Christopher Brian Bridges, better known as Ludacris, is an American rapper. A cousin of R&B singer Monica, Ludacris has received three Grammy Awards over the course of his career. He is the co-founder, along with his manager, Chaka Zulu, of Disturbing tha Peace, an imprint distributed by Def Jam Recordings. Ludacris is tied with Nelly for the title of the hip-hop solo artist with the second most Billboard Hot 100 number-one hits (four each). He has sold more than thirteen million records in the U.S. alone.
           
Early life
Christopher Brian Bridges in Champaign, Illinois to Roberta Shields and Wayne Bridges. In his elementry years his family lived in Oak Park, Illinois. He attended Oak Park Elemetry Schools such as Holmes Elementry School, Emerson Middle School, and he attended Oak Park River Forest High School for his freshman year. His family then moved to Atlanta, Georgia during his adolescence, where he attended Banneker High School. His father exposed him to a wide range of music in his earlier years. He is also a graduate of Georgia State University. However Ludacris never got a masters degree because the mother of his child filed a lawsuit against him and he was never able to afford to stay in college.

Career
Ludacris first revealed his personality to local media as the radio DJ chris Lova Lova at Hot 97, an urban radio station in Atlanta, Georgia. Ludacris had his opportunity to gain commercial exposure when hip hop producer and rapper Timbaland heard him on Atlanta radio. Timbaland contacted and offered Ludacris to work with him at the radio station. Timbaland then produced a beat for Ludacris in the radio station. The two worked together and made Ludacris' recorded debut on "Phat Rabbit", a track from Timbaland's 1998 album Tim's Bio: Life from da Bassment.
Although both Timbaland and Jermaine Dupri showed interest in signing Ludacris, he decided to take matters into his own hands, and released the album Incognegro independently in 1999. The album sold over 50,000 copies, most of them sold out of the trunk of his car. Def Jam Records signed Ludacris in 2000, and created a new imprint, Def Jam South, around him. Def Jam then re-released a newer version of Incognegro, titled "Back for the First Time". The album  reached as high as #4 on the charts, and was a major success. Ludacris made his mark on the industry with singles such as "Southern Hospitality" and "What's Your Fantasy," along with his first ever single "Phat Rabbit", from two years prior.

Ludacris promptly completed his next album, Word of Mouf and released it at the end of 2001. He also released singles "Move Bitch" with Mystikal & I-20, "Area Codes" with Nate Dogg, & "Saturday" with Sleepy Brown. Word of Mouf became Ludacris' best selling album to date.

The fourth studio album from Ludacris “The Red Light District”. Although not entirely different from the usual antics of the previous albums, Ludacris had taken a more mature approach to his album. Featured artists on the album include Nas, DJ Quik, DMX, Trick Daddy, and Disturbing tha Peace newcomers Bobby Valentino (of Mista fame) and Dolla Boi and Small World. The album debuted at number one on the Billboard charts.

After the success of "The Red Light District", Ludacris then used his opportunity to start his own foundation. The Ludacris Foundation, started by Ludacris and Chaka Zulu, is an organization that helps young middle and high school students motivate themselves in creative arts.

The album Release Therapy was released on September 26, 2006. Ludacris formatted the CD to have two sides: a Release side and a Therapy side on one CD. With the Release side having songs that allow him to get everything off his chest and the Therapy side being just feel-good music, on the flip side it's extremely dark in mood. The first single, "Money Maker", which features Pharrell, was released to U.S. radio outlets on July 17, 2006. "Money Maker" reached number one on the BET 106 & Park. It then went to become Ludacris' second number one single after 6 years. With the release of this album, Ludacris marked a change in style in his career with his musical style. The new album itself features a depature of the light-hearted mood of previous Ludacris's albums, and introduces a darker image of Ludacris's music. A change of hair accompanied this as he cut off his trademark braids for a more conventional "fade" cut.

Disputes
With Bill O'Reilly
Furthering the Pepsi controversy, in response to the signing of the Osbourne family, popular hip-hop music mogul Russell Simmons organized a boycott against the company. Simmons demanded an apology from Pepsi to Ludacris and a 5 million dollar donation to one of Ludacris' charities. Eventually Simmons and Pepsi settled on an agreement to stop the boycott, right before it was to officially begin. While Pepsi did not formally apologize to Ludacris, they did agree to donate millions of dollars over several years to Russell Simmons Hip-Hop Summit Action Network.
Ludacris' song "Blow It Out" acted as a scathing response to his critics, namely Bill O'Reilly.
In another song, "Hoes in My Room", he tells a story about anonymous prostitutes being left in his room, and at the end of the last verse says:
Then it got to my head and Somethin' remind me
I know who let 'em in, it was Bill O'Reilly.
Then, in 2004, in "Number 1 Spot"
''Respected highly, Hi Mr. O'Reilly.
''Hope all is well, kiss the plaintiff and the wifey. “

Bill O'Reilly responded on his show with a less than enthusiastic response. He soon began criticizing Ludacris' Grammy win. O'Reilly did not appreciate his lyrics.

With Oprah Winfrey
In a 2006 interview with GQ magazine, Ludacris criticized Oprah Winfrey about his appearance on her show with the cast of the film Crash. During the interview, the conversation veered from the movie and Winfrey chose to speak on Ludacris' lyrical content, which he felt was unfair as he was visiting her show in the capacity of an actor and not a rapper. Also, Ludacris was upset that some of his responses were later edited from the show's airing. He was later joined by other rappers such as 50 Cent, Ice Cube and Killer Mike who argued that Winfrey has an anti-hip hop bias.
Winfrey responded by saying that she's opposed to rap lyrics that "marginalize women," but enjoys some artists, including Jay-Z and Kanye West, who appeared on her show. She said she spoke with Ludacris backstage after his appearance to explain her position and said she understood that his music was for entertainment purposes, but that some of his listeners might take it literally. Ludacris later said the media had blown his comments out of proportion and said he respects Winfrey and considers her "a great individual". At the 2007 Grammy awards, Ludacris gave a special shout-out to Oprah Winfrey and on "Freedom of Preach" a song on "Release Therapy" he said "Forgive Oprah for editing most my comments out of her show".

Others
In July 2006, a track entitled "War with God" would see Ludacris, Big D, Hassle, F.P.S return after some time off in movies. In the track, Ludacris goes on the offensive against an unknown rapper who has sold drugs, and makes repeated references to shooting guns in his songs, isn't as rich as he (Ludacris) and likes to give himself titles - all very well known characteristics and facts directly relating to T.I and Young Jeezy (or countless other less popular rappers) or the new coming rappers Yung Joc and Young Dro. In this instance it is unknown whether or not Ludacris is indeed aiming his offences at Young Jeezy, T.I. or if the track is even a song recorded recently. Ludacris recently stated that the song was deeper than just an offence, and the song is more about him than anyone else, it's showing that he isn't just the 'cartoon entertainer' type rapper that he has always been portrayed as, when asked about who specific rhymes were aimed at he said "The guilty will speak".

Discography
2000: Back for the First Time
2001: Word of Mouf
2003: Chicken and Beer
2004: The Red Light District
2006: Release Therapy
2007: Theater Of The Mind

Filmography
2001: The Wash
2003: 2 Fast 2 Furious
2003: Lil' Pimp
2005: Crash
2005: Hustle & Flow
2006: The Heart of the Game (Narrator)
2006: Law and Order: SVU (Dairus Parker)
2007: Law and Order: SVU (Dairus Parker)
2007: Fred Claus
2008: Ballers
2008: Balfield mobs
2008: RocknRolla
2008: Luda Camp
2009: Courtney and Me