Ludacris
    Artist Main

Mouf-ing Off

09/09/2002 7:00 PM, Yahoo! Music
Billy Johnson Jr

When Ludacris recently came by LAUNCH headquarters to promote his sophomore effort Word Of Mouf and new Golden Grain album (with his Disturbing Tha Peace rhyme collective), the animated, multiplatinum rapper showed up early (a rarity in the hip-hop world) to discuss both his professional and wild sides. Along with talking about his climb to the top of hip-hop and Golden Grain, he also entertained LAUNCH's own Billy Johnson Jr. with colorful tales about groupies, skydiving, and receiving flak from Bill Cosby.

Read on, and determine for yourself if this Def Jam South artist is too wild for Pepsi; in August 2002, the popular soft-drink company dropped Ludacris from an endorsement deal, claiming consumers complained about his content. We've got a feeling, however, that you won't complain about the entertainment value of his following interview:

LAUNCH: First of all, I want to thank you for getting here at 10 in the morning--most hip-hop artists never show up on time.

LUDACRIS: You gotta get up early in the morning to mess with me. I mean, I'm a businessman first--you gotta let the business come before the music, because it's all about being a good person and your ego can't get bigger than yourself and the things you're your trying to do, especially when you're promoting an album. So I feel it's real important to be businesslike in anything I do especially if it's like with the pictures with anything I do. You can't be mean to everybody if you have an attitude; you gotta kind of hold it in and handle it the best way you know how. And that's how I feel about things, man.

LAUNCH: How's have things been lately? I know you independently released Incognegro before you hooked up with Def Jam South. Has your career gotten really crazy now?

LUDACRIS: Man, this whole year has moved by a lot faster than anyone would think. I mean, it seems just like yesterday I was putting out Incognegro, selling those 60,000 units. But it's a blessing to be so successful within a year; it's the greatest feeling in the world, making money and doing the things that I'm doing, and I definitely trying to continue doing what I'm doing. I've just been hard at work on the road, making sure I solidify myself as an artist that represents Def Jam South, which is the new brand--Scarface is the president. And then there's my record company, Disturbing Tha Peace. So this whole year has just kind of flown by, but at the same time, you know you gotta have fun in order to slow your life down sometimes. 'Cause they always say time flies when you're having fun, but it's almost like you gotta expand your days. You gotta try and do as much as you can every single day. You never know when you're gonna go, man. You never know, so you gotta live every day like it's your last one.

LAUNCH: I hear you're going skydiving today, actually.

LUDACRIS: Hell yeah! Today might be the last one--you never know! I've been skydiving before; this will be my second time. But the thing about skydiving: I feel when you do something where it's almost like your whole life flashes in front of you, it's supposed to be that when you hit the ground, you don't fear anything. And it's really a motivating force for you to just get out there and do as much as you can, because it's crazy. Have you ever done it?

LAUNCH: Nope. I want to go bungee-jumping, though.

LUDACRIS: See, bungee-jumping is different. I don't know about bungee-jumping. There's three backup plans when you're skydiving, so it's like skydiving is real fun. I had a good time the first time I did it.

LAUNCH: You weren't nervous at all?

LUDACRIS: Man, I was cool going up; we were like 12,000 miles in the air. Going up I was cool, getting ready to jump I was cool. But that moment I was on the edge of the of the damn plane, about to jump, for a good three seconds, I ain't gonna lie: I was scared as hell. Outta my damn mind. But after that, it's cool--all the way down, man, it's beautiful. 'Cause I was in Hawaii, so we were halfway on the shore, halfway on the ocean. So I got to see the whole island at the same time.

LAUNCH: So have you been working on Word Of Mouf this whole time, in between touring and all that?

LUDACRIS: Definitely. I never stop working, man. Like, the whole Back For The First Time album was a result of songs that I recorded in January of 2000, and it didn't come out till October [2000]. So like I said, just all of 2001 was in and out of the studio or out on tour with OutKast. Whenever I have a break and I'm at home, I'm always recording. I'm always in that mode--whenever I have a little free time, I'm always recording songs, writing, whatever I gotta do. It's like my job is my vacation.

LAUNCH: What was it like touring with OutKast?

LUDACRIS: Touring with OutKast was a great experience. It was like my first official tour, and basically I look up to OutKast. They were like the first official group to put Atlanta on the map worldwide to me. And every time they come out, they reinvent themselves. Me being a piece of that tour, it really helped me out, because it's gearing me up for the next time that I have to go on tour. And of course it's consecutive: You go out and perform every day, so you gotta take care of yourself, health-wise, as far as drinking enough water, getting enough sleep. You're having after parties every day. You're on the road, you're messing with women, you're doing this, you're doing that. It's crazy. I mean, it was a great experience, what can I say? I loved it. It's a piece of history: Ludacris and OutKast all day. Big ups to OutKast for that experience for that one. It was definitely a good one.

LAUNCH: I know that you were a DJ at Atlanta's Hot 97, and you were doing drops and rapping--is that what got you going?

LUDACRIS: Man, way before I was a DJ at a radio station, I always wanted to put out a record. I always wanted to rap. I been rapping since I was 9 years old, when I recorded my first song. Basically me getting up at that radio station was a result of me trying to get a demo song played. I was doing drops and different intros and outros for different radio stations, for different personalities that you hear, like those one-minute promos where you just rap. People in Atlanta started hearing what I was doing--folks like Jermaine Dupri, Dallas Austin, L.A. Reid with La Face Records. And Jermaine Dupri put me on a video game, John Madden 2000 on the PlayStation, so that gave me a little more exposure. Timbaland came into town and heard me on one of those radio drops and put me on his album. So it was kind of like a passage to get to where I wanted to be, when I was on that radio station. I never DJ'd, none of the scratching--I just brought my personality up there, and that's how I really got on the radio. And that's what I continue to do. Once people started giving me feedback, I started rapping more and more, and I actually used the radio station production room and my personal studio after-hours... you know, just using the facility to my advantage all the time. So Hot 97, I appreciate it. That was my way of getting into the industry, and I'm here, man.

LAUNCH: It's impressive that you started your career at only age 9.

LUDACRIS: Oh yeah, I've been through every stage of trying to get signed over the past decade. Everything you can think of: talent showcases, open mics, demo tape after demo tape, being in group after group, solo artist...everything, man.

. LAUNCH: And now you've reached a level where you get to do stuff like rap with Mariah Carey. How did you feel about guesting on Mariah's "Loverboy"?

LUDACRIS: I feel extraordinary about being on the Mariah Carey record, because she only works with selective rappers from what I've seen, and this is way before I got signed. You can just tell that she tries to pick out the ones that are in the streets heavy, or the ones that are really popular, or a combination of both. So any time you see a rapper on her record, you can tell that either she has put a lot of thought into it or her crew has put a lot of thought into it. Like, "We need this person to balance off this side of it." You have the commercialized side of things and you have the street side of things. She's trying to capture a different audience, and so maybe by her getting me for a song I felt privileged, because they knew I have a certain audience that they want to capture. She picked us because of the "What's Your Fantasy?" song. And she got a lot of money, too. So it was good breaking bread with Mariah Carey and drinking Cristal in the studio. She's a real down-to-earth person, and I really hope to work with her again.

LAUNCH: Can you talk a little about Shawnna, who was on "What's Your Fantasy?"

LUDACRIS: It was my idea to put her on, of course. She's now my artist, coming out on Disturbing Tha Peace/Def Jam Records real soon. And Shawnna, let me just speak on her right now, because as soon as this female comes out, it's gonna make it hard for other females in the game. I know that for a fact. She's working on her album right now. We're going for the gusto right now. Shawnna's from Chicago, gangsta as hell, talking about life experiences. Much personality. Hard skills ever since [she was in] Infamous Syndicate, but now she's telling her story, and it's ridiculous right now. Completely ridiculous. I'm speaking from what I've heard, not from what I'm trying to sell you. I'm not trying to sell you anything.

LAUNCH: Tell me more about Disturbing Tha Peace.

LUDACRIS: Yeah, Disturbing Tha Peace is my family. Fat Wilson, Infamous 2-0, we all from Atlanta, kinda grew up together. I went to high school with Fat. Shawnna is from Chicago; my man Four Eyes is from Chicago. Basically it's a family. We trying to do the family thing and become the next movement. Slowly but surely, we go the Golden Grain album coming out soon [September 10, 2002], which is like the family album with everybody I just named. And everybody has their own separate personalities--that's what makes everything gel and come together so good. Of course, you have the female of the click, Shawnna who I just told you about, who's real gangsta with it. And Ludacris is the ignorant, crazy side. I just like having fun, expressing myself, talking about women a lot because I love women. What can I say? Then you got Fat Wilson, he's coming from the street side of things and basically the young pimp side, and I- 20's the hard, hard gangsta side of things from Decatur, Georgia. The east side. When you hear his voice, all you hear is aggression, just aggression all day. The you got Four Eyes, the metaphor king--he's just coming with some raucous type sh-t, man. So there you have it, the whole Disturbing Tha Peace family.

LAUNCH: I want to ask you about your record "Fatty Girl."

LUDACRIS: Yeah, the "Fatty Girl" record is something that originally was just me and LL Cool J, and it had this beat that the Neptunes produced, and it was basically him sampling the music from Fat Albert the cartoon, which of course Bill Cosby owns all the rights to. And the Fubu guys had to get this beat cleared by Bill Cosby before we could put it out, because he had to check out the content of the lyrics and see if it was OK before he would go ahead and clear it. Because you know Bill Cosby is the Jell-O king, and for pretty much his whole life he's been clean and not cursed that much and basically kept a clean, a clean...what's the word I'm looking for?

LAUNCH: Image?

LUDACRIS: Yeah, a clean image. All his life he's kept a clean image. What happened was I went first on the song, then came LL Cool J. Bill Cosby might have heard three seconds of the song with me rapping on it and was like, "Hell no, we can't put this out!" So now we had a problem where we had to find another beat. But our lyrics stayed on there. And then Keith Murray--he just got signed to Def Jam, he's a real good artist, a lot of energy from back in the day and now he's even better--he just got out the pen. One love to Keith Murray. And so he's on the song now. "Fatty Girl" is just talking about...Fubu is trying to brand their clothing now as well as get into the music game, and they got a Fatty Girl jean coming out. When people on the street see a girl with a big ass, they say, "Man, you got a fatty girl." That's basically what it symbolizes. Just ass all day, just ass, ass, ass. All the songs are about ass.

LAUNCH: Were you angry with Bill Cosby for stopping use of the Fat Albert sample?

LUDACRIS: Man, I'm so upset at Bill Cosby for not clearing that record. Nothing will ever compare to the beat that we originally had. But I mean, that's how it is with everything, you know; you never want to change or modify what you originally had when you know it's the bomb. It just takes a little getting used to the new song. Trackmasters did it. It's just as good, but we couldn't sample the song from Fat Albert. Trackmasters always do a good job of doing beats and stuff like that, but nothing can compare to the first beat we had. Nothing.

LAUNCH: As far as who you worked with on Word Of Mouf, what was your logic in choosing guests to appear on the album?

LUDACRIS: Man, when I do certain records I just have certain people that I'm fans of and that I like to work with, so it's not necessarily like, "I know I want to work with this person, I know I want to work with this person." Sometimes I'll hear a beat and I'll feel that this is the perfect record for this person to get on, because it sounds like one of their type records--and that's what makes me diverse, because I know I'm not always selfish. I would actually get beats that I know someone else would do, put them on it, and then put myself on there because I know that I'm going to sound different, and then I can flip my style to the same way. It's like putting Ludacris on their type of song. It's really my song, but that's how I flip the game, and that's why my album is so diverse and that's why I bring so much creativity and flavor to it. That's how I feel. You got certain records when you hear it, you're gonna say, "That sounds like a Eightball & MJG beat," and I'll put them on it and it'll be like their record, but it'll be my record and I'll put my touch to it.

LAUNCH: For you, is that a little competition for yourself, to see how well you can do with someone else?

LUDACRIS: Exactly. That's funny you brought that up. It's always good to really try and test yourself. Everybody is competition, but it's all love at the same time. You do that to test yourself and to see how far you can go, because nobody really knows their limitations. I definitely don't know mine. I don't think I have any limitations, so it's always good for me to expand as far as I can. I love doing that, because sometimes you do something and you would never knew that it would come out that great.

LAUNCH: On Word Of Mouf, is there anything that you were trying to do differently from Back For The First Time?

LUDACRIS: I didn't necessarily say that I was going to try and do anything different. Word Of Mouf is a result of the past year. Since I put out the last album [Back For The First Time], a lot of experiences have happened. A lot of [Word Of Mouf] is those experiences, or me finally getting some money in my pocket or me being able to help out my family or telling you my motivation or what keeps me going or how I feel inside. Because rap is about emotion. So it's still me being crazy and being wild and having that fun side to me and flipping just crazy styles, and it's me talking about real-life situations that have gone on. So it's a growth, it's just a sophomore effort--definitely no sophomore jinx, guaranteed. It's the best album I've ever, ever done. It's a piece of history. Guaranteed. That's why it's called Word Of Mouf, 'cause I feel as if there were no radio, there were no television, there were no dot-coms. We selling albums by word of mouth alone. Let's just say I get one album out there and one person has it, and they go tell everyone else, and it's over. Ridiculous.

LAUNCH: Is there a particular song on Word Of Mouf that deals with or a particular experience over that last year?

LUDACRIS: Yeah, man. It's called "Cold Outside" and it's about me having money--it's basically like I'm still driven to keep doing what I'm doing, because I never want to be left out in the cold. You know what I'm saying? It's like everybody's had that lowest point in their lives, and they don't ever want to go back to that point. Whether you was working at McDonald's and you were trying to get that check every week or you were just on the street or your momma put you out. It's almost like it ain't no one to trust but you. You gotta take care of your family--that's your motivation to keep doing what you're doing and to make sure you stay on that job to get that check. So it's a lot of different songs on this album. I'm just addressing issues and talking about what I know is real.

LAUNCH: Do your relatives treat you differently now that you're a famous success?

LUDACRIS: Well, I got cousins that I ain't ever heard of calling me all the time and saying, "I need this." I got people asking me for money all the time. And it's hard times, it's really hard times. Not that having all this money isn't always just a great thing, but at the same time it just starts to get on your nerves, man. Don't get me wrong--I mean, that's really a good thing. You finally have money to give to your family. But some of them try to take too much. You try to give an inch, they take a mile. And I mean extended members, some of them I've never heard of asking for money. Like, "Who are you?" As far as my pops and mother, I'm buying them Cadillacs and cars and all kind of stuff, and it's the greatest feeling in the world. That's one of the things I can say: If you gonna ask me what's the greatest thing about being a rapper, it's being able to provide for my family. But me dealing with it, it's almost like you just gotta put certain limitations on things. You just gotta make them understand, like, "I'm giving you this, but you can't just take all of what I have. I can't give everything to you. Otherwise, I'm gonna be beat." And I don't mean financially, I mean mentally. They can't take that much away from me because I feel like they trying to take too much. That's what I mean.

LAUNCH: What about publicity, the invasion of your personal life, once you become famous? Does that bother you?

LUDACRIS: Yeah man, sometimes it does and sometimes it doesn't. When you hear things about you that are totally not true, you just wonder, "Where the hell did this stuff come from?" It's just like people care so much about your business, they go to lengths to exaggerate certain things. I don't know where it comes from--a lot of it is just lies. That's why I got a song called "Roll Out (My Business)"--so they'll know what I'm talking about. I may go to the mall with my sister, and next thing you know in the news is, "Luda went with some girl to the mall." That's what I mean. People see what they want to see and hear what they want to hear. It's almost like high school all over again. It's all the he-said, she-said. And all I'm saying is I'm gonna let you know about myself, but don't go to the lengths to exaggerate. If you see me at the mall with somebody, don't automatically just assume that that's my girl or something. You never know who that is. That could be my cousin, that could be my sister. That could be anybody. But just to use that as an example, people take that out of context sometimes.

LAUNCH: With songs like these, do you have a comedic edge, or are you just straight serious?

LUDACRIS: On this whole album, some of the songs that I'm telling you are serious, because I want to show a little bit of a different side of me. It's not all just fun and games. It's definitely serious sometimes, but it's just getting into the reality of who I am, basically. But the rest of the album is just ignorant and crazy and ludicrous. But of course you have some songs that are different, and I'm just showing you a different side of me--that's why I keep saying that it's a step up. And then all the songs that you hear just talking about women, like "Freaky Thangs"...if I'm saying that this album is a result of the things that have gone on in the last year, then you can imagine the sh-t that I'm talking about now when it comes to women. Just to throw that out there to you--it's even crazier songs about my sexual activities.

LAUNCH: I read once, when you were asked you how many of those things in "What's Your Fantasy?" had you done, I think you said all of them.

LUDACRIS: No, I couldn't have said all of them. Otherwise the song wouldn't have been called "Fantasy," 'cause I still haven't done all of them.

LAUNCH: How crazy has it been with girls and all that kind of stuff?

LUDACRIS: Man, it's been crazy. It's been crazy to the point where you just be buck as wild and then eventually you got to hold back a little bit. Not all the way of course, not giving anything up. But it's definitely been crazy, man--unlimited stuff goes on. I don't want to get into the details. That's what buying the album is all about. You gotta buy the album if you want to know details. But just generally speaking, it gets crazier every day. The more popular you become, the crazier it gets!