Friday, March 14, 2003 Copyright © Las Vegas Review-Journal

He's Just Ludacris

Rapper weathers endorsement storm, feels duty to give back to community

Ludacris used to be "all about being underground," the rap star says, but now "I do know what people want to hear."

The star rapper with the high eyebrows and giant Afro was born as Chris Bridges, but he renamed himself Ludacris because he thought his rhymes were pretty ludicrous. On his 2002 album, "Golden Grain," he uses such lighthearted lyrical charms that his more extreme bits could seem to different listeners to be wry, witty, satirical or just plain stupid. On "Pimp Council," he drops in on criminal court:

"Ya honor, just be cool, let me approach that bench, and sprinkle seasonin' on yo ears, 'bout how I choked that beeyotch!"

But Ludacris -- who performs Saturday at the House of Blues -- doesn't just poke blithe holes through heavy rap. He also raps about simpler, less hostile times on "Growing Pains," a fond look back at the pop culture of his childhood, when Cabbage Patch dolls and Garbage Pail Kids collided with "Holding Back the Years" and chow-downs at Long John Silver's:

"I had a Long John but no Silver, no gold or plat. I was simply red from the years I been holdin' back. With two sides to a book, I lick stamps and light matches, and set fires in garbage pails and cabbage patches."

Even though Ludacris raps in upbeat tones, the content of his songs' characters open the rapper up to assault from political opportunists. Last year, a conservative Republican broadcaster lambasted Pepsi for signing Ludacris to an endorsement deal.

Pepsi then dropped Ludacris, even though Pepsi continues to advertise with white endorsers who carry their own bad-boy images, particularly the Osbourne family and Papa Roach. Ozzy Osbourne was the prototype for drugged-out vandals of metal, whose arrest record hardly mirrored his devilish reputation. And Papa Roach, while being no Ozzy Osbourne, has shown up in an adult film, and the lead singer has reportedly urinated in a Pepsi-product bottle onstage.

But Ludacris is black, a fact that must have seemed like an obvious factor to Russell Simmons and the Hip-Hop Summit Action Network, who called for a boycott of Pepsi. Subsequently, Pepsi quickly donated $5 million to the rapper's Ludacris Foundation, then Simmons called for a suspension of the boycott.

Ludacris himself remains professionally calm about this situation, at least publicly. He says he doesn't want to turn against the Osbournes and Papa Roach, just as he didn't want the talk-show host to badmouth him out of an endorsement.

"I just try to go straight to the corporation and make sure that they kind of do something to make up for how I feel they did me," Ludacris says. "But as far as anyone else, I'm not gonna sit there and talk about what anyone else is doin', because I don't want to ruin their opportunity for money or progressing their musical career. ... The only thing Pepsi can help me with is giving back to the community."

Pepsi's debacle has subtracted only a part of Ludacris' exposure to the mainstream. "Golden Grain" is his latest hit album. He's become a mainstay on MTV. He's acted in the movie "The Wash" and shows up in the upcoming "The Fast and the Furious 2." He's working with MTV Films as an executive. And for the upcoming cartoon movie, "Lil' Pimp," he gives voice to a "gerbil with a loud-ass voice, which is what makes it funny," he says.

The voice-over gerbil work came easy to Ludacris, because before he was famous, he worked his way up on Atlanta radio from voice-over man to DJ.

His experience as a DJ helped Ludacris navigate the politics of the music business, he says.

"It balanced me out. Before, I couldn't stand songs that were played on the radio. I was all about being underground," he says. But now "I understand what went into rotation, and things of that nature."

Does that mean Ludacris developed a formula for making a hit song?

"Not necessarily a formula," he says. "But I do know what people want to hear."

That means tough-knuckle rap one minute (tongue-in-cheek or not), and the softer "Growing Pains" the next, with its remembrance of days gone by.

"One aspect of hip-hop is you always have to go back to earlier days, because everybody was born in different times," Ludacris says. "I felt like I had to talk about the time when I grew up, and talk about things like Nintendo, and Cabbage Patch kids, and Garbage Pail Kids, because a lot of people could relate to it."

Ludacris also mixes up his sounds. Even some of his harsher songs run along pretty melodies and unusually syncopated rhythms. Some of that wide mix speaks of his studio collaborators. But some of it reflects the musical tastes of his parents, who played Cameo, and Frankie Beverly and Maze, around the house.

Ludacris says his versatility should help him earn longevity, just as it has for Missy Elliott. Together, he and Elliott recorded the hit duet, "Gossip Folks," which is on her CD but not his.

"That's, like, my female counterpart," he says. "I think we're both real innovative, creative, and we're always looking to do something different. So I thought it was great working with her on that, man, because we're trying to make changes in the industry."

During parts of his off-time, the rapper says, he wants to get beyond little controversies about his meaner raps, and to use his stardom as a positive force in urban communities. The Ludacris Foundation helps feed homeless people, gives aid to children's hospitals, and feeds some needy people during the holidays.

"Why did I want to start the foundation?" he says. "Because I think I have power now. I think I'm successful. And whenever you get to a certain point, it's always your duty -- I feel it's everyone's duty -- to start giving back to your community.

"You gotta try and make a difference. I'm obviously trying to make a difference in the music world, so I might as well try and make a difference in the world as a whole."