Vault: Ludacris Joins The Show

Summary

The Bert Show – “Vault: Ludacris Joins The Show”

Date: February 6, 2026
Guest: Ludacris
Hosts: Bert and The Bert Show Team

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Episode Overview

This lively episode features rapper, actor, and entrepreneur Ludacris as a special guest. The conversation blends humor, nostalgia, and excitement as Ludacris helps the team settle their celebrity contest debate, opens up about his new restaurant venture in Atlanta, and gives updates about his diverse projects across music, film, and business. The episode is energetic, with playful banter and insightful moments, capturing the authentic and entertaining style characteristic of The Bert Show.

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Key Discussion Points & Insights

1. “Who Do You Know?” Contest & Celebrity Status Debate

Starts at 00:15

• The hosts brief Ludacris on an ongoing contest where listeners use their connections to get celebrities to call the show.

• The celebrity deemed “biggest” wins $10,000 for the listener and $5,000 for charity.

• Ludacris is asked to weigh in on which celebrity would be hardest to top as a call-in guest.

  Notable Quotes:

  • “Unless you got Bill Clinton on that thing, then. I don't know. I'll be real with you.” — Ludacris (00:58)
  • “It depends on what age group that you talking about is the biggest celebrity for. To be honest, it's between Justin Timberlake and Muhammad Ali, in my opinion.” — Ludacris (01:30)

• He argues for Muhammad Ali’s global recognition:

  • “Nobody is beating Muhammad Ali if he called in. I'm sorry. I don't care what nobody said. So that's my vote right there.” — Ludacris (02:17)
  • Highlights Ali’s “worldwide” status over other celebrities mentioned.

• The hosts joke about their personal biases interfering with fair judgment and discuss the difficulties in defining “biggest celebrity.”

  • “I think, Bert, you're reaching a point where we have to eliminate Bert from discussion.” — Co-host (Cassie, 02:45)

2. Ludacris’s Restaurant Venture: Straits Atlanta

Restaurant discussion starts at 03:30

• Ludacris shares his move into the restaurant industry with the opening of Straits Atlanta.

  • He emphasizes his serious approach, partnering with an experienced restaurateur.
  • "This is not like it's just me putting my name behind some food. This is Food comes first." — Ludacris (03:42)
  • Cuisine is described as “Singapore Thai,” a unique blend drawing from Indonesian, Thai, Chinese, Malay, Indian, and Southern American flavors.

  Notable Quotes:

  • "My favorite thing on the whole menu is the chicken lollipop." — Ludacris (04:46)
  • "It's the sauces and the spices. So you gotta make sure, like I said, you come out and check it out for yourself." — Ludacris (05:15)

• Straits Atlanta also serves as a venue for regular charity fundraisers:

  • "We plan on having fundraisers at least once every two or three months." — Ludacris (05:31)
  • Restaurant hours: 7 days a week, 5pm till midnight (Mon–Wed), till 1am (Thu–Sat).

• On celebrity guests:

  • “You never know who's going to show up to support. I pretty much wake up in the morning and piss excellence, Burt.” — Ludacris (06:04)
  • The show jokes about a mythical menu item called “Piss Excellence.”
  • “There’s definitely a good amount of specialty drinks that you can’t find anywhere else.” — Ludacris (07:15)

3. Balancing Multiple Projects: Music, Film, and Business

Juggling act starts at 07:31

• Ludacris recaps his hectic workload:

  • Working on a new album, Theater of the Mind (dropping September).
  • Movie projects: Max Payne (2009 release) and Guy Ritchie’s RocknRolla (October 31 release).
  • New TV project with Tommy Lee for Discovery Channel’s Planet Green: a reality competition between rock and rap.

  Notable Quotes:

  • “You take it one hour at a time. Not even one day at a time.” — Ludacris (07:40)
  • On his green initiative: "I'm doing my part in trying to save the planet, man." — Ludacris (08:11)

• The group jokes about who can party harder: Ludacris or Tommy Lee.

  • “Tommy Lee can party harder than Ludacris. ...He pretty much got me on that party. Hella hard.” — Ludacris (08:49)

4. Wemix.com & Empowering Musicians

Digital entrepreneurship discussed at 09:04

• Ludacris plugs his music platform, wemix.com:
  • It creates a democratic platform for emerging musicians to share music and get feedback, regardless of genre.
  • “It’s like a democracy for music, trying to put the music back into people’s hands.” — Ludacris (09:08)

5. Rapid-Fire Wrap-Up: Celebrity Friends & Invitation to Straits

Closing section starts at 09:47

• Mark Wahlberg, whom Ludacris worked with, is mentioned as a possible restaurant guest, though he’s busy with movies.
• Ludacris personally invites the show team and listeners to try Straits Atlanta.

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Memorable Moments & Highlights

• Celebrity Status Debate: Ludacris giving Muhammad Ali the edge over all other celebrities for global fame (01:30–02:33).
• Restaurant Antics: The ongoing joke about someone “pissing excellence” and the mythical drink “Piss Excellence” (06:04–07:11).
• Work Ethic & Philosophy: Ludacris’s candid admission about the chaos of his life and taking things one hour at a time (07:38–07:40).
• Empowering Aspiring Musicians: The enthusiastic shoutout for wemix.com’s mission (09:08–09:42).

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Timestamps for Key Segments

• Contest Intro & Celeb Debate: 00:15 – 03:30
• Restaurant Reveal & Food Talk: 03:30 – 05:58
• Celebrity Appearances & Menu Jokes: 05:58 – 07:26
• Managing Multiple Projects: 07:31 – 09:04
• wemix.com Discussion: 09:04 – 09:42
• Wrap-up, Invitations, Farewells: 09:47 – 10:16

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This episode is a fast-paced, entertaining listen, offering a mix of playful banter, candid insights, and motivational energy from Ludacris. Through discussions of celebrity status, ambitious business ventures, and creative projects, listeners get a wide-angle view of Ludacris’s work ethic, humor, and commitment to giving back—all in the unmistakable, genuine voice of The Bert Show.

Transcript

[A]

The Burt Show.

[B]

Here's Ludacris right now. What's going on, Ludacris?

[A]

Burt. What up, man? You put that manly together yourself, man?

[C]

Yeah, sure he did, man.

[B]

I don't even know how to use the equipment in here anymore.

[A]

I like that, though. I like that. You're right about that. What's going on? Good morning.

[B]

How are you? Know what? Ludacris might be the perfect person to help us out to begin our who do you know? Debate. Okay, Ludacris. We have been doing a contest here on the Burt show for the last three weeks. It's called who do you know? Who do you know?

[A]

Right, right, right.

[B]

And we have been asking our listeners to use their connections and have famous people give us a call over the last three weeks. And the listener that gets the biggest celebrity on with us over those three weeks gets $10,000 and $5,000 goes to the celebrity charity.

[A]

Right. Who's the same? Who's the biggest celebrity?

[B]

Well, I'm not even gonna. I'm just gonna run names by you, and then let's pretend you're on the judging panel. You tell us who the biggest is. Okay.

[A]

Unless you got Bill Clinton on that thing, then. I don't know. I'll be real with you.

[B]

All right, well, let's. Let's run some names by you. Sean Connery is on there. He called in Morgan Freeman, Samuel L. Jackson.

[A]

This is hilarious so far. Keep going.

[B]

All right. They're all pretty good so far.

[D]

Danny Glover, President Jimmy Carter, Ben Affleck, Jennifer Garner, Justin Timberlake, Jessica Biel, Muhammad Ali.

[A]

What?

[B]

Let's see who else.

[A]

Muhammad Ali gets the. He gets the crown. It depends on what age group that you talking about is the biggest celebrity for. To be honest, it's between Justin Timberlake and Muhammad Ali, in my opinion. I mean, Sean Connery and Morgan Freeman and Danny Glover, they all been putting in work for a long time. So I'm gonna be honest with you, man. That's a hard one. Y' all might have to. Y' all might all have vote on that one, because I'm sitting here trying to think who. We're putting in work for over decades. So you got to think about that.

[B]

That's the problem with this debate, and we're going to come to blows on it because we're all really passionate about who we think should win, and it's all based on who we come up with. Unit. Not unanimously, but majority decision. And it's going to be. The question you just brought up is probably going to be at the gist.

[A]

Of our arguments right there, in my opinion, man. And I'm still from the new school. I'm not necessarily from the old school. But nobody is beating Muhammad Ali if he called in. I'm sorry. I don't care what nobody said. So that's my vote right there. Somebody had Muhammad Ali call up. It's a rap.

[B]

Weren't you on?

[A]

He's the greatest. He's the greatest, man. Come on, man.

[B]

That's what I'm trying to tell him all about. Now you're slanting him.

[C]

Hold on.

[B]

You can't.

[C]

We're not.

[B]

Sorry.

[D]

We haven't started yet.

[B]

Sorry.

[C]

I think, Bert, you're reaching a point where we have to eliminate Burt from discussion. I think because it's like when there's a trial, you know, and the jury can be swayed because there's so much coverage and bias and you have to move it. So we may have to call a radio station in like, you know, South Georgia or something and have them evaluate for us.

[D]

I think this is gonna be a hung jury for a while.

[B]

It's gonna be ugly.

[A]

Yeah, but, you know, you talking about celebrities that go further than, you know, the United States of America, of course, Muhammad Ali is worldwide. We all know that. Justin Timberlake is up there. And then, you know, the people that have the foreign value, like you said. Sean Connery, of course. So like I said, it is a hard one. But, man, I think Muhammad Ali is world renowned. I think if you go to any place in the world, you say, do you know who. Muhammad Ali? Somebody gonna say, hell, yeah.

[B]

It's gonna be tough debate, man. So what do you got your hands in now? Now you're doing restaurants. Like, movies weren't good enough for you, and music wasn't. Grammys weren't good enough for you. So now it's restaurants, man.

[A]

Look, I surprised myself, but to be honest with you, I partnered up with somebody that's been in the restaurant business for over 20 years, man. So I want people to make it understood. It's not like it's just me putting my name behind some food. This is Food comes first. You know what I mean? It's first and foremost. And of course, it's the location, the beyond, the service, and all of this stuff. So I took it extremely serious. So Straits Atlanta is now open. I know a lot of people have been hearing about it. This is Singapore Thai cuisine for all those energetic and spontaneous people. You know, Atlanta, the fastest growing city in the country right about now. So I felt you know, my passion for the city. I felt like it was very well needed to inject this into midtown, into downtown, to be exact. Off Juniper and Fifth street is called Straits, named after the waterway that led from Malaysia down to China. So I need a lot of people to come out to taste this food, man, because it's extremely serious. I want people to have the best dining experience and they've ever had in a lifetime. It's that serious. So there you have it.

[B]

What is. What exactly is Singapore cuisine?

[A]

Singapore cuisine, it's a mixture of a lot of different things. Of course you have, you know, it's a lot of Asian flavor. So everybody that comes out, I mean, my favorite thing on the whole menu is the chicken lollipop. But to rightfully answer your question, of course, like, you have Indonesian, Thai food, Chinese, Malay, Indian, nanya cuisines, all kind of mixed together. So that's basically what it is. And it's a whole bunch of southern ingredients because that's one thing that the south and Asian foods have in common, is those spices and those flavors. And I think that's definitely what sets my restaurant apart from everybody else's. It's the sauces and the spices. So you gotta make sure, like I said, you come out and check it out for yourself. So, you know, I'm not woofing y' all any bull over the. My partner and I, we both have a great deal of passion for different charities, and we came together and we've done a whole bunch of fundraisers so far that are kind of like soft openings at the restaurant. So of course, you know, it's going towards a good cause. And we plan on having fundraisers at least once every two or three months. The restaurant is over seven days a week from 5pm till midnight, Monday through Wednesday and Thursday through Saturday. It's 5 until 1am Now.

[B]

And the rumor is that a whole bunch of big time celebrities are going to show up to the restaurant also. Can you? Can you. Is that true?

[A]

I mean. Well, you know, man, I'm pretty much a hell of a guy for the most part, so you never know who's going to show up to support. I pretty much wake up in the morning and piss excellence, Burt. You know what I mean?

[B]

I know you do.

[A]

I know you do. You never know who's going to show up.

[B]

I know if they gave you a drug test, the results would be excellent.

[D]

That's great. Is Mark Wahlberg going to come?

[A]

There's a couple people saying they're gonna come through, and it's all out of the love. And like, you know, like I said, I've traveled a lot of places and been to many restaurants, and I'm just trying to bring my experience of what I feel is one of the best back home to Atlanta, Georgia, for everybody. So make sure you come to us off June 5th. Like I said in Burkman, I definitely appreciate you on Q100 for getting behind me on this supporting what we do. And I know we're gonna have some winners come out and, you know, I'm gonna sit down and dine with them and figure out what the whole experience is about and make sure I get some good feedback. So it's important to me, man. Eat some chicken lollipops, man, some sea bass and all that good stuff.

[B]

And there's a drink on the menu also called the Piss Excellence, which is supposed to be. Supposed to be really, really good.

[A]

Absolutely not a drink called Pizz Excellence. But I can't tell you this. We definitely have a good amount of specialty drinks that you can't find anywhere else. So, you know, you got to make sure you come, like I said, like, Burt, man, I need you to come through too, so you can talk about the experience on the air.

[B]

Yeah, I'm already in.

[A]

All right, perfect. That's what's up.

[D]

So, Ludacris, I wanna know, how are you opening a restaurant and juggling a recording, a new album and in a movie right now, like, how are you.

[A]

Doing at all, man? Actually, I absolutely wake up every morning, pretty much don't understand how the hell I'm doing it myself. So that's a very good question. But, you know, you take it one hour at a time. Not even one day at a time. You take it one hour at a time. But yes, the new album is coming in September. It's called Theater of the Mind. First single is coming soon. I just finished the movie Max Payne or Max in Toronto, Canada right now. So that's coming out in 2009. Rock and roll. Oh, no, we talked about that earlier. That's the Guy Ritchie movie that comes out October 31st of this year. And then the restaurant and then the Top of the Love. I don't know if y' all heard about it, but I'm doing my part in trying to save the planet, man. Me and Tommy Lee. The Discovery Channel is launching a new channel called Planet Green. So they got us in a competition against one another. It's basically like rock and roll versus rap. So, you know, it's reality based. It's a lot going on. But just a more details to come. The whole channel launches June 4 on Wednesday, but the actual show doesn't air until August. So. Juggling all of these things at once, man, you know, you only live once, so there's no sleep to this life. You got to do what you got to do.

[B]

Who can party harder, you or Tommy Lee?

[A]

Hey, I'm gonna be real with you. Tommy Lee can party harder than ludicrous. And what about. I've been hanging with homeboy for the past three weeks, and hands down, he. He pretty much got me on that. On that party. Hella hard. Hella hard.

[C]

Did I? I don't know. Maybe you mentioned this. I didn't hear, but did you talk about wemix.com?

[A]

Man, wemix.com is another damn. See, thank you, bro. You making me forget some of the business. Some of the business things I got going on. WEMIX.com is out of control right now. Of course. It's like a democracy for music, trying to put the music back into people's hands. For everybody that thinks they have talent or, you know, knows they have talent in the music game, no matter what genre. Rock and roll, jazz, blues, hip hop, R b. Click on WEMIX W E M I X.com and make sure you get the whole experience. If you just want to get your music heard and get some feedback from some people, it's a beautiful thing, man.

[B]

Dude's just got his hands in everything right now. You really do, man. You are rolling right now.

[D]

It's crazy. And you just wrapped with working with Mark Wahlberg. You said, is he gonna come to the restaurant opening?

[A]

Mark Wahlberg is shooting movie after movie. Unfortunately, he can't make it down there, but I told him about it. So whenever he comes to Atlanta, we have to make sure he comes through.

[D]

I just. I just thought I would ask.

[B]

All right, Luda. Well, we'll see y'.

[A]

All. No doubt, man. It's a new experience. Like I said, Juniper 5th is open for business. Make sure y' all come out and support. Thank y'. All.

[D]

Thanks.

[B]

Congratulations, ladies, for the call. We'll talk to you later.

[A]

All right, man. Peace. The Birch show.