Rapper Ludacris will be performing at the Massari Arena on April 16 at 7 p.m. The Office of Student Activities is expecting 4,000 people to attend.
Ludacris was born Christopher Bridges on September 11, 1977 in Champaign, Ill. Bridges began his career as a radio DJ in Atlanta where he was known on as “Chris Lova Lova.”
He self-produced his first record “Incognegro,” which led to a contract with the Def Jam South record label and was remade into the record ” Back for the First Time” in 2000.
Lucacris’s second release, “Word of Mouf,” in 2001, was also a hit and made him rise in the ranks of young rappers in radio and MTV. He released “Chicken and Beer,” in 2003 and “Red Light District” in 2004.
Ludacris’s acting career started with a small role in the film, “2 Fast 2 Furious,” and in the 2004 drama “Crash.” He also appeared as Skinny Black in the 2005 feature “Hustle and Flow” which starred Terrence Howard.
With a change of style in 2006 to a mature actor and musical artist, he released a new album and starred in another movie.
The album “Release Therapy,” came out in 2006, followed by “Theater of the Mind,” in 2008. That same year, Ludacris starred in the Guy Ritchie film “RocknRolla.”
A member on the committee who chooses the acts for the spring concerts CSU-Pueblo has said the talent is chosen by student vote.
“We went out and surveyed students last semester and most of the people surveyed said they wanted Ludacris to perform. We were really lucky to get him this year.” Nicky Damania, an employee with the Office of Student Activities said.
Some acts in the past included Kanye West, The Used and Hawthorne Heights.
The Office of Student Activities is now accepting applications for volunteers to help before, during and after the show. Damania said that there are 70 positions for volunteers including setting up the light and sound, setting up the stage, decorations and hospitality.
The tradition of the spring concert came about in 1999. That year, a referendum was created to bring in acts every year.
“The school wanted us to have something memorable every year. We could have made it a fall concert, but spring is prom season too, and we wanted to do something just as memorable as prom,” he said.
