Ludacris hasn’t released an album in quite some time now but his love for Hip Hop remains intact, and he has now reveled who inspired him to keep rapping — J. Cole and Kendrick Lamar.
In an interview with Rolling Stone published on Monday (December 4), the Atlanta MC talked about making new music and discussed the artists he’s most impressed with today.
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“I love J. Cole,” he said. “I definitely love Kendrick Lamar. Those are just to name a few. Those are probably my top two. I love listening to them. I love how progressive Kendrick is and Cole, he’s just… it’s the hunger.
“That’s what I need to motivate me in order to continue going. People like him. And I’ve told both of these individuals this. It’s nothing but love.”
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In the same chat, Luda expressed some qualms about the current state of Hip Hop and the music business.
“When people completely take a sample and don’t change anything about it, or they take some lyrics and then they don’t switch it up,” he responded when asked about what he would like to see change. “I would love to see a little more thought put into trying to flip something as opposed to [taking] it the way that it was in the exact same form and [redoing] it.
“Now, that doesn’t go for everything, but I would say for the most part it does. Because even when Whitney Houston took Dolly Parton’s record, she still made it her own. As far as production, I don’t feel like people should take a beat that was made 20 years ago and not do anything to it, just literally … That’s basically what I was saying.”
Ludacris plans to make his return to music in 2024, but he’s not entirely sure in what fashion just yet. In late November, the rapper-turned-actor opened up about ending his eight-year music hiatus in a conversation with BET.
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“Yeah, some music projects will be coming out next year. I don’t wanna fake, I don’t wanna stutter-step,” he explained. “I don’t wanna be like [André] 3000 and say, ‘I got an album coming out.’ I don’t know. It’s definitely some music coming next year, but I don’t know if it’s like an EP or an LP. We’re going to figure it out.”
When asked what made him return after all this time, he replied: “These movie projects like Fast & Furious and doing a lot of things like the Karma’s World project that’s on Netflix – you know, doing other art forms where I’m creative, where I’m putting my heart into that – I want to make sure that I leave a legacy on this earth. So it was just taking a step back and getting hungry again, living some life.”
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He continued: “‘Cause when you put out music, in order for it to be organic and real, you gotta talk about what goes on in your life. So if I had like nine consistent albums, sometimes you gotta take a step back and live some life so that you have a lot more to talk about and that’s what I was doing.”
