| The breakout
success of rapper Ludacris
has given hopeful artist
making a living on
the radio hope for their
dreams of making it big
time in the music
business...
Or as Ludacris would say,
Biz-naz! Born on September
11 in Champaign, Illinois
while his parents were
still in college, the
rapper with the given name
Chris Bridges was even as
an infant embraced with
music, as partying parents
often had house
jams.
Chris
had
a love for music and
performing at pre-teen
ages, joining the Chicago
based hip-hop outfit
called the Loudmouth
Hooligans. At around the
age
of 13, Chris gave himself
the name Ludacris,
explaining, "The nickname
is something I made up. I
have kind of a split
personality - part of me
is calm cool and
collected, while the other
side is just beyond crazy.
My lyrics are ludicrous,
my live shows are
ludicrous - ludicrous like
off
the chain crazy." With the
new name, Ludacris' family
moved to Atlanta,
so he had to keep it on
the solo tip although
admits to being part of
many
groups. The rapper engaged
in verbal contests
during lunchtime during
his time at Banneker High
School, to the point that
he would skip eating.
In later school years,
Chris visited the club
scene saying, "I would
show
up at any venue that had
an open mic."
Ludacris got a
big break
landing an intern job at
Atlanta's hip-hop
station Hot 97 where he
did
his thing on promo
spots. Eventually, he
started co-hosting the
night show
"Future Flavors" with
Poon Daddy and was
earning a name for
himself throughout
Atlanta's hip-hop
community. Ludacris
explained the
opportunity at the
station really
catapulted his efforts
to hit big time, "Once I
got the
internship up at that
radio station things
kinda started going real
quick,
and I started doing
drops for every DJ that
was on the air for one.
And
for another I started
meeting a lot of people
and getting contacts and
trying to be in the
studio with all kind of
artists and, you know,
one
thing led to another."
Ludacris helped his
chances of reaching fame
by
saving his cash so that
he could release his own
album, Incognegro. The
5'8" rapper's
independent project did
pretty well selling
30,000 copies,
which of course caught
the interest of major
labels. Ludacris ended
up
going with Def Jam South
and from there it's been
nowhere but up for the
rapper.
Def Jam
re-released his
Incognegro
disc as 'Back For the
First Time' where it was
juiced up by
Atlanta-based
producers Organized
Noize, Jermaine Dupri,
and Timbaland. Ludacris
made
cameo's on Timbaland's
"Phat Rabbit" from Tim's
"Life from the
Bassment".
Among his other
collaborations were the
huge hit by the huge
Missy Elliott,
"One Minute Man" and his
recent collaboration
with Jermaine Dupri
"Welcome
To Atlanta". As for his
solo work, it has been
Word Of Mouf which has
created
hit after hit. Among the
chart toppers have been
"Rollout", "Area Codes",
and "Saturday." The
Ludacris contribution on
the Goodlife Album also
was
a huge hit, with "Fatty
Girl" being one of the
big hits on the all-star
record.
Ludacris has
been relatively
silent on the personal
bizznazz, probably the
way he likes it. No
doubt
his lyrics that degrade
women aren't going to
land him too many top
celebrity
chicks naked in the
sack, but plenty of ho's
in every area code are
likely
to get nude for the
rapper wading in cash.
Ludacris explains his
lyrics
many women object to
saying, "It could be
just like a woman
calling a man
a ho, because women call
men hos, too. It's not
necessarily a bad thing.
. . . It means somebody
who has casual sex,
like, with different
people."
Either way, Ludacris
don't want you to know,
as he explained in his
song
and video to 'Rollout':
"It's kinda like the
real-life concept that I
might
go to the mall with my
sister and somebody
might spot us and
automatically
be like, 'That's
Ludacris' girlfriend.'
The video will be set
upon a story
where it's a lot of
stuff going on and
people getting the total
wrong impression
and telling lies."
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