BETHLEHEM, Pa. — Next year's Musikfest will have a hip-hop headliner.
Rapper Ludacris, best known for the hits "Stand Up" (featuring Shawnna)," and "Money Maker (featuring Pharrell)," and "Act a Fool," is the first headliner announced for the 10-day Bethlehem music festival, presenters ArtsQuest revealed Monday.
Musikfest will run Aug. 2-11 with an Aug. 1 preview night.
Ludacris will perform at 7 p.m. Aug. 10.
Tickets, at $25 to $79, are available for ArtsQuest members today and will go on sale to the general public at 10 a.m. Friday at the ArtsQuest Center box office at 101 Founders Way, Bethlehem, at www.musikfest.org and 610-332-3378.
Ludacris also headlined Musikfest in 2007.
The announcement comes a week earlier than this year's first act was announced on Dec. 5, 2022, and in time for people to buy tickets for holiday gifts.
Known for his boisterous lyrics, Ludacris made his mainstream breakthrough in 2000 with his major label debut album, "Back for the First Time," which reached No. 4 on the Billboard chart.Musikfest announcement
Known for his boisterous lyrics, Ludacris made his mainstream breakthrough in 2000 with his major label debut album, "Back for the First Time," which reached No. 4 on the Billboard chart.
In addition to creating his own music, Ludacris has made frequent appearances on other artists’ records such as "Yeah!" by Usher featuring Lil John & Ludacris, and "Break Your Heart" by Taio Cruz featuring Ludacris.
He also has done collaborations with Missy Elliot, OutKast, Carrie Underwood, Mariah Carey and many more.
A history of hits
Ludacris first hit the charts with his 2000 hit "What's Your Fantasy (featuring Shawnna),” which sold double platinum and hit No. 5 on the Rap chart.
The album on which it appeared, “Back For the First Time,” sold triple platinum and hit No. 4 on Billboard’s overall albums chart. His 2001 songs “Area Codes (featuring Nate Dogg)” and “Rollout (My Business),” both from his second album, “Word of Mouf,” sold gold and platinum, respectively, and pushed the album to four times platinum.
In all, Ludacris had 21 Top 10 Rap chart hits, 14 of which hit gold or platinum, and appeared as a guest on 16 others, all of which sold gold or platinum. He had nine albums that sold gold or platinum, and sold a total of 15 million albums.Billboard charts
In 2003, his hit “Act a Fool” from the movie “2 Fast 2 Furious,” also hit gold. But it was that year’s "Stand Up (featuring Shawnna)” that gave Ludacris his first No. 1 hit. It also sold platinum.
He also hit gold in 2003 with "Holidae In (Chingy featuring Snoop Dogg and Ludacris),” which hit No. 2 on the Rap chart.
But his biggest hits came in 2004, when he appeared on "Yeah! (Usher featuring Lil Jon and Ludacris),” which stayed at No. 1 on the Billboard singles chart for 12 weeks and sold four times platinum; and in 2010, which he appeared on Justin Bieber’s “Baby,” which sold 12 times platinum.
He had another big hit with "Glamorous (Fergie featuring Ludacris)” in 2007. That song also hit No. 1 and sold triple platinum.
Ludacris’s second solo No. 1 hit was 2006’s "Money Maker (featuring Pharrell),” which sold double platinum.
In 2009 and 2010, both “How Low” and "My Chick Bad (featuring Nicki Minaj)” sold triple-platinum. In 2010, he also
His last gold hit was 2014’s "Good Lovin' (featuring Miguel).”
In all, Ludacris had 21 Top 10 Rap chart hits, 14 of which hit gold or platinum, and appeared as a guest on 16 others, all of which sold gold or platinum. He had nine albums that sold gold or platinum, and sold a total of 15 million albums.
Ludacris is also known as a regular in the "Fast and the Furious" film franchise. He has acted in films such as "Dramas Crash," "Hustle & Flow," "New Year’s Eve," "Fred Clause" and others.
Hip-hop still unusual for Musikfest
2024 will be the 41st year for Musikfest, and hip-hop and R&B still are unusual offerings for the festival.
Last summer, it offered rapper G-Eazy and R&B favorites Keith Sweat and Monica, continuing a trend that in 2022 brought rapper Ja Rule and Ashanti and R&B group Boyz II Men to the festival after a total of just two rap acts in the previous 15 years.
In the past 23 Musikfests since 2000 (the 2020 festival was largely virtual, with no national headliners), there have been more than 230 headline acts, and only 19 those could, even by a stretch, be considered R&B.
That’s less than 8% — or about four such acts every five years.
The festival arguably didn’t have its first hip-hop headliner until 2002 with Shaggy.Musikfest historic records
The festival arguably didn’t have its first hip-hop headliner until 2002 with Shaggy, then in 2004 offered Chingy and Twista, which at the time had the smallest crowd ever for a paid Musikfest headliner.
It had more success with LL Cool J and Ne-Yo in 2006 and Ludacris in 2007, but then didn’t have another hip-hop act until Snoop Dogg headlined the festival in 2015 and Run-DMC in 2016.
A record-breaking 1,330,000 people attended Musikfest in 2023. The 11-day festival featured more than 500 free performances across 16 stages throughout downtown Bethlehem and the SteelStacks campus.
