We caught up with rapper-actor Chris “Ludacris” Bridges, who was in Los Angeles Friday to promote his narration of a new basketball documentary “The Heart of the Game,” due in theaters on June 14. But with his copyright infringement trial having ended in his favor on Thursday, and recent news of Ice Cube jumping into his Oprah issue, the latter topics ended up taking center stage.
“It’s funny because I kinda came out first and aired my opinion,” the artist said of his GQ article about visiting the “Oprah Winfrey Show” to promote his Oscar-winning film “Crash.” Ludacris didn’t appreciate the talk show host making an issue of his rap lyrics when he was appearing on the show as an actor. Additionally, the rapper says his comments defending his lyrics to Oprah were edited out of the show’s final cut.
In the wake of Ludacris’ rant about the appearance in GQ, rappers 50 Cent and Ice Cube have come out with similar comments about Oprah and her apparent dismissal of all things hip hop.
“Honestly, all I can say is it kind of validated what I originally said,” Bridges said of 50 and Cube’s statements. As previously reported, Cube said there were several opportunities for him to appear on “Oprah,” including the show’s segment on his film “Barbershop” and a show dedicated to the FX series “Black. White.,” which Cube executive produced. Both times, the former N.W.A. member was mysteriously left off the guest list.
“For people who don’t know, I wasn’t originally invited to come to the “Oprah Winfrey Show” as a member of the cast of ‘Crash,’” said Bridges. “So in my mind, I was thinking, maybe she has a problem with rappers. There was absolutely no reason, in my mind, why I shouldn’t be invited on with the rest of the cast.”
Refusing to take no for an answer, Ludacris said he lobbied hard for the chance to appear on Oprah’s stage alongside his co-stars Sandra Bullock, Terrence Howard, Thandie Newton, Matt Dillon and others.
“It took me a long, hard fight to get on the show. This whole show is about ‘Crash’ and not judging people, because this is what ‘Crash’ is about – about intuitions that we have towards one another and [how] we’re so quick to judge. But, I felt like once I got on there, she’s automatically talking about me as a rapper. And I was on there as an actor! So we’re on a show about not judging people and I automatically got judged.”
Noting Cube’s infamous quote – that Winfrey has had “damn rapists, child molesters and lying authors on her show” – Ludacris wonders just how low on the scale of society’s miscreants Oprah places hip hop stars.
“Like Ice Cube said, she’s had so many different other people on her show, so it makes you wonder, are rappers the worst, the absolute scum, worst people on this earth?” asks Luda. “I can’t help but to think that because I haven’t gotten any proof otherwise.”
Despite the disappointment over his appearance, Ludacris says he still “loves Oprah as much as anyone else” and has mad respect for the TV mogul.
“Oprah is a great individual. Everything she has accomplished for herself, we all look up to that,” he said. “I felt like she and I disagreed on one issue. And everybody knows that you may have a wife or a husband who you disagree with all the time, but that doesn’t mean you don’t like them or you don’t still have love for them. So like I said, there’s an issue that she and I disagree on. And by Ice Cube and 50 coming out, I see that I’m not the only person who disagrees with her on this particular issue.”
Bottom line, Ludacris wants a big ol’ Oprah-sized apology for the way he was treated during the telecast and for the show editing out his comments in defense of his lyrics.
“I will say that I respect her opinion for not agreeing with my lyrics, but all I want is for her to respect my opinion,” he sums up. “I just would like for her to admit that she was wrong on this one particular issue.”
When asked if he would consider a return visit to the show, should Winfrey ever lift her hip hop ban, the rapper said he would appear under one condition: “I would want it to be a live show.”
“To make a point, she might try to have a show with just rappers on there,” he adds. “I just want everybody to know that I’ve been on there and my comments got stripped. So me being invited on there again, who’s to say that whole thing won’t happen again.”
Meanwhile, a jury on Thursday ruled in favor of Ludacris and Kanye West in a copyright infringement lawsuit brought against them by New Jersey rap group I.O.F. He told us Friday: “Just to give you a crazy statistic that I found out actually yesterday while we were waiting on a verdict, only 2 percent of all civil lawsuits that come about actually make it to court. So I’m in the 2 percentile. It goes to show that I did not wanna settle out of court.”
A jury found that Luda’s 2003 song “Stand Up,” produced by West, did not steal lyrics from I.O.F.’s “Straight Like That.” The rapper says his decision to take the issue to court simply reflects his overall attitude toward naysayers .
“I will always stand up for what I believe in, for what I know is right and what I know is true,” he said. “And I wasn’t gonna let anyone get the best of me just by saying I took their song when I know that I didn’t. The only ideas and thoughts that I borrow from are those of my own. It was a long, hard fight, but we came out the winner. I just hope the plaintiffs enjoyed their 15 minutes of fame.”
SOURCE: EURWEB