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Watch the video to see the untold truth of Ludacris.
Transcript
00:00Best known for his contributions to hip-hop and car racing cinema, Ludacris is an icon
00:05with countless accolades. He might be one of the most recognizable names in entertainment
00:10today, but there's still a lot that you probably don't know about this talented multi-hyphenate.
00:16Before he was known as Ludacris, Chris Bridges was making a name for himself as Chris Lover
00:21Lover on Atlanta radio. It all started during college, when he landed an internship at Hot
00:2697.5, now Hot 107.9, the only hip-hop station in Atlanta at the time. Working at a radio
00:33station was all part of the expiring rapper's plan. In a 2020 interview with The Mogul Mixtapes,
00:39he explained that being where industry insiders were was the perfect opportunity for him to
00:44get his own foot in the door. As he put it,
00:46"'If I could become a permanent fixture at this radio station, you've got all these artists
00:51and all these producers that come through every single day. So it's only a matter of
00:55time before somebody latches on, or at least I can get one of them to lend an ear to this
01:00music.'"
01:01"'I was like, what better place than to, you know, make a job for myself where I can constantly
01:06give all these people my music every damn day and make the right connections.'"
01:09Eventually, Bridges went from intern to on-air personality, making himself known as DJ Chris
01:15Lover Lover. His time on the airwaves soon paid off, as he made some life-changing connections
01:21with industry bigwigs and record companies across Atlanta, including the likes of Jermaine
01:25Dupri, Dallas Austin, and LaFace Records.
01:29If you didn't know already, it's not hard to figure out that Ludacris is from Atlanta.
01:34His music clearly gives you a sense of how proud he is of being from the Dirty South.
01:39As his iHeartRadio biography puts it, he is, quote,
01:42"...arguably the most commercially successful Southern rapper of the time."
01:46But what exactly made him stand out so much within the Southern hip-hop scene as he went
01:50on to reach a national audience? It may just have been the fact that he actually grew up
01:55somewhere else.
01:56Ludacris' early years were actually spent in Illinois, as he didn't move to Atlanta
02:01until he was in high school. As Stereogum described him in a 2020 profile, that meant
02:06that Ludacris rapped without the gooey, marbled accent that made Southern rappers such a tough
02:10sell for so many East Coast listeners.
02:13His upbringing also influenced his writing style. While typical rap lyrics of the time
02:18referenced the darker aspects of street life, Ludacris tended to take a humorous approach
02:22towards lighter topics like money and partying. As he explained to The Mogul Mixtapes in 2020,
02:27"...I think I brought a certain light to hip-hop that wasn't necessarily always talking about
02:32having to shoot guns. You know, the street life is great. A lot of people have gone through
02:37that. But it's also okay to smile and laugh and actually joke around."
02:41When Ludacris released his debut album in 1999, he had no major label backing. It was
02:47released independently on his own indie label, Disturbing the Peace, and sold 50,000 copies
02:52in the South through his own grassroots efforts. As Ludacris told MTV,
02:56"...When I put out the album, it was a real struggle. I had to save up money to do everything,
03:01sell it out the trunk and get it in the stores."
03:04The rapper had saved up the money he earned from working at Hot 97.5 to make a down payment
03:09on a 1993 gold Acura Legend. As he recalled to A-List in 2017,
03:15"...People would call it the drug dealer car. I had to have one of those cars because even
03:19though I wasn't dealing drugs, I was definitely dealing music out of the trunk."
03:23Over two decades later, Ludacris still hasn't gotten rid of that iconic first car, even
03:28passing it down to his daughter to test drive.
03:31"...How many miles does it have?"
03:33"...Over 283,000 miles."
03:35"...283,000 miles! You've had to replace everything with it."
03:39"...I did. I did have to replace everything with it."
03:41During Ludacris' time as Chris' lover-lover, employees at Hot 97.5 were required to put
03:46in hours towards community service each week. As he recalled to A-List in 2017,
03:51"...At that age, I didn't truly understand why they were making us do it. But I really
03:55saw the impact I had on kids when I was just a local celebrity in Atlanta."
04:00Even as Ludacris started becoming a star on a national scale, giving back to the community
04:04remained at the top of his agenda. In 2001, just a year after the release of his first
04:09major label album, Back for the First Time, he founded the Ludacris Foundation.
04:14With the mission of inspiring urban youth to live their dreams and envision new possibilities,
04:19the foundation organizes programs and partnerships focused on the three L's — leadership and
04:24education, Ludicares, and living healthy lifestyles.
04:28Ludicares, in case you're wondering, refers to community service. Headed by Ludacris as
04:33the chairman and his mother Roberta Shields as the president, the Ludacris Foundation
04:37has partnered with organizations like Feeding America, the Make-A-Wish Foundation, and Boys
04:42and Girls Clubs of America to give back to communities in the rapper's hometown of Atlanta
04:47and beyond.
04:48"...It's just dear to my heart. And again, during times like this, we want to make sure
04:52we help."
04:53In 2002, Ludacris partnered with Pepsi for a major TV ad campaign. But soon, former Fox
05:00News host Bill O'Reilly called on his viewers to boycott Pepsi as he declared,
05:05"...I'm calling for all responsible Americans to fight back and punish Pepsi for using a
05:10man who degrades women, who encourages substance abuse, and does all the things that hurt particularly
05:15the poor in our society."
05:17The outrage from O'Reilly and his base had its intended effect, as Pepsi pulled the spot
05:21from the air. But then six months later, the soda brand appeared somewhat hypocritical
05:26when they aired a Super Bowl commercial with Ozzy Osbourne, whose own discography doesn't
05:31exactly fit the wholesome image they seemed so concerned about with Ludacris. In response,
05:36music mogul Russell Simmons and the Hip Hop Summit Action Network threatened their own
05:40boycott. They demanded that Pepsi co-apologize to Ludacris, put his commercial back on the
05:44air, and donate $5 million to his foundation. Ultimately, the company agreed to work with
05:49the Hip Hop Network and foundation by donating an annual $1 million for three years. But
05:55Ludacris' commercial was never aired again, and no public apology ever was issued.
06:00In 2006, Ludacris found himself at the United States District Court in New York to defend
06:06a three-year-old song. The tune in question was his 2003 hit, Stand Up, as both Ludacris
06:12and Kanye West, who produced the track, were being sued for copyright infringement. The
06:16case alleged that Stand Up ripped off the 2001 song, Straight Like That, by a New Jersey
06:22group named I.O.F., although Straight Like That never received airtime beyond a brief
06:26stint on college radio. Both songs repeated the phrase, like that, more than 80 times.
06:32But it seemed that the similarities were of no issue to the jury, as it took them less
06:36than a day to conclude that there was no infringement. For his part, Ludacris was confident in his
06:40own creative originality during the whole ordeal. He felt no sympathy for the plaintiffs,
06:45and after the verdict, he said that he noticed one of them fall asleep during the trial,
06:49and he decided that he wasn't going to let someone like that ruin his reputation.
06:54When Ludacris starred in the 2005 film Crash, he was just getting his feet wet in the acting
07:00scene. At the time, he was a novice actor in a star-studded cast. He was able to land
07:04the high-profile role thanks in part to the support of one of his co-stars, Don Cheadle.
07:09Cheadle was also one of the film's producers, and he immediately recognized Ludacris' star
07:14potential after reviewing his audition tape. As fellow producer Kathy Schulman told SF
07:19Gate in 2005,
07:21As soon as Don saw that first raw tape, he said it doesn't matter if he's losing lines
07:25or this and that, this guy's a star. The camera loves Chris, and it was very much at Don's
07:30urging that he got cast. By the time awards season rolled around, Ludacris was celebrating
07:35several wins with his castmates, including a surprise Best Picture trophy at the Academy
07:40Awards. The role gave him some content to rap about in his song,
07:44Tell Me What They Mad For, as he made a proud declaration about being one of the few rappers
07:49to have won both a Grammy and an Oscar. However, that's not exactly true, as Eminem also holds
07:55that distinction, and Luda didn't actually receive an Oscar for Crash.
08:00Ludacris has quite a long list of gigs on his resume, including restauranteur. In 2016,
08:06he opened up the eatery Chicken and Beer, which serves up Southern classics and local
08:10craft beers. The name is a nod to his 2003 multi-platinum album Chicken and Beer. Located
08:16in Atlanta's Hartsfield-Jackson International Airport, the restaurant was a hit, as it even
08:21became the first airport restaurant in the country to contend for the James Beard Award.
08:26But before his success with Chicken and Beer, Ludacris had some struggles in the culinary
08:30world. His previous restaurant, Straights, an Asian fusion joint also located in Atlanta,
08:35had to close down due to low turnout. But the ambitious rapper refused to see it as
08:40a failure. In a 2017 interview with A-List, he explained how closing down Straights was
08:45the right decision. As he put it,
08:47"...shutting Straights down was the best thing that could have happened to me because I got
08:51my feet wet in the restaurant business. People took me seriously. That was some of the best
08:56four years of my life. That's what allowed me to even consider something like Chicken
09:00and Beer."
09:01Before Ludacris was Ludacris, and even before he was Chris' lover-lover, he was just Christopher
09:06Bridges, an undergraduate student at Georgia State University. But having a career in the
09:11music industry was always part of his plan, as he studied music management in anticipation
09:16of his big break as a hip-hop star.
09:18Two decades later, Ludacris once again found himself on the Georgia State campus. In 2019,
09:24he joined the university's Creative Media Industries Institute as an artist-in-residence.
09:29He worked with professors and mentored students with a focus on entrepreneurship in music
09:33and film. He also partnered with the College of Law and stopped by to offer some insights
09:38to students in the Legal Life of Ludacris course.
09:42In a 2017 interview with XXL, Ludacris declared,
09:45"...I'm kind of an adrenaline junkie myself, which is something a lot of people don't know."
09:50The topic of adrenaline came up because he was serving as the host of the MTV revival
09:55of the stunt-riddled game show Fear Factor. He was clearly excited by the opportunity
09:59to get a front-row seat to all the extreme challenges that the contestants had to undertake.
10:04He was typically too busy hosting to partake in the challenges himself, but he did reveal
10:09to TV Guide that he preferred the thrill of heights to any kind of rush that comes with
10:13eating or drinking something gross. As he put it,
10:16"...anything that has to do with taste aversion is something I really don't like. Basically,
10:21having to drink and eat nasty food is something that is going to be the most difficult if
10:25I was doing it. Just the smell alone gets me. My favorite challenge so far is probably
10:30one where these contestants are 100 feet up in the air."
10:33There was one fear that Ludacris actually managed to overcome on the show, and that
10:37was his fear of snakes. It took him some effort, but he was ultimately able to hold a boa constrictor.
10:42The experience likely helped with his own role as a motivator to the contestants.
10:47"...all you gotta do is kiss the snake."
10:49As Ludacris revealed to TV Guide,
10:50"...the only thing better than doing some of these stunts myself is to watch it with
10:54a first-class seat. Then there's an even greater reason that I'm able to encourage and motivate
10:59people to try to overcome their fears, especially in the moment when they're facing some of
11:04their worst fears."
11:05Based on all that he's accomplished in his career, we'd be happy to have Ludacris in
11:09our corner, giving us motivation anytime.
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