Playboy Interview: Ludacris

If the most successful rappers are measured by the stature of their enemies, Ludacris is hip-hop's leading man.

When Pepsi announced Ludacris as a spokesman in 2002, Fox News host Bill O'Reilly called for a boycott against the company for hiring someone who "disrespects women, encourages drug use and encourages violence." Pepsi immediately fired him, and O'Reilly continued to condemn the "vile" rapper for more than six months, even reviving the campaign in 2004 when Anheuser-Busch hired Ludacris.

This past year Ludacris had a starring role in Crash, a film about racial conflict, which was both praised ("often breathtakingly intelligent," gasped The New Yorker) and mocked ("in nearly every respect, preposterous," snickered The New York Times). In October, four months before Crash won the Academy Award for best picture, Oprah Winfrey hosted much of the cast on her TV show and interrupted her extravagant praise for the film only long enough to chide Ludacris for using the words nigga, bitch and ho in his music. Her disapproval swirled into a conflict: Ludacris, along with fellow rappers Ice Cube and 50 Cent, criticized Winfrey for essentially banning rappers from her program, and she was left insisting to reporters that, yes, she actually does like hip-hop--when it isn't degrading to women.

Rap fans were surprised. Ludacris controversial? Since Incognegro, the 2000 album he released himself when he was an unknown, his music has been distinguished by a carefree tone and lighthearted manner. Harking back to black comics Redd Foxx and Rudy Ray Moore, he talks about sex with a bawdy delight that makes it seem both filthy and hysterical. Even on the occasions when he describes violence or drug use, he seems more like a jester than a gangster.

Luda, as fans call him, embodies the spirit of the Dirty South, the current red-hot center of hip-hop success and innovation. An only child, Christopher Brian Bridges, now 29, was raised mostly by his mother, Roberta Shields, who struggled for years in Chicago before securing a job as a mortgage-and-loan supervisor. At 14 he moved to Atlanta to be with his father, Wayne Bridges, a sales manager for an oil company, and worked in radio while he dived into the city's exploding rap scene. Along with fellow Atlantans OutKast and Lil Jon, he helped spread Southern music through raucous, catchy hits such as "What's Your Fantasy," "Roll Out (My Business)," "Move Bitch," "Stand Up" (a number one single), "Splash Waterfalls" and "Get Back," while adding a lewd verse ("We want a lady in the street but a freak in the bed") to Usher's "Yeah!," the biggest song of 2004. Ludacris, who has a young daughter, Karma, from a relationship with an on-and-off girlfriend, also made a strong crossover into acting, with sharp roles last year in Crash and another notable film, Hustle & Flow. His past two albums, Chicken-N-Beer and The Red Light District, both topped sales charts, and a new album, Release Therapy, mixes his risqué rhymes with gibes against Winfrey and George W. Bush. While Ludacris was finishing the album, we sent writer Rob Tannenbaum to interview him.

"I met Chris three times: at his annual foundation dinner in Atlanta, at his hotel on Central Park and at my apartment in New York one night," Tannenbaum says. "He was under great pressure. He had a deadline to finish the CD, and his managers were advising him to stop criticizing Oprah because it could hurt his career.

"'Please don't count it against me that I might be, like, the busiest Negro in the world,' he laughed to a friend who rang on his cell phone. But every time we met he found time to play unfinished songs from Release Therapy for me--at really high volume, of course--talk forth-rightly about his feelings toward Winfrey and even make provocative jokes. In my apartment he looked through a take-out menu from a local restaurant. I recommended the fried chicken. 'Is that a racial comment?' he teased. When our talk was over, he carried his dishes to the sink, even after I told him to leave them on the table. 'That's not the way I was raised,' he explained."

[Q] Playboy: When was the first time someone called you Ludacris?

[A] Ludacris: I was working at Hot 97.5 in Atlanta, the radio station where I got my start, in my last year of high school. It was ridiculous; I'd been through so many different rap names since I started rapping at nine years old. With some I look back and laugh. For instance, my name used to be Cris Cringle.

[Q] Playboy: Yeah, that's pretty silly.

[A] Ludacris: Hey, man, what can I say? I was an early teen. Around 16, I came up with Ludacris. It describes my music, my personality. I am kind of ludicrous, you know? Ludicrous means beyond crazy, ridiculous. I knew that was a good name. Like how the name OutKast describes their being outcasts from everybody. Ludacris describes me perfectly, man.

[Q] Playboy: Once you had the name, did it help focus your identity as a rapper?

[A] Ludacris: Exactly. As far as my style and personality of being outlandish and wild, I thought it was unique. People have compared me to Busta Rhymes, Method Man and Redman. I grew up listening to them, but I don't want to be like anybody else.

[Q] Playboy: When you were Cris Cringle, did you wear a red suit stuffed with a pillow?

[A] Ludacris: There was no outfit, but I used a lot of metaphors pertaining to Santa Claus: "I'm coming down your chimney with a bag of goodies." The first song I ever wrote, I was nine years old, and it went "I'm cool, I'm bad, I might be 10, but I can't survive without my girlfriend." I wasn't 10 yet, but I had to rhyme with girlfriend.

[Q] Playboy: Your music is known for its sense of humor. One reviewer called you the clown prince of hip-hop. Are you comfortable with that title?

[A] Ludacris: That's hard to answer. I'm so much more multifaceted than just being a clown, and there are serious sides to my music. Don't get me wrong, there's a lot of comedy, too. I used to watch Eddie Murphy, Richard Pryor and Martin Lawrence. I still to this day put that stuff in my music.

[Q] Playboy: There's a great tradition of comedy in rap. Chris Rock says even N.W.A was really funny.

[A] Ludacris: Now everybody would call them a gangsta group. All I'm trying to say is you can label me as funny, but take me seriously. Tupac had songs where he was cursing his ass off, talking about guns, talking about war. Then he had songs like "Keep Ya Head Up." He uplifted women in certain songs, he talked about revolution, and he talked about our becoming better people, changing the way we live, changing the way we eat. Nobody's perfect, which is one thing I'm trying to get people to understand about rap music.

[Q] Playboy: A funny rapper seems easy to dismiss, but black comics are usually a lot more serious than white ones. They do more than tell jokes.

[A] Ludacris: They're very political, they're very serious. It's not just jokes. They talk about a lot of issues going on in America today, and it's okay because you're laughing about it. I love black comedy. Sometimes it's brutal--Richard Pryor talked about everything going on in his life. People gravitated to him because you can't blame a man for telling the truth, no matter how many curse words he says. Some stuff that happens in your life makes you want to curse. Comedians can touch the closest on certain issues and get heard and still get away with it. They're sneaking it in. But they won't let us rappers sneak it in.

[Q] Playboy: So for instance, someone like Martin Luther King Jr. got assassinated, but Richard Pryor didn't?

[A] Ludacris: No comedian gets assassinated, but Tupac and Biggie Smalls got killed.

[Q] Playboy: You think comedians get away with things rappers can't?

[A] Ludacris: People point the finger at rap and not at the government because they live in fear. We all live in fear of our government. Without my getting too deep, the government does its job by distracting us. It sways us from a lot of issues we could be barking about. It's easy to blame rap music for every damn thing, but I am tired of people trying to point the finger at me while it's perfectly okay for black comics to do what they do. People love to cast stones at rap.

[Q] Playboy: Lately they've been casting stones at you.

[A] Ludacris: A lot of people have been casting stones at me, but it's okay. I take responsibility for everything I've done and for growing from my first album to where I am now. It's such an easy cop-out to blame rap music. People can come after me all they want. Maybe it's because I'm articulate and I'm in the public eye. Maybe everybody took Bill O'Reilly's lead and felt like since he jumped on me, it's okay. I'm here to let you know I'm not just going to shut my mouth. I'm going to tell you what's on my mind. I didn't ask for the Oprah situation, I didn't ask for the Bill O'Reilly situation, but I'm here to defend myself and my music. I don't claim to know it all, and I've learned from my mistakes.

[Q] Playboy: Why does the media spend so much time worrying about how music is hurting kids while neglecting how government policies hurt kids?

[A] Ludacris: Exactly. One of my albums sells 3 million copies; George Bush has control over 300 million people. But they just want to blame us. Rappers are basically speaking about what the government has done, what's going on in the world. Rap is like the news. The news is depressing as hell, but it's reality. Do you criticize the news? No. So how are you going to criticize rap music?

[Q] Playboy: O'Reilly called you a thug rapper. Are you one?

[A] Ludacris: You can't put me in a category.

[Q] Playboy: Is it fair to say you've done some thug songs?

[A] Ludacris: For sure. I have a lot of different sides to me, and I'm just trying to elaborate on the thug life. I have so many different elements, but people want to try to label me as this or that. I'm a businessman at the end of the day. We hate the term rapper these days, man. I'm an entrepreneur. I like to say I'm an entreprenegro. [laughs] To me, rapper is an insult.

[Q] Playboy: Tell us about your entreprenegroship.

[A] Ludacris: I'm in real estate and the clothing business, I'm the CEO of a record label, I'm a philanthropist, and I'm an actor. That's five off the top of my head. Another aspect of being a businessman is not telling the media the other five businesses I have. A silent-partner type of thing.

[Q] Playboy: Now, that is gangsta. How come you never went on O'Reilly's show to debate him?

[A] Ludacris: Because I've seen him completely regulate an interview. He controls the microphone. It wouldn't be fair because he says what he wants to say and then talks over you. So it didn't make any sense to me.

[Q] Playboy: You got a lot of free advertising from him. Did he help your career?

[A] Ludacris: He may have, but he may have hindered it also. People who knew nothing about me heard about me, but they automatically took his opinion that I'm a menace to society. They believed him because they don't know any better. I don't know if he helped my career, but he definitely helped me out as a person. Anytime you face adversity and overcome it, you come out of the situation stronger.

[Q] Playboy: Here's something O'Reilly said in 2001: "For years I've been saying the antisocial lyrics contained in many rap songs and the overall tone of boorish behavior in the hip-hop world are having a destructive influence on many of America's most at-risk children." Do you agree with any of that?

[A] Ludacris: I can't speak for the whole hip-hop community, but I go back to what we were talking about earlier: Everybody tries to blame rap music. I agree that we have an influence, sometimes positive and sometimes negative; if there weren't one, there couldn't be the other. That being said, if people grow up in a negative environment--and I do speak for all rappers when I say this--they have to get that off their chest on a first or second album. So much anger and animosity is built up, not only in rappers but in any lower-class individuals--poor white people also; it doesn't have to be race-related. They feel they're getting the short end of the stick. A lot of rappers are young and may feel they need to do a violent song because it's the industry norm. As you get older your mind isn't as conditioned as it was before, and you understand 100 percent that you have an influence. Then you become conscious. But that doesn't necessarily mean you try to do different things. Some people are conscious of their influence, but they're scared to try different things.

[Q] Playboy: So rappers actually do what politicians are supposed to do, represent their constituents?

[A] Ludacris: We're just speaking on behalf of people who don't have a voice. And all this goes in a circle. If we sell a lot of records, we're a "bad influence" because we have a voice and reach the masses. But all we're doing is speaking for them.

[Q] Playboy: Tell us what happened when the cast of Crash went on Oprah.

[A] Ludacris: The cast was invited, but I wasn't. For what reason I don't know. They said only a certain number of people could come on the show. That's bullshit. This is Oprah--she can have as many people on her show as she wants. So my agent fought to get me on, and I got a call the night before, saying I could come. It was a little weird, like being invited to somebody's house but being told to use the back door. The whole show was built around not judging people--just as Crash was about not instantly judging people-- and as soon as I sat down I was judged. Oprah's first words to me were "Now, you know I don't agree with your lyrics." I felt that absolutely didn't have to be said. The panel was talking about Crash, but I was onstage basically defending all of hip-hop. She was lecturing me about something that had absolutely nothing to do with the show.

[Q] Playboy: So what happened next?

[A] Ludacris: After she said that, I kind of defended myself. We got into a whole spiel about degrading women, about the word bitch, about the word nigga. And a lot of my defending myself was completely edited out of the final cut. That is the only problem I have with Oprah. I respect her opinion, but she did not at all respect mine.

[Q] Playboy: After the show, you and she had a private discussion. What did she say?

[A] Ludacris: I told her, "I'm still a young man. I'm still learning from my mistakes." I specifically remember her saying she'd had skinheads on her show, and as much as people talked about how bad they were, she felt she was empowering them by having them on.

[Q] Playboy: So rappers are as bad as skinheads?

[A] Ludacris: I'm just giving you the facts. I'm being very careful here. But in my opinion, yeah. That's what I got from it.

[Q] Playboy: She equates rappers with skinheads but insists she doesn't have a problem with hip-hop.

[A] Ludacris: I don't believe her when she says that. I wish I knew what her problem was. Who can be worse than the rapists she's had on her show? She has the power to make people understand rap if she wants to. The only thing I can understand, though I don't agree, is that her problem has to do with the degrading of women. Of course, there is degrading of women in rap.

[Q] Playboy: We'll get to that later. She says she told you a lot of people who listen to your music aren't as smart as you are and take your songs literally.

[A] Ludacris: Does that mean I should dumb down my lyrics? That's a bit of an insult to rap fans. There is a parental-advisory sticker on my albums. Teens find a way to buy them, just as they find ways to get into R-rated movies.

[Q] Playboy: Would you go back on Oprah?

[A] Ludacris: I would love to go back live. That's my take. The only thing I want to get out of this situation is for her to admit to the media, or to me, that what she did to me on her show wasn't right. Admit she was wrong. I don't think she'll ever admit it.

[Q] Playboy: And now you've put her in a song, just as you did O'Reilly.

[A] Ludacris: I did. It's called "Freedom of Preach," and it's a church-type song playing off "freedom of speech." I ask God to forgive Oprah. [laughs] What do you think about that? I'm talking to God, saying I'm sorry for the things I've done, then I ask him to forgive people who've done things to me. "Forgive those who don't think I'm great and want to see me go,/Forgive Oprah for editing most of my comments off her show./Don't get me wrong, I know some people got an image to hold,/But those who criticize the youth might just be getting too old."

[Q] Playboy: You've also written songs about your childhood. In "Child of the Night" you talk about living with your mom in a one-room apartment. Is that true?

[A] Ludacris: Hell, yeah. My mother and I lived in one room--just one room--in my aunt's place on the South Side of Chicago, at 87th and Ashland. It was a struggle. My mom worked two jobs and still went to school, walked miles to get home. We didn't have anything, no car, but we got help from family. I was side by side with her, and I understood what it's like to come from absolutely nothing, to feed a child, to set goals and try to get ahead. It was probably the hardest point in my life, but I became strong. At around eight or nine years old I had to get up at six o'clock in the morning to take the train downtown. The neighborhood was pretty serious. There were a lot of gangs I almost fell victim to.

[Q] Playboy: In "Diamond in the Back" you talk about getting a whupping. What did you get whupped for?

[A] Ludacris: I used to be a bad little man. The worst whuppin' I remember was because I threw a rock and broke a neighbor's window--I don't remember why. My mother told me to go find a stick. I brought back a little one and she said, "That's not big enough." I had to keep getting them until one was big enough, and then I got my whuppin'.

[Q] Playboy: Were you ever in trouble with the law?

[A] Ludacris: Yeah, I've been in trouble with the law. Luckily my record is pretty clean because a lot of my run-ins happened when I was a juvenile. I'm not at liberty to talk too much about all that.

[Q] Playboy: C'mon, what did you do?

[A] Ludacris: You can just say I was running with the wrong crowd a lot.

[Q] Playboy: You spent some summers with your dad in Atlanta. Why did your parents separate?

[A] Ludacris: My mother and father don't like me to talk about how they split up. I hate that I have to censor myself, but there are certain things I don't want to get out, to protect my family.

[Q] Playboy: Why did you move in with your dad?

[A] Ludacris: I begged. I needed some fatherly love. I also had a motive: I wanted to live with my dad because of the music scene in Atlanta. It was the Motown of the South. TLC, OutKast, Kris Kross, Another Bad Creation, all the different record companies--So So Def, LaFace, Rowdy Records. Kids were getting put on in Atlanta, and my dad actually lived there. I missed him, but at the same time I wanted to get discovered.

[Q] Playboy: Were you sent to live with him because you were getting into trouble in Chicago?

[A] Ludacris: To a certain degree. But it's not like moving in with my dad cured me of doing bad things. I did a couple of things that shall remain off the record. I was caught shoplifting rap CDs: Black Sheep, LL Cool J, A Tribe Called Quest. The streets raised me, even though I never joined a gang per se. I learned so much from being in the street--seeing people selling drugs, gangs, violence. What kept me from that path? I loved music. It kept me focused, kept me busy. You know how there are recreation centers to keep kids out of the street? Music kept me out of the street.

[Q] Playboy: Did your father support your plan to be a rapper?

[A] Ludacris: My father loved music--the Gap Band, Frankie Beverly and Maze, James Brown, Michael Jackson. I owe my musical background to my father. When I was six or seven I heard U.T.F.O.'s "Roxanne, Roxanne." I gravitated toward that song so much. My dad bought me a copy. After that came Kurtis Blow's "If I Ruled the World," the Fat Boys' "All You Can Eat" and then Run-D.M.C. Now I have retired my parents. My mother is actually the president of my foundation.

[Q] Playboy: In a couple of songs you mention your being light skinned. Do you have mixed ancestry?

[A] Ludacris: There's Native American in the family. When I was around 13, my grandfather--may he rest in peace--showed me pictures and talked about the heritage and how far the family goes back.

[Q] Playboy: Is that the same grandfather you talk about in "Hard Times"?

[A] Ludacris:Mm-hmm. I was real close to him. He was just very strong, physically and mentally. He instilled motivation and intelligence and the importance of education into every one of his children, every one of his grandchildren. They used to call him the Egg Man.

[Q] Playboy: Why was he called that?

[A] Ludacris: He had a store where he sold dairy products, and he would get up every morning and make deliveries around the neighborhood in Mount Vernon, New York.

[Q] Playboy: What did he teach you?

[A] Ludacris: He taught me about perseverance, self-motivation and goal setting.

[Q] Playboy: While you were finishing high school, you began working at a radio station. Were you a star instantly?

[A] Ludacris: I was an intern on the morning show. I was the youngest person at the station, and the listeners were all my age, so it was only a matter of time before I became a star. It was a means to an end for me, a way to live out my dream. Like I told you, ever since I was nine I'd been going through demo tapes with different groups. I made mistakes. I signed bogus contracts. Then I started doing station IDs for everyone on the air, and I made a name for myself. People heard them and it was just like, "Who is this dude?" They put me on the graveyard shift, two a.m. to six a.m., for a month or two. After that another guy and I were given our own show. Once we had our own show, it just blew up.

[Q] Playboy: While you were using the station's production studio to record commercials, were you also recording your songs there?

[A] Ludacris: That's where I made my demo tapes. Jermaine Dupri heard one and put me on the Madden 2000 video game. That added to my résumé. Timbaland heard one and put me on Tim's Bio, and that added to my résumé.

[Q] Playboy: The biggest hip-hop executives and producers all passed on you. L.A. Reid, Dallas Austin, Jermaine Dupri, Timbaland, Puff Daddy--every single one decided not to sign you.

[A] Ludacris: I sat in L.A. Reid's office, and he did not sign me. It's ironic because L.A. Reid is now the chairman of my record company. He just didn't hear it, I guess. That's what he said. He also said it was the biggest mistake of his life.

[Q] Playboy: Is that something you want to gloat about now?

[A] Ludacris: Oh, I've gloated before. [laughs] I say to L.A., "Man, do you realize how much money you could have made?"

[Q] Playboy: So you were an underdog?

[A] Ludacris: Oh, hell, yeah. For sure.

[Q] Playboy: No one thought you were going to be a star, but you got signed through your own perseverance and goal setting. You were the Egg Man.

[A] Ludacris: That's real. You're connecting the dots, man, and it's a beautiful thing. It all goes back to the Egg Man. I did it legally, as opposed to lots of other rappers who have made it damn near a cliché that you have to sell drugs to get into the game. You can do it the legal way. I've never sold a drug in my life, and I'm still accepted.

[Q] Playboy: So how did you do it?

[A] Ludacris: I was impatient, so I made an independent album. I'm good at saving, man.

[Q] Playboy: Were you making good money at the station?

[A] Ludacris: I was making $500 every damn two weeks. It got a little better over time, but at the end, my salary was $30,000 a year. Being at the radio station gave me other opportunities, like hosting a show at a club. They'd give you that nontaxable income, slide you $200 for hosting the night. I would save it. It went toward a fund for trying to make an independent album.

[Q] Playboy: You learned to live cheaply?

[A] Ludacris: Clothes were free because I worked at the radio station. A lot of food came free because I worked at the radio station. I was able to cut corners.

[Q] Playboy: How serious were you? Did you skip going on vacation?

[A] Ludacris: Oh, man. Don't get me started. Life is all about prioritizing if you set a goal for yourself, and a lot of people don't understand that. So when I say I was getting clothes free from the station, I mean I would walk around with the same three T-shirts and pair of jeans for a good year, honestly speaking.

[Q] Playboy: Did you give up having girlfriends? Dating can be expensive.

[A] Ludacris: I didn't give up having girlfriends. I would use the benefits I had from working at the station, you know what I'm saying?

[Q] Playboy: "Honey, here's your free T-shirt."

[A] Ludacris: Stuff like that.

[Q] Playboy: "We're going out for a free dinner tonight."

[A] Ludacris: "We're going to the movies because there's a screening and the radio station has passes."

[Q] Playboy: You must have worn out a lot of shoes from hustling.

[A] Ludacris: When I was working at that station, I started throwing my own parties for high school students. This was damn near illegal, and I had to do it in a roundabout way. I would have somebody pay $2,000 to run commercials on the station for a week, but the money actually came out of my pocket. I would put fliers on every windshield in the parking lot of every surrounding high school. I would rent a club for another $1,500, and at the party I would make my money back and then some. This is another way I paid for the album.

[Q] Playboy: How much did the record cost to make?

[A] Ludacris: I spent $20,000 over a period of about three years. From there it was a wrap. I sold 20,000 records, which is unheard of for an independent CD. All the record companies were beating down my door. I chose Def Jam because of its history--it didn't even offer the most money. Elektra Records was offering more, but what would have happened if I had gone to Elektra? It would have been a totally different story.

[Q] Playboy: What was the number on the check?

[A] Ludacris: Should I really tell you that? It was seven figures. Over $1 million, under $2 million. I put a down payment on a home, man.

[Q] Playboy: C'mon, you didn't buy anything stupid with it? Rappers are supposed to spend their first check on jewelry.

[A] Ludacris: Yeah, I definitely bought some jewelry. But a house, that was the first thing.

[Q] Playboy: Success probably didn't hurt your sex life, either. When did you discover sex?

[A] Ludacris: The first time I discovered sex probably was in playboy. You guys are corrupt. Why don't they blame you for all the problems going on? Blame playboy, not rappers.

[Q] Playboy: They used to blame playboy in the days before rap.

[A] Ludacris: [Laughs] Right. When I was 10 or 11 I discovered my father's stash of playboys. That's when I discovered sex, by flipping through the pages.

[Q] Playboy: In "Splash Waterfalls" you talk about doing it "doggy and froggy style." Doggy style we understand, but how do you do it froggy style?

[A] Ludacris: Think about how a frog sits. The woman sits in the frog position and goes up and down like a frog. All the man has to do is lie there. And yes, I have done it froggy style.

[Q] Playboy: You've done songs about ménages à trois, whips and chains, tea bagging. Have you done all the things you rap about?

[A] Ludacris: Yeah. I've experienced a lot of things--but safe things. People may not believe me, but I can count on one hand the number of people I've had unprotected sex with. So as nasty as people want to make me out to be--maybe I've had a lot of sex, but it's been a lot of safe sex.

[Q] Playboy: How many hands would you need to count the total number of women you've slept with? You once rapped about passing Wilt Chamberlain's number of 20,000.

[A] Ludacris: I don't think I can mess with Wilt Chamberlain. There's one line I exaggerated.

[Q] Playboy: Now we're wondering what else you exaggerated, because you also rap that you've got nine inches.

(continued on page 138)Ludacris(continued from page 56)

[A] Ludacris: [Laughs] That's not an exaggeration, man. If you're proud of yourself, you've broken out a ruler and measured yourself. All I can say is I'm extremely proud of myself. And it took me a while to realize because it's not like I go around peeping at other men. It's something I've been told by many women. I'm exceptional--very much, I was told. Women, watch out for us medium-built guys.

[Q] Playboy: Who do you think is sexy?

[A] Ludacris: Halle Berry is really sexy. But we all think Halle Berry is sexy. I've met so many different people, but I've never met her.

[Q] Playboy: Well, if she reads this interview--

[A] Ludacris: If she reads this interview, she can call the William Morris Agency and get in touch with me.

[Q] Playboy: How come we've read so little about the women you've dated?

[A] Ludacris: I like to keep my personal life separate. I have definitely dated a lot of other celebrities, but it never gets blown out of proportion in the media. It's almost like a game I play, to keep something to myself and not have it be publicized.

[Q] Playboy: So who have you dated?

[A] Ludacris: [Laughs] I can't tell you that. That's the whole point.

[Q] Playboy: If you were dating Halle Berry, you wouldn't be so private about it.

[A] Ludacris: No, I would be private about it. I don't have to show her off. As long as I know I'm the one, then I'm cool. All I want to do is respect what she wants. I just like pleasing the woman.

[Q] Playboy: Speaking of which, you're one of the few guys who rap about going down on women. In some circles--not just hip-hop circles but black circles-- men just don't do that.

[A] Ludacris: Guys are lying. They say they don't do it, but whoever your main girl is, if you love her, you'll please her in any way.

[Q] Playboy: Have you ever paid for sex?

[A] Ludacris: Hell, yeah. Taking a woman to dinner and the movies may not be a direct way of paying for it, but I've been a victim of roundabout paying for sex, you could say. And I'm just being completely honest.

[Q] Playboy: What was the freakiest night of your life?

[A] Ludacris: Probably the night when I was a young rapper on tour in Dallas and had sex with four or five different women, not all in the same room. I had just gotten a little taste of fame. It was definitely a wild extravaganza, a night filled with freakiness. Safe freakiness. How many more sex questions do we have to cover?

[Q] Playboy: With the number of sex songs you've done, now you're getting shy? You've got half a dozen songs just about your balls.

[A] Ludacris: Grandmothers and aunties love to read the articles I'm in, but hopefully they won't read the Playboy Interview.

[Q] Playboy: Then let's hope they don't listen to your records, either. Did you have to explain to your mom what tea bagging is?

[A] Ludacris: My mom buys the clean versions. She doesn't ask me about stuff like that.

[Q] Playboy: T.I. calls himself the king of the South. Are you ready to hand that crown to him?

[A] Ludacris: Do we really have to talk about this? I don't want to shed light on other rappers in my interview.

[Q] Playboy: Well, there is a new generation of rappers from Atlanta--T.I., Young Jeezy, Boyz N da Hood--and they all rap about crack: how they smoke crack, how they sold crack, how their music is like crack. Do you support them?

[A] Ludacris: To each his own. I respect what anyone wants to do. If that's their reality, it's fine for them to rap about it, but I don't want to be like everyone else. Some of that may have been my reality, but I choose not to talk about the same things.

[Q] Playboy: What do you mean?

[A] Ludacris: I never resorted to selling crack, but I was there when it was happening.

[Q] Playboy: Did you ever sell weed?

[A] Ludacris: Man, who hasn't sold weed? [laughs] That doesn't really count. I did it on the sly, never really in bulk. Supply and demand is just something you learn in the street. I had a little extra supply; somebody else had a demand. That's the best way to put it.

[Q] Playboy: On your album The Red Light District, you say you're "one of the few rappers responsible for changing the game." Can you justify that?

[A] Ludacris: Honestly, I'm responsible for artists wanting to be more versatile, as opposed to saying the same things over and over. I can rap in any style, about any subject. That's my legacy. I wouldn't say I started the whole cameo thing, but I made it cool to rap on an R&B song, whether it was a Ciara song or a Jamie Foxx song. I'm the cameo king. I can rap as fast as Twista and as slow as somebody from Houston. I can rap with C-Murder, and I can rap with Usher. I changed the game because there's no limit to my range. Whatever's going on in music, I can make it my own. I satisfy all audiences. You can't put me in a category. I keep people guessing, and that whole mystery would make me a fan of myself.

[Q] Playboy: Are you a fan of your own music? Do you turn up the radio if one of your songs comes on?

[A] Ludacris: Hell, yeah. I feel like I'm the medium between God and the microphone. I don't even know where the raps come from. I listen back like, Damn, that's good!

[Q] Playboy: You're especially proud of your lyrics.

[A] Ludacris: Lyrics are my strongest point. A lot of people say they can't understand other rappers but they understand me. They say, "I don't listen to a lot of rap, but I love your music."

[Q] Playboy: When people talk about the greatest lyricists in rap, they name Jay-Z, Biggie, Tupac, Nas--but they don't name you.

[A] Ludacris: My goal is to be in the top five very soon, if I'm not already there. That comes with time. People outside my own crew are starting to say, "Luda, you're in my top five."

[Q] Playboy: Your label, Def Jam, has some older rappers whose careers are in trouble: LL Cool J, Ja Rule. What do you learn from looking at their problems?

[A] Ludacris: Be consistent, don't take too much time off, and if you feel like you want to retire, don't say it. That's funny as hell, too. Too Short, Jay-Z, Andre 3000--they all say they're retiring, but they don't retire. [laughs] I'll shut the hell up. I just won't come out with an album. How about that?

[Q] Playboy: You talked earlier about learning from your mistakes. Were you referring to some of the thug songs you did at the start of your career, like "Stick 'Em Up," "Cry Babies" and "Saturday"?

[A] Ludacris: Those songs all stemmed from real-life situations, but I may have exaggerated a little. I do have a gun. I may not be the most violent dude in the world, but I will shoot somebody, [laughs] If you come to me in a violent way, I'm going to defend myself. "Cry Babies" has "I caught him with a blow to the chest./ I got a bulletproof vest." I do have a bulletproof vest. I was definitely influenced by N.W.A and other rappers I loved so much. If I hadn't been, maybe I would have been a little more careful with my lyrics. But I guess I have to go back on my word because I wouldn't really call those songs mistakes. I was just speaking about what was going on in my life at the time. I know I'm going back and forth--this is therapeutic, this interview. I'm learning a lot. When I said I made mistakes in the past, what the hell was I talking about? The only mistake I made was not realizing that my mind was being conditioned.

[Q] Playboy: Well, it's a complex subject, talking about race and morality and responsibility.

[A] Ludacris: It's extremely complex. It hurts me to say rap has a negative influence, because earlier I said you can't blame rap for things.

[Q] Playboy: Now that you're more conscious, would you still do "Stick 'Em Up"?

[A] Ludacris: Yeah, because it's still reality to me.

[Q] Playboy: Why do you have a gun?

[A] Ludacris: To protect myself. America has so many guns, which is why we're all killing each other, but if someone comes into your house, what the hell are you going to do? I have a gun to defend myself, a gun in the car, a couple in the house, for sure.

[Q] Playboy: You're one of the few rappers with a respected acting career. When you began, were there certain presumptions about how you would behave on the set?

[A] Ludacris: There's a stereotype of rappers in Hollywood: We show up late, we come with an entourage, we smoke a lot of weed in the dressing room. That was the expectation. So I'm on time. I don't come with an entourage. And if I'm going to smoke weed, I do it on my own time.

[Q] Playboy: Your first role was a one-minute cameo in The Wash, with Eminem, Snoop Dogg, Dr. Dre, Xzibit and Kurupt. Does that film prove the maxim that the more rappers a movie has, the worse it is?

[A] Ludacris: You can't say that. I was in The Wash for all of five seconds. I don't feel it's worth talking about, honestly. I wouldn't even want to talk about it.

[Q] Playboy: You had a key role as a car thief in Crash. One odd thing about that film is that it has a lot of really funny racist jokes.

[A] Ludacris: How is it okay for people to praise Crash but criticize the hell out of rap music when basically the points are the same?

[Q] Playboy: Is it hypocrisy?

[A] Ludacris: Definitely. As real as Crash is, that's why people love it so much. And rap music is real--with a hint of exaggeration sometimes, which is also what movies do. The movie turns itself around and has a good ending, and not all rap albums end on a good note. Maybe that's why.

[Q] Playboy: The man who wrote and directed Crash is white. Is America more willing to accept a story of racial struggle from white people than from black?

[A] Ludacris: Absolutely. I don't even want to elaborate on that. The answer is yes. Where else can we go from there? Hell, yeah, man. Of course.

[Q] Playboy: You played a rapper in Hustle & Flow, a film about a Memphis pimp trying to change his life. If a black director had made it, would more people have said it was glamorizing pimps?

[A] Ludacris: Exactly.

[Q] Playboy: One criticism of Crash: The ending is too pat. Are we supposed to believe all the racial struggle in Los Angeles can be reconciled in two hours?

[A] Ludacris: To me, the big picture is that it got people talking again about what's going on in America. It opened up conversations and discussions. Once you get people to at least acknowledge that things are going on, that's the start of trying to solve the problem.

[Q] Playboy: In that case Crash is like rap, which has done a lot to keep race in the public consciousness.

[A] Ludacris: The only bad thing is that it mostly gets people talking negatively about race. If it involves black people, the media doesn't want to look at the good in it. They just focus on the negative part.

[Q] Playboy: The character you play in Crash is a black man who thinks rap music hurts the race. Early in the movie he has a great monolog: "Let's give the niggers this music by a bunch of mumbling idiots, and they'll all copy it, and sooner or later no one will be able to understand a fucking word they say."

[A] Ludacris: That's not my perspective. We're not all mumbling idiots. Some are mumbling idiots, that's for sure. [laughs]

[Q] Playboy: You said some rap songs degrade women. Does that include some of your songs?

[A] Ludacris: Yes, but I make a point of saying that when I use the word ho or bitch, I desexualize it. In the song "Ho," I say, "Most of us guys are hos too." The definition of ho to me is someone who sleeps around. Rappers may degrade women, but we degrade men, too, so that pretty much cancels itself out. We say, "Man, you a ho. Why you being a ho?" In that definition, we mean you're being sissy-like; you're not stepping up to your manhood. These words have many different connotations and can mean many different things. We know what we're talking about. People on the outside may not understand.

[Q] Playboy: You've slept around, so you're a ho.

[A] Ludacris: I've said that. How can you say I'm degrading women, when I call myself a ho? I'm degrading myself! Look at me. I'm rich and successful, and I'm degrading the hell out of myself. [laughs]

[Q] Playboy: Let's get back to Hustle & Flow. Why is Skinny Black such an asshole?

[A] Ludacris: He has a lot of built-up resentment. The music industry made him crazy, and he has trust issues with certain individuals, all the jealousy that comes with being a superstar. That's why he's angry.

[Q] Playboy: This is a role you didn't want to do, right?

[A] Ludacris: I didn't want to play Skinny Black. I turned the part down three times. I didn't even read it. I was just like, "I don't want to play a rapper." John Singleton convinced me to do it. He said, "Read it. He's not just a rapper. His personality's different."

[Q] Playboy: What do you recall about the scene in which Terrence Howard beats you up in the bathroom of a bar?

[A] Ludacris: He was punching a bag when it seemed like he was punching me, and this syrup they were using for blood got all in my braids. That shit was irritating as hell. It got to a point where Terrence's hand was bleeding for real because he was punching that little bag so much, which shows how dedicated he was.

[Q] Playboy: Did he ever come close to hitting you?

[A] Ludacris: [Laughs] More in Crash than in Hustle & Flow. He was actually hitting me in Crash. It just so happened I had two parts where I had to catch it from him. I tell Terrence I'll have to do a video and whup his ass. But as funny as it seems, both characters I played deserve to get whatever happens to them.

[Q] Playboy: One is a carjacker, and the other is an asshole rapper. Even on Law & Order you played a bad guy.

[A] Ludacris: People label me as a funny rapper. I'm just showing my different sides. People would expect me to do a comedy, so I'll go ahead and do some of these roles first. [phone rings] Hold on a second. It's my agent, [to phone] Can I play anybody else besides that guy? I'm definitely not trying to get my balls cut off, man. So you're saying I'm going to completely ruin my relationship with these guys if I don't get my balls cut off in the movie? I do not want to get my balls cut off in the movie. Really bad. They don't show my balls getting cut off? They just insinuate that my balls are going to get cut off? All right, fax me the pages.

[Q] Playboy: What's wrong with getting your balls cut off in a movie?

[A] Ludacris: Because they're my balls, man! I like them, on- and offscreen. I want to be able to show my balls to Playgirl one day.

[Q] Playboy: You're the guy who rapped, "I pack more nuts than Delta Air Lines." Why are your balls such a theme in your life?

[A] Ludacris: That's how you become successful if you weren't born into money: You put your balls on the line. If you fail, you just do it again. Which maybe goes into why I talk about my balls so much and why I don't want them to get cut off in a movie. Because all I have are my balls and my word.

Name Game

Christopher Bridges is a nobody. Ludacris is a star. Crafting the right alias is an art. Can you match the hip-hopper's stage name with the one his mama gave him?

1. Snoop Dogg

2. Ja Rule

3. Eazy-E

4. Lil Jon

5. LL Cool J

6. Timbaland

7. Nate Dogg

8. Paul Wall

9. Young Jeezy

10. Ginuwine

11. Too Short

12. 50 Cent

13. Nelly

14. Busta Rhymes

15. Juvenile

16. DMX

17. Biz Markie

18. Coolio

19. Dr. Dre

20. Jay-Z

21. Master P

22. ?uestlove

23. Chingy

24. Mystikal

25. The Notorious B.I.G.

26. B-Real

27. MC Hammer

28. Ice Cube

29. Beenie Man

30. Sisqo

31. E-40

32. Eminem

33. Bubba Sparxxx

34. Bushwick Bill

35. Flavor Flav

36. Redman

37. Reverend Run

38. Scarface

39. Mos Def

40. OI' Dirty Bastard

a. William Drayton Jr.

b. O'Shea Jackson

c. Michael Tyler

d. Joseph Simmons

e. Shawn Carter

f. Ahmir Thompson

g. Artis Ivey Jr.

h. Calvin Broadus

i. Earl Simmons

j. Cornell Haynes Jr.

k. Christopher Wallace

I. Mark Andrews

m. Anthony Davis

n. Jonathan Smith

o. Trevor Smith Jr.

p. Terius Gray

q. Todd Shaw

r. Earl Stevens

s. James Todd Smith

t. Marcel Hall

u. Howard Bailey Jr.

v. Elgin Lumpkin

w. Dante Smith

x. Brad Jordan

y. Russell Jones

z. Richard Shaw

aa. Louis Freese

bb. Jeffrey Atkins

cc. Curtis Jackson

dd. Eric Wright

ee. Warren Mathis

ff. Nathaniel Hale

gg. Andre Young

hh. Jay Jenkins

ii. Stanley Burrell

jj. Tim Mosely

kk. Percy Miller

II. Paul Slayton

mm. Marshall Mathers

nn. Reggle Noble

Answers: 1-h; 2-bb; 3-dd; 4-n; 5-s; 6-jj; 7-ff; 8-ll; 9-hh; 10-v; 11-q; 12-cc; 13-j; 14-o; 15-p; 16-i; 17-t; 18-g; 19-gg; 20-e; 21-kk; 22-f; 23-u; 24-c; 25-k; 26-aa; 27-ii; 28-b; 29-m; 30-l; 31-r; 32-mm; 33-ee; 34-z; 35-a; 36-nn; 37-d; 38-x; 39-w; 40-y.

Complied by Rocky Rakovic (a.k.a. Robert Jopeph Rakovic Jr.)

I learned so much from being in the street--seeing people selling drugs, gangs, violence. What kept me from that path? I loved music. It kept me focused.

I did it legally, as opposed to lots of other rappers who have made it a cliché that you have to sell drugs to get into the game. I've never sold a drug in my life.

I've been a victim of roundabout paying for sex, you could say. And I'm just being completely honest.