Ludacris on his forthcoming Walk of Fame honor: “I’m loving it”

Ludacris will soon receive a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame, something he didn’t see coming early on in his career. Speaking to Variety about the upcoming honor, he says Chris Lova Lova and young Ludacris — his radio personality and the rapper behind his debut album, respectively — would have responded to the news by simply saying, “Get the f*** out of here.”

“I don’t think that I could have seen that far down the line. When it came to music, I had blinders on at that time because I knew that I had so much to prove,” he explains. “Now, I have much to prove in film and music — the two most sought-after dreams in the world, rock star and movie star. I’m loving it.”

Luda says he wrote his first rap when he was 9 and gained his confidence by rapping for friends at school. “I knew I was talented, too, because … they would ask me for more,” he says. “When the next day, there were even more people gathered. … I began to feel I might be onto something. That gave me the confidence to go forward.”

Luda officially made his entrance into the music business nine years later, earning a job at Hot 97, which helped him invest in his independent debut album, Incognegro. He eventually signed to Def Jam, which he says helped the “Ludacris brand grow to its fullest potential.”

Luda’s brand now includes a unique flow, which he says he developed out of “the excitement of loving hip-hop, appreciating other artists, developing my own style from comedians, not just rappers,” and videos that he hoped would “take you on a rollercoaster ride of emotion and laughter.”

The star’s slated to receive his Walk of Fame star on Thursday, May 18.

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