This months Spotlite will shine on Christopher Bridges b.k.a Ludacris. I would like to start off by saying that those that know me well know that I am very much a Oldskool head and thats where my heart resides, but I have to give credit where it is due and Ludacris is very much deserving of the spotlite as well as some credit for being one of the baddest rappers to ever do it. Ludacris was born in Champign, Chicago his family moved to Atlanta ,GA at age 12 it was then young Chris started to perfect his craft in this rap game. Ludacris has been around music & house parties since he was a toddler, seeing how his parents were in College when he was born. His love for music continued on, when he was 12 he joined a group called The Loudmouth Hooligans. Ludacris used to have battles during lunch in school, it was almost as if he would rather battle than eat his lunch. A while after that Ludacris would show up anywhere where there was an open mic for him to rock. Ludacris landed a job in Atlanta as a radio personality it was there that the ATL got their first real taste of Luda. During his radio show he would rap over radio station promos so so people got to hear his skills over some hot tracks. Ludacris's debut recording was from Timbalands 1998 Album Tims Bio: Life fom the Basement, both Timbaland & Jermaine Dupree wanted to sign Ludacris but Ludacris had different plans, he would launch his debut Album "Incognegro" under his own indie label Disturbing The Peace (DTP). The rest from there as they say is history. Ludacris is one of the highest selling rappers from the south to the tune of 19.5 million units sold in the states alone. Personally Im not very impressed with record sales because that has alot of politics wrapped all up in it. I like to judge the emcees I like by something that has been forgotten in the music industry.... SKILLZ!! Ludacris has shown his verbal skillz on countless compilations from Shawna to Sleepy Brown to Nate Dogg to Mystical. Every time a different flow, every time the vocabulary was different, nothing is the same Ludacris always delivers different flavas with his rhymes. He also has a skill that allows him to talk about women and how attractive they are and still not demean them. Hell he even goes into what he would do with them and to them. See it takes skillz to do that and still not demean our sistahs, check out the lyrics in the the song Sweet Revenge. I mean I would play Ludacris around my Grandmother, how many emcess have street credit that you can play around Granny? On top of that he is a hell one hell of a battle emcee check out "Stomp" a dis to TI. There was no response to this from TI because the beef was squashed before the record even went public, although it was recorded on Young Bucks album Straight Out of Cashville. Ludacris shows a very wide range of verbal skillz and has fans from young to old from black to white. Not every emcee that has accomplished what he has in the time that he has can say the same thing. Hats off to you Christopher "Ludacris" Barnes.
Born Christopher Bridges in Champaign, Illinois moved to Atlanta ,Georgia at 9
