On the cusp of releasing his fifth album, Release Therapy, rapper/actor, Ludacris, finds himself getting deeper and a little bit more personal not just with himself, but with his audience as well. I talked to Ludacris in regards to his new album and acting career and here is what he had to say.
SN: What was your approach when doing Release Therapy?
Ludacris: “My approach was just like, you know, let me sit here and think of stuff that I haven’t necessarily talked about and let people see a different side of me and that’s where I was going with it. I talked about so much other stuff over the past four albums; it was getting into a territory where I hadn’t talked about certain things. It’s just a more serious side of me I guess you could say.”
SN: Runaway Love; is a song on your album that seems like a milestone for you as an artist. What inspired this track and how do you think the listeners and fans will respond to it?
Luda: “What inspired me to write about it, honestly, is that there were a lot of different things. For instance, I knew a lot of women that have gone through certain problems in their life. A lot of women don’t talk about what is going on in their past and they carry a lot of baggage with them, whether it’s dealing with child abuse or early pregnancy or just something that’s gone on in a certain individual’s life. One thing I learned from the movie “Crash” was the first thing in trying to solve a situation or an issue is to get people talking about it. Release Therapy is one of those albums where it gets more comfortable talking about certain things.”
SN: As for the new record, what overall message do you want the fans to take away from Release Therapy and specifically the track “War with God”?
Luda: “There is no way you can label me as one kind of rapper. This album is very three dimensional. I want to keep people guessing. I basically want people to expect the unexpected, especially with the track, “War with God”. That was kind of like one of those songs where if people send warning shots to me, I’m always going to defend myself and send warning shots back. I’m not the one to be toyed or messed with.
SN: What are the outside musical influences that people may not know influence you?
Luda: Frankie Beverly and maze, James Brown, Michael Jackson, Prince. I do like and happen to listen to a lot of rock and roll like Three Doors Down, Red Hot Chili Peppers and Linkin Park.
SN: Do you think your acting career helped you become more mature and versatile as an artist? Do you have any other plans to do any other movies?
Luda: “It’s theater of the mind and just me acting helped me become more three dimensional and not just talk about one specific subject and try to talk about many different things. Yes, I would definitely do some more movies. I was just concentrating on one thing at a time instead of doing a movie and an album at the same time. So I just wanted people to know there are a lot of rappers turned actors that do movies and comeback to do albums, and it’s almost like they’re not as hungry as they were, kind of like when they first started out. I just wanted to let people know, I’m just as hungry and I have a lot to get off my chest music wise.”
