficult if
I was doing it. Just the smell alone gets me [...] My favorite challenge so far is probably
one where these contestants are 100 feet up in the air."
There was one fear that Ludacris actually managed to overcome on the show, and that
was his fear of snakes. It took him some effort, but he was ultimately able to hold a boa constrictor.
The experience likely helped with his own role as a motivator to the contestants.
"All you gotta do is kiss the snake."
As Ludacris revealed to TV Guide,
"The only thing better than doing some of these stunts myself is to watch it with a
first class seat. Then there's an even greater reason, that I'm able to encourage and motivate
people to try to overcome their fears. Especially in the moment when they're facing some of
their worst fears."
Based on all that he's accomplished in his career, we'd be happy to have Ludacris in
our corner giving us motivation anytime.
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