Taking action in more ways than one.
Ludacris was working to launch Kid Nation, a platform that aims to educate the next generation about current events through music, before George Floyd's death. However, the tragic incident—and the conversations he eventually had with Floyd's family—have him more motivated than ever to "add some positivity and add some solutions," he told E!'s Erin Lim on Daily Pop.
"I'm a parent myself, and you know, I think children are still impressionable and it's hard having conversations with them about what's going on today," Ludacris said. "And everybody's looking for answers to all the negativity and things that are going on...especially for the new generation, which I feel we have to secure and try to enrich them as much as possible. So that's why this is so passionate for me. And I think, what better way to do it than through song?"
Kid Nation, which Ludacris co-founded with his business partner Sandy Lal, is tentatively scheduled for a full launch in the fall, but the platform has already released two songs: "Get Along" about racial equality and "Stay Clean," about hygiene in the age of coronavirus. Though Kid Nation is aimed at young people, Ludacris stressed the importance of not just talking to the youth, but listening, too.
"They can teach us more than we can teach them right now, when you think about the purity, you think about the innocence, you think about the honesty and leading with love," he expressed. "I think love is always gonna be the answer. Love always trumps hate."
Ludacris continued, "So, you know, I'm just trying to bring that feeling back because we were all children at one point in time. And then the world just kind of messes with our heads a little bit."
The rapper has also been in touch with Floyd's family, and last week, he attended the funeral held in Minneapolis. Hearing from different family members, and "getting to know more about [Floyd] as a person, affected me a lot," he said.
"And I think the thing that really, really hit my heart was knowing that when he called out for his mother, that his mother had already passed away," Ludacris explained. "And what I heard Reverend Al [Sharpton] say was that might've been his mother saying, 'Come to me.' And when you start thinking about that, it's just so many emotions running through your body."
In attending the funeral, Ludacris said he wanted to make sure he paid his respects, but also "hear" and "learn" from Floyd's family.
"I wanted to continue to hear different perspectives about how we can fight this injustice that's been going on," he added. "And I was actually able to do that."
Though Ludacris admittedly doesn't "have all the answers," he is "literally trying to do everything that I can, in my power, to evoke positive change."
And, according to him, positive change is already happening.
"I love seeing that some universities have started George Floyd scholarships. I love that there are companies that are putting money into a lot of the black communities that have been underserved for so long," Ludacris said. "I love that people are learning more about the history of this country and learning more about the history of slavery. I love that there are protests going on—peaceful protests going on in the world—and you're seeing a lot more multi-cultural and multi-ethnicity individuals galvanizing and coming together.
He continued, "So, there are slow changes. But this is 401 years of oppression, so it's going to take a lot more. But this is a great start."
Watch the complete Daily Pop interview in the above clip.