GEORGIA MUSIC HALL OF FAME
Ludacris: First rap artist in GA Music Hall of Fame
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Friday, September 19, 2008
Seven new names will be added to the Georgia Music Hall of Fame on Saturday, one of whom goes by different names depending on whether you see him in a film, buy one of his five multimillion-selling CDs or remember him as a radio personality.
And the inductee is…LUDACRIS
MEL MELCON/Los Angeles Times
Chris ‘Ludacris’ Bridges, who has three Grammys, sees himself acting full time someday.
Why he is being honored: In less than a decade, the recording artist born Christopher Bridges has gone from an intern and announcer at what is now Hot-107.9 (where he went by Chris Luva Luva); to a three-time Grammy-winning hip-hop act (as Ludacris); to actor in a Screen Actors Guild Award-winning movie (“Crash,” “Hustle & Flow”) and TV series (“Battleground Earth,” “Law & Order” — where his credit usually says Chris “Ludacris” Bridges).
What he has to say about it: “Wow, this just means to me that all of the hard work I’ve been doing has not gone ignored. And to hear that I’m like the first rap artist to be inducted —I love it! I love making history and I take pride in and love what I do.”
“And please believe me when I say I don’t take those words, ‘Hall of Fame,’ lightly. This just motivates me to continue to do more. I mean, some of the same people whose music I’ve sampled — Isaac Hayes and Curtis Mayfield — people I’ve looked at as legends, it just really makes me feel good that I will be included among them. And that it is because of rap music — a voice that will not be ignored!”
What may surprise you about him: There’s another professional entry on his resumé — restaurateur. He owns the upscale Singaporean spot Straits, in Midtown. And on a personal note, he has a daughter named Karma. (At the end of his new song “What Them Girls Like” — with Chris Brown and Sean Garrett — he says, “I love women so much I had one!”)
