Ludacris on being a girl dad and his collab to promote family fun
Atlanta’s Ludacris wants you to play with your food. He wants you to flip it, fling it and “fight” with it. And he wants you to have your family join in.
Ludacris — aka Chris Bridges — has teamed up with Rice Krispies Treats to bring game time to snack time.
“As a girl dad and a busy parent, spending that quality time with my kids in the spirit of having and getting creative — maybe even a little competitive — is so important to me, so playing games is a huge part of how we spend our time together,” the rapper said in a press release. “This Rice Krispies Treats ‘Treat. Eat. Compete.’ collab was the perfect way for me to share our traditions with the world and help inspire more families to get playing, creating, and connecting, plus give back to a cause close to my heart, Boys & Girls Clubs of America.”
Alongside a donation by Ludacris and Rice Krispies Treats to the tune of $100,000, proceeds from all “Treat. Eat. Compete.” game set sales will benefit the organization.
Helping the Boys & Girls Clubs of America is “fairly emotional for me because my father, who is not with us anymore, he grew up in a Boys and Girls Club in Mount Vernon, New York, and I grew up in the Boys and Girls Club (in Atlanta),” the multiplatinum artist, actor and philanthropist told The Atlanta Journal-Constitution. “And believe it or not, my dad was best friends with Denzel (Washington), and Denzel does so much for the Boys and Girls Club. Yes, I will say it is dear to my heart because of how we’re effecting positive change and giving to an organization that has been in my life for generations.”
Starting today, you can join Ludacris and two of his four daughters — Cai and Cadence — as they unpack their “Treat. Eat. Compete.” box and challenge one another.
“There are a lot of distractions going on in the world today. So that’s part of the reason Rice Krispies and myself wanted to come together,” Ludacris told the AJC. “You know, (my family and I) just love fun, and we love trying to gamify snack time and dinner time and bringing the family together more often to learn about each other.
“And this is one way that you can do it. You know, it’s about having fun. My kids will get rewarded with a Rice Krispies Treat for good behavior or for good grades or a certain thing, so it’s something to aspire to,” he added.
The game box — available for $20 (including shipping) at www.ricekrispiestreats.com — includes everything from custom score sheets, markers and instruction cards to a Ludacris-inspired bucket hat “winner crown” and a fresh pack of Rice Krispies Treats.
You’ll also get instructions to play five games:
- Wrapper Rhymes: Challenge your family to a mini “wrap” battle using the treats’ writable wrappers.
- Stick the Landing: Unwrap the sticky treat and flip it in the air until you can get it to stand up on its short side.
- Unicorn Duel: Go head-to-head with family members by sticking a bar to your forehead and using it to battle. First person to lose their “horn” loses.
- Treat Mitts: Grab a set of oven mitts and see how fast you can unwrap your Rice Krispie Treat.
- Krispie Cannon: Transform your treat bar into a bite-size cannonball launcher and aim for the empty box.
If those games don’t inspire you, come up with your own. The object is to have fun.
Rice Krispies Treats came to Ludacris for this collaboration because, he said, “they knew I was a girl dad. They know I love to have fun. They know I love to play games with my family. And they know that, you know, we’re both doing certain things for the community where we’re trying to bring back, you know, just bring people together and continue to augment the love that has been spread amongst people around the world.”
Ludacris said his most important job is that of dad to daughters Karma, Cai, Cadence and Chance.
“Our most important job is to protect them and to love them and protect them, and help facilitate their wants and needs and dreams,” he said. “I mean, I could go on and on. But I just think that it’s very important to be there for them, to let them get things off their chest and be a soundboard, to help them with their self-esteem.”
It can’t hurt Karma’s self-esteem to have dad create an animated show called “Karma’s World,” which “follows Karma Grant, an aspiring musical artist and rapper with big talent and an even bigger heart.”
In addition to voicing Karma’s dad — who else would you get? — in the series, Ludacris recently finished the latest “Fast & Furious” installment and is now on tour with Janet Jackson. And sometime this year he will get his own star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.
His Ludacris Foundation is well-known in Atlanta and has given away tens of thousands of dollars in goods and services to area families over the past 20 years, including 600 pairs of shoes to local children in December.
When asked how he finds time to “just be a dad,” he replied: “I was just telling somebody that if I’m not with them, I have to fly them to me after a certain amount of time.”
You can follow along with @ludacrisdtp, @ricekrispiestreats and #treateatcompete on TikTok to see how your family stacks up against others.
About the Author
Nancy Clanton is a lead producer for The AJC's platforms team, but also writes stories about health, travel, events and entertainment. A native of Knoxville and graduate of the University of Tennessee, she has worked at the AJC for 24 years.
