Ludacris

Real Name: Christopher Brian Bridges
D.O.B.: September 11th, 1977 Champaign, Illinois

Label(s): Disturbing tha Peace/Def Jam Recordings

Known by his stage name Ludacris, he is a three-time Grammy Award-winning southern rapper and actor. Along with his manager, Chaka Zulu, Ludacris is the co-founder of Disturbing Tha Peace, an imprint distributed by Def Jam Recordings. He is also the rapper with the most Top 40, Top 25, and Top 10 Billboard Hot 100 Hits of all time. Ludacris is tied with Nelly for the title of the hip-hop solo artist with the second most Billboard Hot 100 number-one hits (four each).

Early Career

Young Christopher was the son of Roberta Shields and Wayne Brian Bridges. Ludacris lived in Oak Park, Illinois and attended Oak Park and River Forest High School. During his high school years his family later moved to the College Park a suburb of Atlanta, Georgia. He attended Banneker High School there, and then studied at Georgia State University.

Ludacris first revealed his personality to local media as the radio DJ Chris Lova Lova at Hot 97.5 (which later became Hot 107.9), an urban radio station in Atlanta, Georgia. His first shot at of exposure was when he penned lyrics for the "Swing My Way" (Remix) by KP and Envyi on EastWest Records America in 1998. He also had his opportunity to gain commercial exposure when hip hop producer/rapper Timbaland heard him on Atlanta radio. Timbaland contacted and made an offer for Ludacris to work with him at the radio station. Timbaland then produced a beat for Ludacris in the radio station. The two worked together and made Ludacris' recorded debut on "Phat Rabbit", a track from Timbaland's 1998 album Tim's Bio: Life from da Bassment.

Back For The First Time [2000]

Ludacris released his major label debut, Back for the First Time, in November 2000. This album, which was actually a modified re-release of the album Incognegro, was produced with the help of the underground producer Sessy Melia, whom he also dated for a short while. The album reached as high as #4 on the charts, and was a major success. Ludacris made his mark on the industry with singles such as "Southern Hospitality" and "What's Your Fantasy", which was heavily inspired by rapper Too $hort, along with his first ever single "Phat Rabbit", from two years prior. Guest appearances included I-20, Lil Fate, Shawnna, Pastor Troy, Timbaland, Trina, Foxy Brown, UGK, and others.

Word of Mouf [2001]

Ludacris promptly completed his next album, Word of Mouf, and released it at the end of 2001. The video for the lead single, "Rollout (My Business)", was nominated for a 2002 VMA, and Ludacris performed it live at the awards' pre-show. He also released singles "Saturday (Oooh Oooh)" with Sleepy Brown, "Move Bitch" with Mystikal & I-20, and "Area Codes" with Nate Dogg. Word of Mouf became Ludacris' best selling album to date. Guest appearances included Nate Dogg, Mystikal, I-20, Shawnna, Lil Fate, Three 6 Mafia, Twista, and Jagged Edge.

Chicken-n-Beer [2003]

During the spring of 2003, Ludacris returned to the music scene after a brief hiatus with a new single, "Act A Fool", from the 2 Fast 2 Furious soundtrack. At around the same time, he released the lead single from his album Chicken-N-Beer, called "P-Poppin" (short for "Pussy Poppin'"), which is heavily inspired by Too Short. Neither of his new singles were 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-N-Beer opened strongly, but without a popular single, the album fell quickly. Guest appearances include Playaz Circle, Marco, Snoop Dogg, Eightball & MJG, Lil' Flip, I-20, Lil Fate, and Shawnna.

In the fall of 2003, Ludacris rebounded with his next single, "Stand Up", which 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's 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. Luda 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). It was Ludacris' most sexual video yet and an R&B remix that featured Raphael Saadiq and sampled Tony! Toni! Tone!'s "Whatever You Want". Ludacris also received his first Grammy Award with Usher and Lil Jon for their hit single "Yeah". Luda next released "Blow It Out", a gritty song with an urban, low-budget music video. A departure from the R&B leanings of "Splash Waterfalls", "Blow It Out" acted both as a response to the criticism levied by Bill O'Reilly and an attack on Pepsi's role in the affair.