He’s the multi-platinum Grammy award winning artist turned actor, who one day decided to barbeque at an HBCU with some friends and have a few performances. Well 11 years later that idea has gotten even bigger. You may know it as Luda Day Weekend, but as Ludacris gets older he’s added something special to the weekend, Luda-Fam day so we decided to see where that concept came from.
He’s been disturbing the piece for more than 2 decades, giving us hit after hit,
But now rapper and actor Ludacris is rolling out a different side of himself, community philanthropy.
So, the A-Scene decided to speak with the one person who could tell us where his generous spirit started. Our very own Francesca Amiker sat down with Ms. Roberta Shields, the mother of Christopher Bridges aka Ludacris inside her home.
“This is Chris when he was I think two-years old riding his tricycle…. This is the first Grammy Chris went to with all his God mothers, they were not going to let that happen without them, “Shields said.
Ms. Roberta tells us family and helping others has always been important to her son, which is why he created the Ludacris Foundation in 2001.
“I think the first time he told me he wanted to do something was when he was 9 and he became a mentor to a senior citizen, so while he was doing wrestling and gymnastics, he was carrying groceries and doing banking. This is not new to who we are its true to who we are,” Shields said.
But that southern hospitality didn’t fall far from the tree, Ms. Roberta says her son watched his parents every move.
“His father was in a summer program and worked in the projects and we’d go to Chicago and he’d be like let me go check on some people,” Shields said. “There were times where Chris and I stayed in a room with one chess or drawer and we watched our pennies, so we could have more later,” Shields recalled.
And now the little boy who used to drink out of the garden hose is giving back to the community that he loves, with the 11th annual Luda Day Weekend that will also include the second annual Luda-Fam Day where an expected 10,000 people will come out with their families for fun, music, health and wellness.
