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Making A Stand
01/04/2004 6:00 AM, Yahoo! Music
Dave DiMartino
Ludacris may not get the media attention of his fellow multiplatinum hip-hop cohorts 50 Cent, Eminem, OutKast, or Jay-Z, but that factor is no indication of his talent. Few rappers are as quick-witted and animated, lyrically, as this Atlanta-bred radio DJ-turned-MC.
With the release Chicken 'N' Beer, his third album on Def Jam South, Ludacris upped his game with the record's first single. Not only did "Stand Up" reach number one on the pop charts, it also featured Ludacris's wildest video, directed by Dave Meyers, who has worked with Missy Elliott on numerous clips (including the one for "Work It," which earned the Video Of The Year VMA in 2003).
LAUNCH's executive editor Dave DiMartino recently sat down with Ludacris to talk to him about his success, his knack for comedic lines, and the flak he got from a "little person" for using the politically incorrect term "midget" in one of his songs. Here's how it went:
LAUNCH: Was it a surprise to you that the first-week numbers for your new record were so high?
LUDACRIS: Was it a surprise? With all the hard work I did months and weeks before it? To be realistic with you, hell no, I wasn't surprised. I knew damn well that we had to do at least 400,000 or better, based off of all the things that we did to make it that far, basically.
LAUNCH: It was an incredibly strong first week, and the sales have not gone down...
LUDACRIS: Yeah, man, I doubled what I did last time on word-of-mouth albums, so I'm just taking it one day at a time, man. I think as my fanbase continues to grow stronger and bigger, it's a great thing and it just puts the pressure behind me to make an even better album for the next time, to try and outdo myself each and every time.
LAUNCH: The Southern rap scene is just going nuts right now. What's happening there?
LUDACRIS: You know, Southern rap was bound to happen sooner or later...just hip-hop, period, just because we influence so many genres of music. But I feel like Southern rap is taking its course and making such a powerful impact on the industry right now because every coast has its time, and now everyone really has their ears to what the South has to offer. It's like the East Coast really had its time when it was prevalent, and then the West Coast, so now it's Dirty South time. And I think I owe a lot of it to how many independent albums people have been doing in the South for a long time. Something a lot of people don't really know about is how we start off with albums like I did with my first album: It starts off regional and people around the United States don't necessarily know what's going on, and it's kind of like us learning the in's and out's of the industry by doing it on a regional basis first. And then once these record companies started signing a lot of Southern acts, we had already kind of knew our own way of dealing with the industry, just because of how we did with the regional success of the albums we put out before. So the game wasn't new to us, and it's just a lot of understanding and a lot of wisdom when it comes to the music game. And I think a lot of record companies are finding it a lot easier to sign Southern acts because it's a self-motivated package and we basically know exactly what we're doing. It's a lot easier to take away the risk of signing an artist.
LAUNCH: Is there any one particular pioneer from down there specifically that you all look up to?
LUDACRIS: Man, Scarface, definitely, as somebody that set the pace in the South. And I give it up to Master P for being a great businessman and putting a lot of artists up on their game, as far as understanding about their contracts and things of that nature. And even Cash Money and giving these multimillion dollar deals. So I would definitely say all these people paved the way for the South, and that's why we're doing what we're doing right now.
LAUNCH: The word "crunk" is coming up everywhere. What does that mean, exactly?
LUDACRIS: "Crunk" is a word that is basically the past-tense of when you crank something up. So if you get in you car and you crank it up, we'll we say "crunk" because it's already energized. It's already there. It's already moving. So in the South that's why we say, "This club is crunk"--it's past the point of it getting started. It's already off the rip completely.
LAUNCH: Why the album title Chicken 'N' Beer?
LUDACRIS: I named this album Chicken 'N' Beer because I feel like you are what you eat, man, and people are asking me how I come up with songs and ideas and rhymes. And I eat a hell of a lot of chicken, man, whether you like it or not. I don't really eat a lot of beef, and I don't eat pork, so I find myself eating chicken damn near every day. If I eat three meals a day, at least two of them seem to have some sort of chicken involved, whether it's fried, rotisserie, baked, cut up in pieces in a Caesar salad, grilled, whatever. I'm a chicken-eater.
LAUNCH: Tell me about the album's cover.
LUDACRIS: I just like doing things that's going to catch your eye when you're in the record store. When you glance in there, you're just looking along a thousand different CD covers, and I want mine to catch your eye, so I always just try to do something a little creative, something a little different. Plus, it's an incentive for you to go get the actual album, because it's a whole package. You look on the inside and it's just me inside of a bar, but I'm playing a lot of different roles: I'm the bartender, I'm the cook, I'm laid out on the bar drunk as hell, talking to women, coming in with a little lady. So it's just my way of just being creative, man. Just trying to do something different.
LAUNCH: What kind of influence did strip clubs have on the making of the making of the record, or at least what's on the record?
LUDACRIS: Well, if strip clubs have any influence into what I do, it's only because Atlanta is the number-one strip club capital of the world. And basically, you know, we find ourselves going to strip clubs in Atlanta all the time. What people don't really understand about the strip clubs in Atlanta is that it's more of a club atmosphere than it is just going to see naked ladies. It's not all about just going to see women shake their ass all the time. I know it sounds crazy, but it's true. Because there are so many different powerful individuals in Atlanta, and even women who don't want to see women shaking their ass in front of them, they go to these strip clubs because the food is great, the drinks are great, they always play the new music, and most importantly, it's a place where so many music industry people come together and make a lot of business moves. You see a lot of artists and producers there. It's just almost like a networking facility, basically. You're going there to see Jermaine Dupri, or see L. A. Reid, because everyone is in there and it's just a lot of stars. You'd be surprised how many artists get on different songs just because they saw each other at a strip club in Atlanta, Georgia. Man, they make a lot of different moves, so that's what it's all about.
LAUNCH: When you're making a new record, technology and techniques are always improving. Is there anything really noticeable that's new about this album?
LUDACRIS: Man, I just know every time I come out with an album, I'm a perfectionist. So I tried some different mixes on this album, as far as I always have, like different people mixing my songs. A lot of people don't understand that that really has a lot to do with the sound quality and how a song can sound one way and completely different if you have two people mix your song. I would say I'm very happy with this album, more than any of the other ones, because I think it was perfected as far as the mixing and mastering is concerned. And, you know, solid to my man, John Fry, and Timbaland's number-one engineer, Jimmy Douglas. I would definitely say that that's something different this time around, and I will continue working with those individuals because I'm very happy at the way the whole album turned out.
LAUNCH: Someone pointed out to me the line in "Stand Up" about a midget hanging from a necklace, and how you got some flak for that...
LUDACRIS: I got a little flak from the little person that was on the set of the "Stand Up" video, because we're all tuned to thinking that we can just call these people midgets, and when he came up to me and told me that, you know, he was just saying it in a respectful manner: "Next time, call them little people. It's not midgets. 'Midgets' has negative connotations, basically." And I was like, "Man, I didn't even know that," and I apologized. But a lot of times, you know, you can take me seriously in some of the things I say, but then a lot of times it's in a joking manner, so I don't mean to make fun them or anything. I was just trying to use a good metaphor and I apologize to any little people that took offense to that.
LAUNCH: I was just reading your name in the paper the other day. Some political columnist was talking about your record that was doing so well, the song "Ho's In My Room." He was talking about the moral aspects of that. How do you deal with that kind of flak from the outside world?
LUDACRIS: This song "Ho's In My Room," man, I think Bill O'Reilly kind of lit a fire up under my ass. If it was anything, you know, he definitely made me a better person. I'm not going to lie about that. But I wanted a lot of fans to know that he didn't change anything about my music. A lot of these critics out here have to deal with and understand hip-hop music. It's just funny how they always want to criticize what we do, but a lot of the times people are scared of the truth and the way I confront it and the way I combat it. Because what we talk about is the truth; whether it's the words that we use or the slang that we use, this is real talk and a lot of this is real slang. And then sometimes we are entertaining. We are entertainers, the same way comedians can stand up and talk about certain things and say curse words. So it's just like you have to know the difference--or even if you don't know the difference between the reality and us imagining and making up some things or narrating certain things, there's a parental advisory sticker on there. We can't control who listens to our music, but what we can do as artists is to stay true to ourselves and make sure that we don't sugarcoat anything and just let it all flow out. Because if I can't be me, then what sense does it make me even putting out an album? So it's two-sided, but I would definitely say to all those critics out there, man, really listen to what I'm saying, because if you just listen to maybe a couple words of the song, then there's always a deep meaning in what I'm trying to say. It's almost like how South Park really gets on a lot of people's nerves, but if you look, it has a moral at the end of every episode. And that's kind of like how my music is, and I want people to really listen. If you can't stand listening to the curse words, you have to go beyond the curse words and just take it on, because I'm telling you it's a deep moral in everything I'm saying. But if we didn't have the criticism, we wouldn't have the controversy, and therefore, we wouldn't sell any records.
LAUNCH: You worked with director Dave Meyers, who does a lot of Missy Elliott stuff, on the "Stand Up" video. How was that?
LUDACRIS: This was my first time actually writing a treatment down and all my ideas on a piece of paper and giving it to Dave Meyers, so we kind of worked together on it. And I think it was the best video I've ever done in my life. I did it out here in L.A., and it was just great, man. I knew from day one that it was going to turn out to be the greatest thing ever, so I had a lot of fun doing that and I just wanted to exaggerate everything and let people know how crazy my mind works. I've always had a little input in all of my videos, but this is the first time that I really, really took really deep, deep thought into what I was doing and tried to make sure I had a lot of creative control over everything that was going on.
LAUNCH: So are you like the funniest guy in your crew?
LUDACRIS: [laughs] To be real with you, I'm not the funniest guy in my crew, man. There's a guy by the name of I-20 who is on the song "Move." He is like a damn comedian. He is the most aggressive, ready-to-fight person you want to know, but he cracks so many jokes that I'm the one in the crew that probably laughs more than anybody else. People call me a funny person, and my crew is always making me laugh, and I'm like dying laughing all the time for real. If you've been around them, you will know that I-20 is a natural comedian and he will make you laugh, for sure.
LAUNCH: Tell me about your connection to Chingy. Did you discover him?
LUDACRIS: I feel really good about the success he has, because this is the first artist beside myself to come out on my company, and it was through another system, not the Def Jam system that I'm on. So we went and got a deal at Capitol Records and I owe a lot of this success to my manager and my partner in the company, because he was managing Chingy's producers at the time, so they kind of came in as a package. They were letting him listen to some of Chingy's music and then I kind of just stamped it when I heard it. The music industry is all about listening to new music, innovative music and taking risks, because you don't want to hear the same thing all the time, and if you can find that niche where you know it's a new sound, and people catch on to it, then you have nothing to worry about. And his success is very good, because now it's making us look like smart businessmen, and we taking more multimillion-dollar meetings with a lot of different companies, man, in trying to expand and not just make it one artist, but make it a lot more. People starting to understand where we're coming from. Because I said it before: People may criticize me for saying this, but this music industry has a lot to say. It's all about people in high rankings trying to say which negroes they can trust their money with. And you can definitely trust us with your money, because we try low-budget certain things, but make good-quality videos, make good-quality music, and come out on top. It's a supply-and-demand thing. So it's all about which guys are not just going to take this money and do stupid stuff with it. We know better.
LAUNCH: You've been on so many different songs with different people. How does it feel to get so much respect from your peers?
LUDACRIS: Man, it feels good to be on the songs with a lot of different people because if I ever wanted to go down in history, or where do I see myself five years from now, I just want to be known as the most versatile MC, the most versatile rapper that ever blessed the microphone. And when I say versatile, I just mean in the sense of rapping over any kind of subject, any kind of beat, with anybody--just rapping fast, rapping slow. I try to showcase it on my own music, but it really comes across when I guest-appear on other people's music, and that's why I take pride in doing a lot of guest appearances with other people, because sometimes I'll surprise individuals--you know, they wouldn't even think that I would get on a song with certain artists, and that's what the beauty of it is all about.
LAUNCH: What's up for you regarding your movie career?
LUDACRIS: Well, after 2 Fast 2 Furious, I don't want to be another rapper that does a successful movie and just is like, "OK, I'm going to keep rap secondary and just really concentrate on this movie stuff because there's more money in it." I'm not that type of person just yet. Or if I was to be, I can't see it right now, because music is still the number-one love for me and I've pretty much put all movie stuff aside, even though I had offers, just because of this album. And I feel so strongly about my music and how good this album is that I want to promote it 100 percent, and make sure I'm out here in the streets and doing shows. I just put all the movie stuff on hold, but I definitely will do more movies in the future. I'll just make sure it's something I focus on, because I don't want to become another stereotype and have people hate me for being a rapper that's acting. I want to take pride in it and really do a good job, and have people look at me as more of a Will Smith or a Queen Latifah, as opposed to just some rapper that's trying out acting.
LAUNCH: [Pointing to Ludacris's necklace] That is the coolest thing you've got there on your neck. What is that?
LUDACRIS: It's a skull, man.
LAUNCH: Where did you get that?
LUDACRIS: I get all my jewelry from this place in Atlanta, Georgia called Atlanta Apparel Mart on the sixth floor and they make my jewelry, man. So shout out to Fezie and all my people at Eight & Company. I just tell them what I want and they make it.
LAUNCH: They did a good job on that.
LUDACRIS: I like getting skull. What can I say?
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