Ludacris Talks Fear Factor, Food Trucks, & Carrie Underwood

Dude, we saw you perform last night.

Oh, you guys read the last night? I had fun, man.

Dude, you had some fun up there. I know. I hope to have just as much fun over here. We got to tell that up. I have a question. Do you think the fire marshal's going to shut you down here also?

I hope not cuz this arena is a hell of a lot larger than that backyard we were in last night.

Was the fire marshal really there?

For sure. Our road manager can attest to that. There was a lot of people. The place was packed.

I love your camaraderie in between the songs, too.

No, it's really because of those with those small intimate type things, you can really engage with the audience a lot more. So, it's easier to do that with a small crowd as opposed to, you know, something like this was just a little bigger.

Yeah. What in the hell is going on behind us right now? They're doing like I think a clown Is there a clown? There's some type of horse thing going on back there. Right? Wow, wow, wow. You had a little little bit in between. You were talking and you were bringing up the area codes. I'm going to do the same thing here. How many area codes do you have to memorize though? That's a lot.

I mean, when I made the song, it was a lot, but at the time, I really had those area codes coming into my cell phone, so it wasn't too hard.

You now married, so I don't know I don't know about any of that stuff. I got to come to the city and be like, "Hey, what's the area code here? I forget." It's like it's bad. It's all bad. Not, man. I DJ, and like I felt like that was literally like my set list. I love it. I love it. That was my set list. That's dope, man. That was nice. You were talking last night on stage about how many hits you've had. You've been doing it in so many countries, and you've, you know, mixed with so many different music genres. Can you talk a little bit about that?

Yeah, no, I'm just just blessed to, you know, been able to transcend and and cross over a lot to where not only some of my songs have crossed to different generations and national, you know, just all type of people are are fans, but I guess when it comes to featured artists and people that have asked me to be on their songs. So like the Carrie Underwood song is a good example that just came out and yeah, it's a lot of different artists going like crossing genres of music.

So, I was just telling them earlier that champion song was my favorite song.

Thank you, my man. I appreciate you brought it. But Carrie brought it on that song. She did. Yeah. Carrie Underwood. Yeah, man. Is she coming out here in Texas? You for all I know, she might be performing here one day as well. It's just not tonight. It's not the same night. But who knows.

So, did you did you fly in on a jet? Tell me about that.

I did. Um, uh, you know, I own a jet and we flew in on it and we're right out of here after this show. We're going back to Atlanta, but luckily, we have another show here in Austin on this upcoming Saturday. So, it's a blessing to be able to do three different shows at South by Southwest. This this thing has been going on for a long time, so, you know, we just take advantage as an artist of of this of this time.

So, tell me when you started when when you were like, "I'm going to actually become more of just or just an artist, a musician, and you're I'm going to you're a host, you're a you're an actor." When did that happen? When did And when why?

Man, just trying to take advantage of all aspects of entertainment because I'm the type of person that just likes to have fun, man. And uh, I I feel like you're doing yourself a disservice if at a time like this, you don't do everything that you can take advantage of. You know, just being a rapper is that's like so old school. Like nobody is just a rapper anymore. You got to do so many other things, especially when you have the opportunity to, and, you know, a lot of people moving into the movie game and obviously TV, it's just everything is out here for the taking and I just love exploring my curiosity. I'm just a curious person. Right. So that's why I take advantage of all of it.

Right. And you uh, as as a host, talked about working on Pure Factor. What's that like? Cuz I I haven't seen the show yet when you were hosting. How's that been?

Man, it's fun because I'm an adrenaline junkie myself and so to be able to watch everything firsthand, it's just as entertaining to me as it is as it is to people that are watching. A lot of things get edited and cut out, so I get to see it uncensored, you know what I mean? Just the fear in people. People overcoming their fears. And obviously, it's all about people overcoming like that's what it's about, overcoming your fears. That's what life should be about so that you live to the fullest.

There's a slogan in Austin, keep Austin weird. I like that. You got to preserve the culture here. Preserve it. That's what it's all about, man. What's what's some of your favorite food in Austin? Food food all the food trucks. This is food truck central. Is it Austin, Texas, the the capital of the food truck? We need to go to a food truck. We need to get everything food

I mean, I can't say anything, but many food trucks. They have the better food than some of the restaurants.

The weirdest thing you've seen so far in Austin?

Um, probably ludicrous performing at this rodeo tonight. I love it, man. I said, three I have three different shows here. So, I absolutely love it. So, this will be an interesting experience because I'm going to be honest and say, I don't think this is the first rodeo we've performed at, but here in Austin, Texas, it is. But we're going to make it happen.

And that's it, guys. Thank you, my man. You're the man. All good. Thank you so much. Yes. Peace.