Christopher Brian Bridges (born September 11, 1977), better known as Ludacris, is perhaps one of the most influential American rappers out there. He was born in Champaign, Illinois, and he moved to Atlanta when he was nine years old. After a temporary job as a DJ, he released his first album, Incognegro, in 1999.
He is also known to appear as an actor in several films. In particular, he plays Tej Parker in The Fast and the Furious films.
Ludacris's discography:
- Incognegro (1999)
- Back for the First Time (2000)
- Word of Mouf (2001)
- Chicken-n-Beer (2003)
- The Red Light District (2004)
- Release Therapy (2006)
- Theater of the Mind (2008)
- Battle of the Sexes (2010)
- Ludaversal (2015)
Tropes present in Ludacris's work:
- Abusive Parents: The first two verses of "Runaway Love" (Lisa having a drug-addicted mother who constantly brings home men who molest her daughter and doesn't believe her when she tells her so while Nicole has an alcoholic stepfather who beats her).
- Aesop Amnesia: In the video for "One More Drink", Ludacris is telling what looks like a support group about his drunken escapades that led him there. One night, he got so blackout drunk that he slept with a wildly unattractive woman. After gnawing off his arm to escape from her grasp, he calls up his buddies for yet another night of inebriated foolishness;"Cuz tonight, damn right, I might do it again!"
- Alcohol-Induced Idiocy: "One More Drink" follows Ludacris and T-Pain as they binge on booze and get into all sorts of bizarre antics.
- Arch-Enemy: Luda traded disses back and forth with T.I. for years.
- Boastful Rap:
- "Stand Up", which has him rap about his various club antics.
- "Beast Mode," an entire song about him bragging about how awesome he is.
- Catchphrase: He usually precedes his guest verses on others' songs with "Luda!"
- City Shout Outs: In the remix to "Welcome to Atlanta", Jermaine Dupri, P. Diddy, Snoop Dogg, and Murphy Lee rave about their hometowns as well —New York, Los Angeles, and St. Louis respectively. This song spawned a small meme among hip-hop fans, adding verses about their hometowns if it wasn't one of the above.
- Creator Provincialism: The song "Move Bitch" has the lyrics "doing 100 on the highway, so if you do the speed limit, get the fuck outta my way". In the metric system, 100 kilometers per hour is 62 miles per hour, so if he did this in a country that uses the metric system, the speed would be different.
- More specifically, he's quite fond of mentioning his hometown of Atlanta, GA.
- Death of a Child: In "Runaway Love", ten year old Nicole befriends another girl her age called Stacey. One day, Stacey is accidentally shot by a driveby bullet. Left alone in the world, this spurs Nicole to runaway.
- Department of Redundancy Department: From his guest verse on DJ Khaled's "All I Do is Win":"Can't never count me out! Y'all better count me in!
Got 20 bank accounts; accountants count me in!" - A Girl in Every Port: His song "Area Codes" has him brag about this in a lesser degree. The song contains the lyrics "I got hoes/In different area codes", so he's basically describing that he has a lot of girlfriends spread all across the Country. Those area codes range from Atlanta to New York, Houston to Los Angeles, and all the way to Hawaii.
- Good Girls Avoid Abortion: Firmly averted on "Runaway Love". It's treated as a good, if not best, choice for a pregnant 11-year old, but Erica's family doesn't have the money to pay for one.
- Hashtag Rap: Present in "My Chick Bad", which contains the lyrics "comin' down the street like a parade - Macy's".
- Large Ham: He's a loud and large presence, and has no shame in it. "MOVE! GET OUT THE WAY! GET OUT THE WAY!"
- Making Love in All the Wrong Places: The subject of "What's Your Fantasy?", which describes making love in a lot of places where one would not be expected to do such a thing In a classroom? On the beach? In a club? That's just the tip of the iceberg. Hell, even THE WHITE HOUSE isn't off-limits to him!
- Morality Ballad: "Runaway Love", about the lives of various runaways and the circumstances leading to them running away.
- Portmantitle: The title of his first album, Incognegro, is a combination of the words "incognito" and "negro".
- Protest Song: "Politics as Usual" from 2008, in which Ludacris rips into political figures such as John McCain, George W. Bush, Jesse Jackson, and Hillary Clinton."Now Jesse talkin' slick and apologizin' for what? If you said it then you meant it"
"McCain don't belong in any chair unless he's paralyzed"
"Yeah I said it, 'cuz Bush is mentally handicapped / Ball up all of his speeches and throw 'em just like candy wraps / 'Cuz what you talkin' I hear nothin' even relevant / you the worst of all 43 presidents"
"Hillary hated on you, so that bitch is irrelevant" - The Runaway: "Runaway Love" describes several runaway people and the circumstances which caused them to run away in the first place.
- Shout-Out: The song "Press the Start Button" is one video game reference after the other.
- Stuffy Old Songs About the Buttocks: "How Low" is a song about women Shaking the Rump to Ludacris' music. "Money Maker" is a song about women Shaking the Rump for some money.
- Trope Codifier: More than anyone else, Ludacris defined and popularized the 2000s Dirty South sound and was one of the people who put Atlanta on the map, and in general, if it wasn't Lil Jon breaking someone who was from or associated with Atlanta in the 2000s, it was probably Ludacris.
- Troubling Unchildlike Behavior: The third verse of "Runaway Love" describes how little Erica, who is eleven years old, accidentally got pregnant as a result of having unprotected sex.
- What Did I Do Last Night?: Played for laughs in "One More Drink". Ludacris gets wicked drunk and hooks up with a woman that, sans Beer Goggles, looks really ugly. He remembers none of this, and he has to chew off one of his arms to escape the woman's bed.
- A Wild Rapper Appears!: One of the standout examples of this trope, doing verses in songs by Fergie, Usher, Justin Bieber, Enrique Iglesias, and even Carrie Underwood.
- His big pop breakthrough as a featured artist on "Yeah!" established him as the master of this trope, and he remained one of the premier rappers for pop song features during the mid to late 2000s.
- He appeared in the extended version of "Porn Star Dancing" by My Darkest Days and Chad Kroeger, which was released in 2010.
