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The following biography
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Christopher Bridges (born September 11,
1977 in Champaign, Illinois), once known as Chris Lova Lova and best
known as Ludacris, is an American rapper and actor. He eventually moved
to Atlanta, where he would go on to make a name for himself as one of
the most prominent Dirty South rappers of the new millennium.
* * * *
Biography
Early years
Before Ludacris was famous he went to a
normal neighborhood school, Bonnie Brae. This school feeds into one of
the top schools in the country, Robinson Secondary School. Ludacris
began his music career as a radio DJ personality, Chris Lova Lova, on
Hot 97.5, an urban radio station in Atlanta, Georgia. He made his
recorded debut on "Phat Rabbit", a track from Timbaland's 1998 album
Tim's Bio: Life from the Bassment. Although both Timbaland and Jermaine
Dupri showed interest in signing Ludacris, he decided to take matters
into his own hands, and released the album Incognegro independently in
1999. The album sold over 50,000 copies, most of them sold out of the
trunk of Ludacris' car. Def Jam Records signed Ludacris in 2000, and
created a new imprint, Def Jam South, around him. He has the most apt
name of any rap star, summing up the whole industry in a single (badly
spelled) word.
Back for
the First Time
Ludacris' major-label debut single was
"What's Your Fantasy," which was based on an ex-girlfriend Katie Dabies,
from his Back For The First Time album, which was made up mostly of
tracks from Incognegro. In addition to introducing Ludacris, his first
single and music video, which became an MTV2 hit, gave America its first
glimpse of his fellow Disturbing Tha Peace member Shawnna, a female
rapper who has just recently begun to achieve some success of her own.
In addition to singing the chorus on "What's Your Fantasy" and appearing
in its video, Shawnna, along with Trina and Foxy Brown, contributed
original verses to a remix of the track that featured Ludacris himself
on the chorus.
In 2001, "Southern Hospitality" became an
even bigger urban radio and video hit, achieving heavy MTV2 airplay and
moderate MTV airplay. Back For The First Time's third single was the
controversial "Ho", which, due to lyrics, was banned or restricted on
many radio stations and whose video was not played by MTV, MTV2, or even
BET, although it was available online at Launch for some time.
During the summer of 2001, Ludacris, with
singer Nate Dogg, released a single off of the Rush Hour 2 soundtrack
called "Area Codes". A continuation of the lyrical themes started with
"Ho", the song and video were only played in an edited version in which
all uses of the word "ho" were replaced with the word "pro".
Word of
Mouf
Ludacris promptly completed his next album,
Word Of Mouf and released it at the end of 2001. Its lead single,
"Rollout (My Business)", was produced by Timbaland and gave Ludacris his
first taste at a minor mainstream crossover, and the song was enormous
on urban radio. Its next two singles, "Saturday (Oooh, Oooh)" and "Move
Bitch", performed similarly during 2002, and all three songs' videos
enjoyed MTV, BET, and MTV2 support. However, "Move Bitch" was commonly
referred to as simply "Move" by radio DJ's and the word "bitch" was just
muted out wherever it occurred (and often replaced with a sound effect
of glass breaking). The title of the video also appeared as just "Move"
when played on American video stations. Despite the controversy, the
video was nominated for a 2003 VMA, and Luda performed it live at the
awards' pre-show. Ludacris also toured with Papa Roach in 2002 after the
release of their sophomore album lovehatetragedy.
Bill
O'Reilly controversy
In 2003, after music from the controversial
"Move Bitch" had been used in a Pepsi commercial in which Ludacris also
appeared drinking the soda, Pepsi came under fire from Bill O'Reilly for
supporting Ludacris. O'Reilly believed that it was wrong for an
international corporation like Pepsi to target the American teen
audience by glamorizing a person like Ludacris, a “gangsta rapper” who
had admitted having been in gangs and whose lyrics contained profanity,
violence, and overt sexuality. O'Reilly urged his viewers to complain to
and boycott Pepsi for its affiliation with Ludacris. Eventually, Pepsi
gave in to O'Reilly and dropped Ludacris. However, this created more
controversy than it ended, as Russell Simmons pointed out Pepsi's
hypocrisy and what he considered even to be racism: Simmons argued that
Pepsi could not legitimately fire Ludacris for being a presumed violent
and profane role model while also employing the Osbournes, who are also
known for being violent, vulgar, and profane. Simmons himself, along
with Ludacris, then called for a black Pepsi boycott. In the end, Pepsi
settled with Simmons by agreeing to help fund black causes, even though
the Osbournes were permitted to keep their advertising contracts with
the corporation. Ludacris, though annoyed about the situation itself,
was happy that he got to keep the money that Pepsi had paid him for the
ads. O'Reilly later protested Budweiser's deal with Ludacris. O'Reilly
comments on Ludacris had reached former CBS reporter Bernard Goldberg.
Goldberg, a conservative writer, wrote a book and was highly critical of
Ludacris. He ranked Ludacris in his 100 People Who Are Screwing Up
America, in which the rapper is considered the reason why parents have
disruptive American youth. The book was widely regarded as hypocritical
due to the comments Goldberg said while promoting his book.
Chicken &
Beer
During the spring of 2003, Ludacris
returned to the music scene after a brief hiatus with a new single, "Act
A Fool" off the 2 Fast 2 Furious soundtrack. At around the same time, he
released the lead single from his upcoming album, Chicken & Beer, called
"P-Poppin'". Neither of his new singles was as well-received by either
the urban or pop audiences as his previous songs had been, and both
music videos received only limited airplay. Chicken & Beer opened
strongly, but without a popular single, the album fell quickly.
However, in the fall of 2003, Ludacris
rebounded with his next single, "Stand Up", which appeared on both
Chicken & Beer as well as the soundtrack for the teen hip-hop/dance
movie, Honey. "Stand Up" went on to become Ludacris' biggest mainstream
hit to date, hitting the top spot on the Billboard Hot 100 and garnering
heavy airplay on mainstream pop, rhythmic, and urban radio stations, as
well as on MTV, MTV2, and BET.
The album's next single, "Splash
Waterfalls", was released in early 2004. Though not a pop hit, it became
a success at urban radio and BET, thanks to its being Ludacris' most
sexual video yet and an R&B remix that featured Raphael Saadiq and
sampled Tony! Toni! Tone!'s "Whatever You Want". Luda next released
"Blow It Out", a gritty song that had a heavily low-budget, gritty, and
urban-looking music video, which was a huge departure from the colorful,
sensual, R&B leanings depicted in "Splash Waterfalls". "Blow It Out"
acted as a scathing response to Ludacris' critics, namely Bill O'Reilly,
who is mentioned by name.
The Red
Light District
The fifth studio album from Ludacris.
Although entirely different from the usual antics of the previous
albums, Ludacris had taken a more mature approach to his album. Ludacris
openly boasted that he may be the only rapper able to keep the Def Jam
label afloat. Ludacris had recently filmed and recorded the single "Get
Back" in which he was featured a muscle-bounded hulk who was being
annoyed by the media and warned his critics to leave him alone. The
follow-up single was the Austin Powers-inspired "The Number One Spot".
It was produced by Hot 97 personality DJ Green Lantern. It used the
Quincy Jones sample of "Soul Bossa Nova" and sped it up to the tempo of
Ludacris' rap flow. Ludacris also filmed the video in which he pokes fun
at Bill O'Reilly's problems with Andrea Mackris (Hi Mr. O'Reilly / Hope
all is well kiss the plaintiff and the wifey). Production credits come
also from veteran producer Timbaland, Lil' Jon, The Medicine Men and
legendary rapper Doug E. Fresh. Featured on the album include rappers,
Nas, DMX, Trick Daddy, and Disturbing Tha Peace newcomers Bobby
Valentino (of Mista fame) and Dolla Boy and Small Wonder. The album
debuted at number one on the Billboard charts. And most recently the
rapper had used his opportunity to start his own foundation. The
Ludacris Foundation started by Ludacris and Chaka Zulu is a organization
that helps young middle and high school students motivate themselves in
creative arts. Ludacris also has a daughter by the name of Karma. The
mother of his child is unknown due to the high-profile life of Ludacris.
Ludacris had also participated at The Superbowl and is the spokesman for
the Boost Mobile Phone ad-campaign.
Quoted in Court
Ludacris' lyrics had the dubious honor of
being quoted in an Opinion of the United States Court of Appeals for the
Seventh Circuit as an example of the "rap music vernacular":
"The trial transcript quotes Ms. Hayden as
saying Murphy called her a snitch bitch "hoe." A 'hoe,' of course, is a
tool used for weeding and gardening. We think the court reporter,
unfamiliar with rap music, misunderstood Hayden's response. We have
taken the liberty of changing 'hoe' to 'ho,' a staple of rap music
vernacular as, for example, when Ludacris raps 'You doin' ho activities
with ho tendencies.'"
U.S. v. Murphy
Discography
Albums
Incognegro (1999) (US #179)
Back For The First Time (2000) (US #4) (3x
Platinum)
Word Of Mouf (2001) (US #3) (3x Platinum)
Chicken & Beer (2003) (US #1) (3x Platinum)
The Red Light District (2004) (US #1)
(Platinum)
* * * *
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URL of Original Article:
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Date Article Copied:
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