ATLien Ludacris and his Distrubing Tha Peace family have been a mainstay in the public eye for the last five years since Luda’s platinum debut album. Nowadays DTP has a great deal on its plate due to expansion. The label has grown to house additional stars like Chingy, Shawnna, and I-10. While overseeing the projects of his artist roster the CEO and breadwinner of the crew is prepping to drop his fourth solo album.This year Ludacris and his ATL brethren invaded Prairie View to headline the annual homecoming concert. While the crowd was filling the Baby Dome and being warmed up by the DJ Chris Luva Luva, Ludacris sat down with The Panther’s Roderick Pullum to chop it up about his new album, voting and even his nemesis from Fox News Bill O’ Reilly.
RP: The music industry is real fickle and just lasting five years is an accomplishment in itself. With this being your fourth album in that time span , do you see yourself retiring the mic and just focusing on the business aspect of what you’re doing in the near future?
Ludacris: Right now I’m not thinking about stopping anytime soon. I’m just keeping it moving man. I’m definitely getting things in place to where if I wanted to stop I could. But I’m not really thinking about that right now.
RP: Do you have any other business ventures you’re involved in right now, and what plans do you have for the future of Disturbing Tha Peace?
Ludacris: I am involved in a lot of other business ventures, but I like to keep them on the low because I don’t want to have all of my business out there all the time. I just think that it’s wise not to do. As far as DTP goes, we’re just trying to build a legacy and continue to find new artists as well as developing the talent we already have. I want to make sure we always implement more than fair business practices, because we want everyone to get their money. And we want to make stars out of everyone.
RP: How do you feel about the role the entertainment industry has played in this year’s voting awareness campaigns?
Ludacris: I’m along with it, I’m trying to promote that myself and I think that it’s important for everyone to exercise their right to vote. So getting the awareness to everyone out there, I’m all for it.
RP: We know you have a bitter history with Bill O’Reilly from Fox being that his negative comments about you were instrumental in Pepsi dropping your endorsement deal a while back. What are your thoughts on his recent sexual harassment scandal that’s been in the news lately?
Ludacris: I’d just say that Karma is real and basically he knows how it feels to have his name dragged through the media in a negative manner the same way he does everyone else. So you know that’s Karma at its finest.
RP? Being that you’re an entrepreneur and not just an artist, what advice could you offer to people out there who are trying to break into the business side of the industry?
Ludacris: I would say experience is the best teacher. Even if you start on a small scale, be getting artists of your own or working at a record company as an intern I would say try to get in where you can get handson experience versus just reading about it.
RP: What do you have planned for the show tonight? Are you going to do new songs off Red Light District?
Ludacris: The thing is we’re not going to be able to do new songs off the album, and I’d like to personally apologize to the fans. Something went wrong with the equipment that was supposed to be here so we’re limited to what we can do on stage tonight. Something like this should never happen, and I mean straight up, somebody’s probably getting fired. But you can definitely say I apologize, but it was out of my control. I feel bad, I wish I could do a lot of the songs off the new album but I’m definitely going to go out there tonight and do what I’ve got to do. I’m going to try and give the fans what they want to the best of my ability, ’cause I always keep my fans happy.