MAIN Art & ... Pop Culture Pop Music Ludacris

Born Christopher Bridges on September 11, 1977 in Champaign, Illinois, Ludacris (a.k.a. Luda) later moved with his family to Atlanta where he began his career as a DJ at a local radio station.

It was here he became known throughout the Atlanta area, eventually releasing his 2000 debut album, Back for the First Time resulting in a single hit on MTV2, What's Your Fantasy. The following year brought more success with another hit single, Southern Hospitality.

By the end of 2001 his second album, Word of Mouf, became a breakthrough effort garnering major airplay with tracks such as Rollout (My Business), Saturday, and the controversial Move Bitch with the offending word excised from both the video and radio play.

More notoriety arose in 2003 after conservatibve FOX news anchor Bill O'Reilly criticized Pepsi for featuring the rapper in one of the soda company's commercials.

As a result, accusations of discrimination were brought by record producer Russell Simmons against Pepsi for dropping Ludacris, citing the soda giant's use of The Osbournes (of "we're not the f**king Osmonds" fame) in similar TV spots. A truce of sorts followed when Pepsi honored Ludacris' contract financially, though they still declined to air the ads.

In late 2003, the rap star rebounded from the controversy with Stand Up, his biggest hit single to date - spun from his third and most successful album, Chicken-N-Beer, which includes a track called Blow It Out in response to Bill O'Reilly and other critics. (As fate would have it, Bill O'Reilly soon would be charged with overtly sexual lyrics of his own in a much reported harrasment case.)

Most recently, the rapper has gone Hollywood and exhibited his acting chops to notable reviews in such films as the Oscar-winning Crash and in Hustle & Flow.

His last album, Release Therapy, was released in September 2006. Hisupcoming sixth solo album titled Theater of the Mind, is slated for release in August 2008.


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Ludacris - The official Def Jam Recordings site featuring info about his latest record releases, video and audio clips, picture galleries, wallpapers, AIM icons.

Ludacris News - Links to recent news headlines and related feature stories from various sources from around the Web.

AOL Music: Ludacris - Brief bio, photos, upcoming appearances, music video clips.

Ludacris Lyrics - Song lyrics listed by Most Popular, or browseable in a complete list, with related links.

Ludacris - Wikipedia entry on the rapper with a biography, pictures, album reviews & related links.

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