A funny thing happened to Ludacris on his way to dropping his seventh studio album, Battle of the Sexes, which debuted at No. 1 on the Billboard charts.
The rapid-fire rapper had a surprise meeting with his longtime nemesis, Fox News anchor Bill O’Reilly, at a dinner gala recently. O’Reilly’s jugular was exposed and Luda could have gone in for the kill if he’d wanted to. Hell, a promoter could have sold tickets to watch the impending clash of titans — and to see the look on O‘Reilly‘s face when the man he called out of his name for many years just materialized out of nowhere and stood over O’Reilly’s table — that alone would have been worth the price of the ticket.
“The first thing I said to him was, ‘I want to meet the guy who has had so much to say about me, but knows absolutely nothing about me,’ ” Ludacris said. “He wasn’t expecting to see me at all. The look on his face when he saw me approaching — priceless.”
O’Reilly pushed Pepsi to fire Luda as a spokesperson in 2002, calling the rapper a “vile” and a “thug” who trafficked in vulgarities, drug use, violence and misogyny. But Luda is a better man than most. Verbal warfare would’ve erupted at that dinner table had Luda been a lesser man. Instead, Christopher Brian Bridges chose to sit down with the icon of the extreme political right. Ludacris went even one better; the best-selling rapper and the best-selling conservative author hosted a charity event together afterwards.
So could there be any sweeter form of poetic justice than the fact that Ludacris recently partnered with the largest soft-drink maker in the world, Coca-Cola, to star in the “Sprite Step-Off” reality show on MTV2?
And even though O’Reilly tried to jack his swagg, Ludacris was honored in Las Vegas for his philanthropic work by the premier men’s organization, 100 Black Men of America.
Advantage, Luda. And consider the longtime beef squashed.
Multifaceted Music Mogul
The way Luda popped his collar and dusted off his designer suit after dispatching O’Reilly, makes it clear 
that Luda is in a good place as he celebrates his 10th year in the game with yet another top-ranked album, powered by the bombastic single “My Chick Bad” and the turbo-charged “How Low.”
“I’m feeling great about the response I’ve been getting. … I work so hard to provide good music, and once I get the feedback that the people are enjoying it and get the [tallied] numbers back, there’s no better reward in life,” Luda says.
If you want to know how Ludacris keeps churning out hit album after hit album like some musical assembly line, traveling across the French countryside to the city of Cognac with Mr. Bridges would have have given you an inkling. Then observe the painstaking detail and effort he puts into the making of Conjure Cognac. And much like that fine French cognac, each album ferments until the conditions are just right.
“Not only is my name attached to the product, I actually went to Cognac, France, and helped craft this Cognac blend,” says the cognac connoisseur. This is the closest thing to Louis XIII that you will find, but at a better price. So this is VS, VSOP and XO all mixed together in one bottle, which I personally handcrafted.”
“I’m extremely proud of it,” Luda continues. “Because whenever anyone tastes it, they see how fine it is. We call it the no-hangover drink because it is so fine. It’s one of those drinks that has just taken a name and a whole life of its own.
“It’s just like Incognegro, where we sold one copy [and] then we sold 50,000 copies. It’s growing at a rate where no one can possibly stop it,” he says. “… As soon as someone gets a chance to taste it, they’re already sold on the product.”
When he says sold on the product, Luda could be talking about his cognac, his acting, his foundation or his album. After a brief hiatus from the music game — except for the customary guest appearance where he often steals the show — Ludacris was working to provide more than the game had seen before. He obviously succeeded.
Luda, who simply has to flex his index finger and watch the herd of wanton women stampede toward him, knows a little something about the opposite sex. He intended for the Battle of the Sexes album to be a sort of fun, exploratory discourse on the subject.
“We’ve been trying to understand each other since the beginning of time, so I want to try to provide some insight and raise some questions on [the] subject matter, and just get some conversation started,” he says.
Something else Luda noticed while he was bunkered inside his musical laboratory; the female MC was going the way of the VCR. Even with the meteoric rise of Young Money’s Nicki Minaj, who Luda teamed up with on the hit song “My Chick Bad,” he noticed a glaring lack of lady lyricists.
“At the time, I just felt like there wasn’t a presence of a female in hip-hop. The lane for women is wide open,” Luda opined. “And you usually get the male perspective or the female perspective, but you never hear an album where you hear both together. And that’s what I set out to do and I’m very happy with the outcome.”
It’s all a part of Ludacris’ modus operandi. We know that when Luda drops a new joint it’s going to be two things — fun and unique. Luda says he sweats blood trying to provide the malnourished music fan something to imbibe on.
“I’m constantly trying to just do something new and innovative in this industry. If there is a void, I like to fill that void,” says Luda, who is set to star in The
Fast and the Furious 5 later this year. “So once you get to album six or seven, you constantly think of things that you haven’t done or have not been done. And I don’t think it had been done. I’m going to continue to try to fill voids.”
To Whom Much is Given, Much is Required
When visitors collect their luggage at the Hartsfield Jackson Atlanta International Airport and head for the train station or the taxi stand, they will see a resplendent Ludacris along with other local icons adorning one of the walls. The fact that he has been recognized as an ambassador for Atlanta is the strongest indicator that Ludacris‘ all-around game has received near-universal respect. He’s not only a Grammy-winning musician, but an award-winning actor, successful entrepreneur with the Disturbing Tha Peace label, beloved philanthropist through the Ludacris Foundation, political activist with his work for President Barack Obama and Atlanta Mayor Kasim Reed, an employer and a doting dad.
Ludacris spends almost as much time giving away money and cars as he does spitting machine-gun-quick rhymes onto wax. He’s always taken philanthropy seriously.
“I think there are not many people that are able to get into a position of power. So since I’m in this position, I feel like there’s a certain amount of responsibility that comes with that. And I’m willing to assume that responsibility,” Luda indicates. “There are things that I do to let people know that I’m much more than what you hear on [a] record … I’m just a multifaceted individual.”
Ludacris says he derives his inspiration from people like Jay-Z, Denzel Washington and the living legend Quincy Jones, whom Luda collaborated with recently and will interview during the ASCAP Awards in Hollywood in April.
When asked how Q has inspired him, Luda quickly blurts out: “Quincy Jones’ house in Bel Air,“ he laughs.
“The man has a garden inside his crib! He has a couple of wings that sit on top of the mountain. It’s just one of those things where you can’t help but get inspired when you check him out. That’s like my godfather right now.”
The gifts that Ludacris receives, he continues to give back. Or is it the reverse? He receives so much because he is so willing to give. Clearly, he gets the greatest pleasure from giving to his family and friends.
“I’m all about presenting my friends with opportunities. … I have a friend who had a knack for cooking. I put him through culinary arts school and now he’s my personal chef. I love helping out my friends and they, in turn, help me out,” he says. “My mother is the president of my foundation. So I have people working with me and working for me. I think it’s great to keep loved ones in your inner circle if they deserve that title, you know? I think that’s the greatest reward of being Ludacris is to be able to employ [my] family and friends when they rightfully do their jobs.”
Many athletes and entertainers who wound up broke could have used this lesson. But then again that’s why Ludacris is such a rare breed of man.
