Ludacris. Best rapper of all time? No, but that doesn’t mean he hasn’t made some fantastic songs to dance around drunk to. Or to just rock out to alone in your room on a Wednesday. Whatever. I unabashedly love this man and the music he has brought into this world. You probably know more about Luda than you would like to admit. But I am officially making this a safe space. Let’s get together, turn off The Pharcyde and Weezy for a hot second, and just revel in the ridiculous awesomeness that is Luda. Pick a song, any song, and let the eargasms begin.

Christopher Brian Bridges, aka Ludacris, was born in Illinois on Sept. 11, 1977. But his second and more important birth as Ludacris came when he was in high school in Atlanta, Georgia. He wrote his first rap at the tender age of nine and released his debut with Def Jam at twenty-one.

Not only does Luda have some serious flow, his rhymes are basically gold streaming from heaven into your life. As evidenced by “What’s Your Fantasy,” the man is a conscientious lover. Do you want to “do it in the garden, out in the dirt?” Luda’s down with that. He’ll meet you in the stacks, but “you can’t be too loud.” And the man has work ethic! He’s “gunning for that number one spot!” (The song was nominated for Best Rap Solo Performance at the 2006 Grammy’s.) And when “Roll Out” comes on nowadays, I personally like to throw my hands in the air and wonder along with Luda, “where’d you get that platinum chain with them diamonds in it?”

With collaborations with everyone from Missy Elliott to Usher and Lil Jon, Luda rolls with some of hip-hop’s biggest names. He’s been featured on songs by some of the major players over the past few years: Lil’ Wayne, Akon, T-Pain, Snoop, and DJ Khaled.  Kanye produced his biggest hit to date, “Stand Up,” in 2003, and his most recent album, Battle of the Sexes, is certified gold. He is one of the highest selling Southern rap artists in history. He has had 17 top ten hits. He and Diddy are tied at number one for having the most Billboard Hot 100 Hits (they each have five). Luda is in fact so ubiquitous with rap that Chris Rock used his song “Move Bitch” in his comedy routine “Never Scared” in 2004.  I mean, he may have said it was hard to defend the song in an intellectual sense, but still. Was he talking about T.I? Was he talking about Nelly? No. He was talking about Luda.

To top it all off, Luda is a man of the people, for the people, and by the people. He started a foundation called The Ludacris Foundation with Disturbing the Peace CEO Chaka Zulu. The foundation helps underprivileged middle and high school students connect with the arts. He’s also pissed off Bill O’Reilly, which is an automatic win in my book. Now, as a woman, is it hard to listen to “Youz a Ho” or “Move Bitch?” A little. But no more so than it is to listen to Eminem or Tupac or Dre when they degrade women. Luda’s album “Battle of the Sexes” actually addresses the gender issues in rap today. Men and women have equal billing on the album, and the sexual double standard is addressed by himself and Lil’ Kim.

Luda can also be seen on the silver screen and the television screen. He has played a wisdom-spouting car thief in 2005’s Best Picture winner “Crash,” as well as a recurring role in “Law and Order: SVU” as troubled Darius Parker. He was also in “2 fast, 2 Furious”, and is featured in the documentary about hip-hop, “Paper Chasers.”

Ludacris is a man who likes to give. His involvement in the music business has certainly given parts of my life a great soundtrack.  So today, lean back, open a new Pandora station or Youtube queue and take it back with Ludacris for a little while.