Music superstar and Fast & Furious franchise actor Chris “Ludacris” Bridges is the creator of new Netflix animated series Karma’s World (premiering this Friday October 15th). It’s inspired by his oldest daughter, Karma. The title girl has an incredible talent for songwriting, with dreams of becoming a big-time rapper. Through her interactions with family and friends, Karma learns important life lessons while staying true to herself. Bridges joined me for a brief conversation over Zoom to discuss creating and voicing a character on Karma’s World, along with the show’s unique connection to an iconic animated series Bridges appeared on.

Chris “Ludacris” Bridges: Lights Camera Jackson… that’s dope!

Jackson Murphy: Thank you very much! It’s an honor to meet you. Why was it important for you to start each episode with Karma on stage performing and offering some perspective?

CB: I want girls, or children, all around the world to relate and feel like they’re not alone in every aspect of what Karma goes through. Every episode… it has music, it has her kind of questioning certain things and then she finds the answer because she’s really… changing the world with her music and finding her voice. So I want all the people that are watching this show to be able to find their voice and inspire them to know that they’re never too young to change the world.

JM: Definitely. All the raps and lyrics are so good. You also voice Karma’s dad, Conrad. You’re obviously well-known for being in the booth recording songs, but what surprised you the most about recording character dialogue?

CB: Character dialogue, man… you have to be very patient because you have to give so many different takes. I’m a person that had to learn patience through this entire process. I don’t know if you know this or not but it took over a decade to bring this show to fruition.

JM: Wow.

CB: And so to answer your question about the character dialogue: I kind of tried to disguise my voice a little bit and not use the “Ludacris” voice but kind of give a whole different perspective for Dad. So it took some time for me to get into that space. And at the end, it was fun. It was all fun. But it takes some work to get there.

JM: You do a great job with it. Now, on the “Daddy / Daughter Day” episode, your character doesn’t like rapper MC Grillz, who raps about brushing and flossing teeth, which is exactly what you did on The Simpsons episode back in 2007!

CB: (laughs) That’s so true! That is great. But you can’t make the relation between “Ludacris” and Conrad, who is Chris Bridges, the voice actor. So, that was a very good observation. You’re 100% correct. But there is no… comparisons here. This is new and refreshed. But I love the fact that you picked that up.

JM: Gotcha. That “Ludacrest” moment was fun on The Simpsons. It definitely was.

CB: (laughs) Here’s the thing: “Ludacris” and Chris Bridges are two totally different people. I don’t know if people even know that. It’s like Superman and Clark Kent.

JM: I know Mattel is partnering with you and the show on doing a toy line – a bunch of merchandise coming next year. Anything you can tell me about that yet?

CB: I’m kind of sworn to secrecy at this moment, but I can tell you that it’s the most incredible merchandise that anyone has ever seen in their entire lives. Taking all the successes from everything that’s happened previous to this point and augmenting it and taking it to a whole other level of interactive experiences and things that you would never imagine to make every child so happy – and probably even more parents happy – in their households with everything that goes synonymous and in conjunction with Karma’s World as a whole.