Ludacris facts for kids

Quick facts for kids Ludacris
Ludacris performing in 2021
Born	Christopher Brian Bridges (1977-09-11) September 11, 1977 (age 47) Champaign, Illinois, U.S.
Other names	Chris Lova Lova Luda Velvet Jones Bronze Bridges
Citizenship	United States Gabon
Occupation	Rapper songwriter actor record producer record executive
Years active	1998–present
Spouse(s)	Eudoxie Mbouguiengue ​ (m. 2014)​
Children	4
Relatives	Richard Pryor (second cousin once removed) Rain Pryor (third cousin) Monica (cousin)
Awards	Full list
Musical career
Origin	Atlanta, Georgia, U.S.
Genres	Hip hop Southern hip hop pop rap
Instruments	Vocals
Labels	Disturbing tha Peace Def Jam Universal

Christopher Brian Bridges (born September 11, 1977), known professionally as Ludacris (/ˈluːdəkrɪs/, spoken as 'ludicrous' in American English), is an American rapper and actor. Born in Champaign, Illinois, Ludacris moved to Atlanta, Georgia, at age nine, where he first began rapping. Starting out with a brief stint as a DJ, he formed his own record label, Disturbing tha Peace in the late 1990s to independently release his debut studio album Incognegro (1999). After its single, "What's Your Fantasy" (featuring Shawnna), became a top 40 hit on the Billboard Hot 100, the album was re-released by Def Jam Recordings as his major label debut, Back for the First Time (2000). The latter album peaked at number four on the Billboard 200 and spawned his second top 40 single, "Southern Hospitality" (featuring Pharrell).

..... His fifth and sixth albums, Release Therapy (2006) and Theater of the Mind (2008), explored more serious subject matter than its predecessors. His seventh album, Battle of the Sexes (2010) featured a return to the more lighthearted tone of his earlier albums. Throughout his career, Ludacris has scored two number-one singles on the Billboard Hot 100 as a lead artist: "Stand Up" (featuring Shawnna) and "Money Maker" (featuring Pharrell), as well as three singles which did so as a guest performer: Usher's "Yeah!" in 2004, Fergie's "Glamorous" in 2007, and Taio Cruz's "Break Your Heart" in 2009. The following year, he guest featured on Justin Bieber's single "Baby", which remains one of the highest-certified singles of all time in the United States.

Ludacris is cited as one of the first Dirty South rappers to achieve mainstream success in the early 2000s. Throughout his career, he has won three Grammy Awards, a Screen Actors Guild Award, a Critic's Choice Award and an MTV Video Music Award. Outside of music, he has portrayed the character Tej Parker in the Fast & Furious film series—first appearing in its second film, 2 Fast 2 Furious (2003). His other notable acting roles include Crash (2004), Gamer (2009), and New Year's Eve (2011). In 2021, he created and starred in the children's animated series Karma's World for Netflix. Ludacris is also a private pilot.

Early life

Born Christopher Brian Bridges in Champaign, Illinois, Ludacris moved to Oak Park as a teenager. After attending Oak Park River Forest High School in ninth grade, Ludacris moved to Centreville, Virginia and attended Centreville High School for one year. He attended Banneker High School in Atlanta, Georgia and graduated in 1995. From 1998 to 1999, he studied music management at Georgia State University. Ludacris' parents are both African American, and he also has more distant English and Native American ancestry. He is a distant cousin of late comedian Richard Pryor. Ludacris wrote his first rap song at age nine when moving to Atlanta, Georgia, and joined an amateur rap group three years later.

Music career

1998–2000: Incognegro and Back for the First Time

Ludacris served as an intern and then a DJ at Atlanta's Hot 97.5 (now Hot 107.9) under the name "Chris Lova Lova". During his radio career, Ludacris met music producer Timbaland, whose album Tim's Bio: Life from da Bassment would feature Ludacris on the track "Phat Rabbit" (credited as Ludichris).

Speaking with MTV's hip hop show Direct Effect in 2000, Ludacris explained his stage name was a play on the word "ludicrous".

In 1999, Ludacris released his debut album Incognegro through his independent label Disturbing tha Peace. Def Jam South would later repackage Incognegro with some new songs added into Ludacris's major label debut Back for the First Time in 2000. The album reached number four on the U.S. Billboard 200 and included the singles "What's Your Fantasy" (featuring Shawnna) and "Southern Hospitality" (featuring Pharrell Williams), which respectively reached the nos. 21 and 23 spots on the Billboard Hot 100.

2001–2003: Word of Mouf and Chicken-n-Beer

In 2001, Ludacris contributed the hit single Area Codes" (featuring Nate Dogg)” to the soundtrack to the film Rush Hour 2. It was also included on his next album, Word of Mouf, released later that year. The Word of Mouf lead single "Rollout (My Business)" was nominated for the Grammy Award for Best Male Rap Solo Performance in the 2003 Grammy Awards.

Ludacris also had guest spots on hit singles throughout 2001 and 2002, such as Jermaine Dupri's "Welcome to Atlanta" that peaked at no. 35 on the Hot 100 and no. 15 on the Hot R&B/Hip-Hop chart. Ludacris was among multiple featured rappers on "Bia' Bia'" by Lil Jon and the East Side Boyz, which peaked at no. 47 on the R&B/Hip-Hop chart in August 2001. In the last week of 2002, "Gossip Folks" by Missy Elliott featuring Ludacris was released as a single. It peaked at no. 8 on the Hot 100 in March 2003.

In April 2003, Ludacris released single "Act a Fool" from the soundtrack of the movie 2 Fast 2 Furious, where Ludacris played Tej Parker. In the fall of 2003, Ludacris released his next album ‘’Chicken-N-Beer”. Guest appearances included Playaz Circle, Chingy, Snoop Dogg, 8Ball & MJG, Lil' Flip, I-20, Lil Fate, and Shawnna. The single, "Stand Up" appeared on both Chicken-n-Beer as well as the soundtrack for the teen hip hop/dance movie You Got Served. Produced by Kanye West, "Stand Up" went on to become one of Ludacris' biggest mainstream hits to date, hitting the top spot on the Billboard Hot 100 garnering heavy airplay on mainstream pop, rhythmic, and urban radio stations, as well as on MTV, MTV2, and BET. Ludacris was sued by a New Jersey group called I.O.F. who claimed that "Stand Up" used a hook from one of their songs, but in June 2006, a jury found that the song did not violate copyrights. "I hope the plaintiffs enjoyed their 15 minutes of fame," Ludacris said after the verdict.

The album's next single, "Splash Waterfalls", was released in early 2004. A huge pop hit (despite its steamy video and explicit, adult-oriented lyrical content and themes), it subsequently became a success at urban radio and BET, and is the only time he has produced two consecutive top 10 singles from a solo album, except for Release Therapy (an unedited version of the video could only be viewed on BET's Uncut program). Ludacris received his first Grammy Award with Usher and Lil Jon for their hit single "Yeah!". Ludacris next released "Blow It Out", which was accompanied by a low-budget music video.

2008–2010: Theater of the Mind and Battle of the Sexes

The Preview, a mixtape to preview the album was released on July 28, 2008. Theater of the Mind was released on November 24, 2008, and in April 2008, the single "Let's Stay Together" appeared on xxlmag.com; supposedly from the new album ("Let's Stay Together" was expected to but was released as a bonus track on the CD). A song with Small World called "Pinky Shinin" was expected to be on the album, but it was dropped. In an interview with Complex Magazine he stated that Chris Brown, Lil Wayne, Rick Ross, T.I., Plies, Common, T-Pain, Jay-Z, Nas and The Game will be on the album; Game is featured in a track with Willy Northpole titled "Call Up the Homies". T.I. was on the album on a track called "Wish You Would" squashing the long feud between them. The album debuted at number five on the Billboard 200 with 213,493 sold first week. The album was released the same day as Kanye West's 808s & Heartbreak, which took the number-one spot. His first single "What Them Girls Like", featuring Chris Brown and Sean Garrett, peaked at number 33 on the Billboard Hot 100. His second single, "One More Drink", featuring T-Pain, peaked at number 24 on the Billboard Hot 100. The third official single is "Nasty Girl", featuring Plies. He confirmed a "sequel" titled Ludaversal due to be released September 11, 2012.

Ludacris' eighth studio album was released on March 9, 2010. The first official single released from Battle of the Sexes was "How Low", which was released on December 8, 2009. The follow–up single was "My Chick Bad", released on February 23, 2010. The third single is "*** Room", peaking at number 69 on the Billboard Hot 100. Ludacris's Battle of the Sexes entered the chart at number one, with 137,000 sales in the first week. The album is currently certified gold.

2012–2015: Ludaversal

In 2012, Ludacris released the singles "Representin" and "Rest of My Life," both of which were scrapped after the songs underperformed and the recording process for his upcoming album Ludaversal stalled.

On May 24, 2013, Ludacris released a mixtape entitled #IDGAF.

On August 3, 2013, Ludacris confirmed to VIBE.com he will be working with Anita Baker. "I don't know if the cat's out the bag. Yeah, Anita Baker is definitely on the album," admitted Luda. "She's on that particular song. [It] is really about my father and growing up and me being a kid and trying to get him to stop and me dealing with that."

After a lengthy hiatus, Ludacris returned to the music on January 30, 2014 with the release of a single "Party Girls" featuring Jeremih, Wiz Khalifa and Cashmere Cat. The song takes a cue from Aqua's 1997 song "Barbie Girl"; however, the single did not appear on the new album. On October 9, 2014, Ludacris announced that Ludaversal would be released on March 31, 2015; which will be preceded by an EP titled Burning Bridges due for release on December 16, 2014. On October 31, 2014 Ludacris premiered the first single from the "Burning Bridges" EP titled "Good Lovin'" featuring American singer Miguel.

Due to its moderate success, "Good Lovin" would go on to serve as the first single from Ludaversal. On March 3, 2015, Ludacris held a listening party for Ludaversal with Def Jam. The tracks "Intro", "Not For Long" featuring Usher, and "Come N See Me" featuring Big K.R.I.T. were revealed to the public After 3 years worth of delays, Ludaversal was released March 31, 2015 to generally positive reviews and peaked at number 3 on the Billboard 200.

2017–present: Upcoming tenth studio album and Karma's World

In March 2017, Ludacris confirmed that he was working on his tenth studio album in an interview with Complex magazine. On March 31, 2017, Ludacris released a new single called "Vitamin D" featuring Ty Dolla $ign.

In 2017, Ludacris hosted YouTube's Best.Cover.Ever show.

In 2018, he was featured on country singer Carrie Underwood's single "The Champion". The song peaked at number 47 on the Billboard Hot 100 and was the opening song for Super Bowl LII and 2018 Winter Olympics and Cry Pretty. On May 8, 2018, Ludacris received three nominations and one win at the 2018 CMT Music Awards.

On October 14, 2020, Netflix commissioned his then-new animated musical children's television series known as Karma's World for an initial 40 episodes from 9 Story Productions, Creative Affairs Group and his production company, Karma's World Entertainment, Using the inspiration of his eldest daughter, Karma Bridges, and the eponymous website created in 2009. Ludacris stated in interviews with People and Billboard that he and Karma "spent close to a decade and a half" working on the "perfection" of the production. The series premiered on Netflix on October 15, 2021, alongside its official soundtrack album, which was produced and released by Def Jam Recordings on global digital music streaming platforms. On January 17, 2022, the series got nominated for three NAACP Image Awards including Outstanding Children's Program and Ludacris himself got nominated for his voice-over performance as Karma's on-screen father. Netflix renewed Karma's World for a second season on back of the encouragements, which premiered on March 10, 2022.

In August 2021, Ludacris released the single "Butter.ATL".

In December 2022, it was announced that Ludacris would open up for Janet Jackson's Together Again Tour.

Ludacris made a cameo in Usher's Super Bowl LVIII halftime show, performing his portion of "Yeah".

Personal life

Ludacris has a daughter named Karma Bridges (born August 2001 and the inspiration for/behind Karma's World) from a relationship with an attorney from Atlanta. He also has a daughter, Cai Bella Bridges (born December 2013), with Tamika Fuller, a longtime friend. From 2009 until their marriage in 2014, he dated model Eudoxie Mbouguiengue. On December 26, 2014, Ludacris became engaged to Mbouguiengue while in Costa Rica, and the two married later that same day. In early June 2015, Eudoxie announced that the couple had welcomed a baby girl. In May 2021, Eudoxie shared via Instagram that Ludacris and her were expecting their second child together.

In January 2020, Ludacris acquired Gabonese citizenship along with his mother and two daughters.

Business ventures

Heel window of the Clyde x Luda Puma Clyde sneaker showing the Disturbing tha Peace logo

Ludacris is the founder of his own record label, Disturbing tha Peace, an imprint distributed by Def Jam Recordings. He is the co-owner of Conjure Cognac. In 2011, Ludacris released his own line of headphones called "Soul By Ludacris" manufactured by Soul Electronics. He also has various real estate holdings.

In 2006, Ludacris appeared in a television and print advertising campaign for Puma, which released three limited edition models of a "Clyde x Luda" Puma Clyde sneaker, with Ludacris' image on the heel of the insole and "DTP" (for Disturbing tha Peace) on the heel window.

In November 2016, Ludacris opened up a restaurant named "Chicken N Beer" at the Hartsfield–Jackson International Airport in Atlanta.

In December 2023, he made his theater producing debut as a producer on the Broadway musical How to Dance in Ohio.

Philanthropy

In 2011, Ludacris joined a joint effort between Do Something and Better World Books to collect books to help restock library shelves in New Orleans. He filmed a public service announcement in support of the Epic Book Drive.

Ludacris also started the Ludacris Foundation at the beginning of his music career in 2002. The aim of the foundation is to inspire the youth through education, memorable experiences and helping the youth help themselves. The focus is what Ludacris calls the "3Ls": Leadership and Education, Living Healthy Lifestyles, and LudaCares.

In October 2019, Ludacris was named the artist-in-residence at Georgia State University, where he will mentor students in the Creative Media Industries Institute. On April 13, 2022 Georgia State University announced the Georgia Board of Regents approved for Ludacris to receive an honorary Bachelor of Science degree in Music Management. He received this honorary degree on May 4, 2022 at the commencement ceremony at Center Parc Stadium where he also delivered a speech.

Awards and honors

Ludacris has won many awards throughout his career, including three Grammy Awards for his music and an ensemble Screen Actors Guild Award for his performance and the 2004 movie Crash.

In October 2019, Ludacris was named the artist-in-residence at Georgia State University, where he will mentor students in the Creative Media Industries Institute.

On April 13, 2022, Georgia State University announced the Georgia Board of Regents had approved Ludacris to receive an honorary Bachelor of Science degree in Music Management. He received this honorary degree on May 4, 2022, at the commencement ceremony at Center Parc Stadium where he also delivered a speech.

Discography

Studio albums

• Incognegro (1999)
• Back for the First Time (2000)
• Word of Mouf (2001)
• Chicken-n-Beer (2003)
• Release Therapy (2006)
• Theater of the Mind (2008)
• Battle of the Sexes (2010)
• Ludaversal (2015)

Soundtracks

• Karma's World Official Soundtrack (2021)

Filmography

Film

Television

Video games

Documentary

Theme park attractions

Theater

See also

In Spanish: Ludacris para niños

• List of artists who reached number one in the United States
• List of awards and nominations received by Ludacris