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September 22, 2002 - Ludacris asked a few fan questions on the MTV Total Request Live website. Asked who is his inspiration, Luda responded, "My inspiration is Scarface because of his longevity in the music industry and consistency in music." Asked what he likes to do for fun, Ludacris said, "I do water sports for fun, like jet skiing and swimming and parasailing."

September 18, 2002 - Ludacris and his Disturbing Tha Peace crew stopped by MTV's Total Request Live on Wednesday to promote their new album 'Golden Grain'. Unfortunately, Damien for whatever reason didn't ask about Bill O'Reilly's virtual crusade against him -- maybe because 'The O'Reilly Factor' and TRL don't exactly draw the same demographics. Luda did talk about his pre-VMA performance which he called the "hardest one" of all his TV performances. Read on for a transcript.

September 14, 2002 - Bill O'Reilly has a column on WorldNetDaily.com about his campaign against Ludacris that got him knocked off Pepsi's latest campaign. In response to the argument that he should also be going after Britney Spears, O'Reilly said, "To me, comparing Ms. Spears to Mr. Ludacris is like comparing pot to heroin. Ms. Spears struts around in tight slacks, a bare belly and store-bought breasts. She sings silly love songs, as Paul McCartney might say. She does writhe around a lot and looks pouty – and there is a double-entendre in her Pepsi commercial with the dazed and confused Bob Dole – but is Britney Spears a danger to the republic?" Read more.

September 14, 2002 - DaveyD.com has a 12 minute clip of Ed Lover debating with Bill O'Reilly about his campaign against Ludacris. Ed's chief complaint was that Britney Spears was more of a corrupting influence on children than Ludacris, promoting sex to young girls who are her primary fan base, and why wasn't he going after her too. O'Reilly says there is no comparison on the level of the two. Download and listen to the clip here [See left menu bar].

September 13, 2002 - Topher Grace of 'That '70s Show' was on Last Call with Carson Daly on Thursday where he revealed that Ludacris fell asleep and started snoring at the 'Star Wars' special screening he, Ludacris, Carson Daly and others attended at the Skywalker Ranch for an MTV special. Topher said, "He was the only guy who I wasn't gonna turn around and be like, 'dude, wake up.'" Carson asked why, and he explained, "I mean, he's Ludacris! You know, you can't tell him -- so I thought that was -- I don't know. And, I mean, I don't know."

September 13, 2002 - Def Jam TV has clips from Ludacris' MTV's 2002 Video Music Awards Pre-Show Performance and Ja Rule's MTV's 2002 Video Music Awards Performance. Check them out here.

September 11, 2002 - Bill O'Reilly spoke with Lori Waters, Executive Director for Eagle Forum, a conservative grassroots organization today on the O'Reilly Factor about whether Pepsi should also dump Britney Spears as a spokesperson for the soft drink company. Bill says he was on 107.1 FM today and got an earful from the hip hop community as they argued why he wasn't going after Britney. Lori agreed that Britney's sexualized message shouldn't be rewarded with a Pepsi contract. Read here for a transcript.

September 10, 2002 - Launch.com caught up with Ludacris recently and asked him about his guest appearance on Mariah Carey's 'Loverboy' track ('Glitter'). "I feel extraordinary about being on the Mariah Carey record, because she only works with selective rappers from what I've seen, and this is way before I got signed," he said. "You can just tell that she tries to pick out the ones that are in the streets heavy, or the ones that are really popular, or a combination of both. So any time you see a rapper on her record, you can tell that either she has put a lot of thought into it or her crew has put a lot of thought into it. Like, 'We need this person to balance off this side of it.' You have the commercialized side of things and you have the street side of things. She's trying to capture a different audience, and so maybe by her getting me for a song I felt privileged, because they knew I have a certain audience that they want to capture. She picked us because of the 'What's Your Fantasy?' song. And she got a lot of money, too. So it was good breaking bread with Mariah Carey and drinking Cristal in the studio. She's a real down-to-earth person, and I really hope to work with her again." Check out the entire interview here.

September 7, 2002 - Richard Roeper of the Chicago Sun-Times says there's no excuse for Pepsi's PR blunder with Ludacris, when they dropped his ad deal after conservative Fox News host Bill O'Reilly threatened a boycott of the soft drink. "Street rap has been around for so long that I can't say I'm shocked by Ludacris, but I am shocked that a huge company such as Pepsi wouldn't do a rudimentary check on the guy's work before hiring him to star in a national ad campaign," he said. "I mean, it's hard to find a Ludacris song that ISN'T an obscenity-riddled glorification of the thug life." Read more.

September 6, 2002 - Sonia Murray of The Atlanta Journal-Constitution was on hand at HiFi Buys Amphitheatre last night for the latest stop on the Anger Management Tour. The show had Eminem blowing away a mock Moby doll, and Ludacris onstage drinking from a can of Coke after he was dropped by Pepsi over Bill O'Reilly's protests. Read more.

September 6, 2002 - V-103 morning man Frank Ski went head to head with Bill O'Reilly tonight on the O'Reilly Factor to discuss Bill's successful quest to get Pepsi to can Ludacris from its advertisements. Ski had told his listeners, "This is bigger than Ludacris. It's about letting someone outside the community like white conservative Bill O'Reilly speak for the black community and its members." His spokeswoman Zee Bradford told the Atlanta Journal-Constitution, "Frank has a message, and it's bound to get interesting." Unfortunately he didn't rattle Bill nearly as much as William McGurn of the Wall Street Journal did earlier in the show. Read on for a transcript of most of the interview.

September 4, 2002 - Sonia Murray of The Atlanta Journal-Constitution gave her thoughts on Pepsi's quick reversal on having Ludacris be it's commercial spokesman, backing down after Bill O'Reilly of Fox News called for a boycott. Murray called the act "cowardly" on Pepsi's part. Read more.

September 4, 2002 - Bill O'Reilly again touched on Ludacris on the 'O'Reilly Factor' on Tuesday. A FOX news producer caught up with Ludacris at the MTV Video Music Awards last week and asked, "What do you think of Bill O'Reilly?" Luda responded, "This is what I think of O'Reilly. If he has children, I'll send them an advance copy of the 'Disturbing the Peace' album. I love the kids. That's how I feel about that dog." Bill answered, "Here is how I feel about you, pooch. You peddle garbage to children and say you care about them. Doesn't cut it in the Spin Zone. We know who and what you are."

September 3, 2002 - Eddie and Jobo of B96 in Chicago visited Ludacris' suite at the W hotel after the Anger Management Tour recently. Luda talked about how all the white kids were fighting in Indianapolis at the last show, whether he reads the reviews (he does), workin with Eminem and Xzibit on this tour, his Disturbing Tha Peace family, and his close relationship with his momma, guest appearances on tracks, and he says he thinks Mystikal is being framed on the rape charge and the woman is just trying to get money. Luda says he doesn't keep in contact with too many people in the industry, but his family instead. Listen to the two-part interview here.

September 1, 2002 - Here's what Ludacris' mother had to say about O'Reilly Factor host Bill O'Reilly after his call for a boycott of Pepsi over Luda doing a commercial for the soft drink company. Read more.

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