Artist star image

The artist that I am analysing is Christopher Bridges, more known by his stage name ‘ludacris’, He is a well established rapper within the music industry who started his career in Atlanta in which he moved to at the age of 9. He has received huge success within his music career with his debut album entitled ‘back for the first time’ reaching 3x platinum status, alongside this he has also made appearances in films and television shows such as, gamer and Law & order. The genre that Ludacris’ career has been based upon musically is the rap/hip-hop genre.

Ludacris’ star image during the earliest videos was to be set as a light hearted, comedic yet ‘gangster’ rapper, videos such as ‘rollout’(released by def jam music) emphasize this point exactly, as while he is heard reciting lyrics basically bragging about how much money that he has and how much money he spends, the image which the video provides is slightly comical, as a fish eye lense has been used to give him a disproportional body, which along with the fast motion editing provides a comical experience.

This star image has been forever changing through his career, as he has released songs for the more hardcore rap/Hip-hop market, such as Blow it out(2003) which was a song off of his album ‘Chicken-N-Beer’ which was a more gritty, underground track that he had put up for release again with island def jam records. Although throughout the years he has consistently returned to his original star image of the fun or maybe even ironically ludacris nature of behaviour. Throughout the videos which he has released or featured in, a transformation can be seen, which has taken the star image of Ludacris from a creative, comedic artist into a more commercial figure within the industry who conforms to the music of the recent pop culture. Within the music videos that this star has been featured in, the act of performance is the primary focus, much like what is stereotypically seen within most rap videos. There are also reoccurring motifs which we can see with the use of props such as expensive cars and provocatively dressed women within his videos, this again shows that Ludacris is falling intothe same stereotypical star image for a rapper.

Throughout the years and developing portfolio of Ludacris, we see that in his videos there are many close up shots of the artist within his music videos, this is predominantly so that the record company can sell the star’s image along with the fact that it helps the artist to become better recognisable to the audience. The record label which Ludacris is signed to, Island Def jam, capitalises on the ‘gangster rapper’ persona which involves the main focus of the videos to always be centred around the artist which gives him a very self centred image, as he is not aiming to convey any specific messages through his music, other than that of how he lives his lavish and expensive lifestyle.

It can be seen that the star image of this musician is actually perceived to him being a negative character, although he also holds a widely evident significance, this is because his music and the visuals within his music videos often show women to be acting as what can be seen as immaturely, wearing minimal clothing and dancing very provocatively, This therefore creates the star image for the artist, as a musicians music videos are made so that the artist can get their point of view to the public, so we can take that it is Ludacris’ view that all women behave in this manner.