Virgo may refer to:

Astronomy

Virgo (astrology), an astrological sign

Virgo Cluster, a cluster of galaxies in the constellation Virgo

Virgo (constellation), a constellation

Virgo Stellar Stream, remains of a dwarf galaxy

Virgo Supercluster, a galactic supercluster

Surname

Virgo (surname)

Adam Virgo, a Scottish footballer

Clement Virgo, a Canadian film and television director

John Virgo, a snooker player

Sean Virgo, Canadian poet

Terry Virgo, Founder of newfrontiersfamily of churches

Art

Virgo (comics), a Marvel Comics character

An alias of musician Marshall Jefferson

Virgos Merlot, an American rock band

Others

Aqua Virgo, one of the 11 aqueducts supplied the city of ancient Rome

Beata Maria Virgo, Latin title for Blessed Virgin Mary.

Virgo 4, a text to speech (screen reader), text to Braille, and alternative computer-interface for the blind creator software.

Virgo (mobile suit), a mobile suit from Mobile Suit Gundam Wing

Virgo interferometer, a French-Italian project in physics

SuperStar Virgo, a mega cruise ship operated and owned by Star Cruises

USS Virgo (AKA-20), a United States Navy attack cargo ship

Name	Thomas Bangalter
Background	non_vocal_instrumentalist
Instrument	Guitar, synthesizer, keyboards
Nickname(s)	T Bang
Born	January 03, 5
Origin	Paris, France
Genre	House
Years active	1992–present
Label	Roulé
Associated acts	Darlin'Daft PunkStardustTogether

Thomas Bangalter (born January 3, 1975)

Early life and career

Bangalter was born in Paris, France. He began playing the piano at the age of six. Bangalter stated in a video interview that his parents were strict in keeping up his practice, for which he later thanked them. His father, Daniel Vangarde was a famous songwriter and producer for such performers as the Gibson Brothers, Ottawan, and Sheila B. Devotion. As expressed by Bangalter, "I never had any intention to do what my father was doing."

Bangalter met Guy-Manuel de Homem-Christo while attending the Lycée Carnot school in 1987. It was there that they discovered their mutual fascination of films and music of the 1960s and 70s, "very basic cult teenager things, from Easy Rider to the Velvet Underground." They and Laurent Brancowitz eventually joined to form an indie rock trio called Darlin', in which Bangalter performed bass guitar. Bangalter felt that "It was still maybe more a teenage thing at that time. It's like, you know, everybody wants to be in a band." In 1993 Bangalter presented a demo of Daft Punk material to Stuart Macmillan of Slam that led to their first single "The New Wave". Daniel Vangarde provided valuable advice for the duo. "He helped us by presenting to us what the situation was with the record industry and how it worked. Knowing that, we made certain choices in order to achieve what we wanted."

Vangarde was thanked for his efforts in the liner notes of Homework. The title of the album is partially attributed to the fact that Homework was recorded in Bangalter's bedroom. As he remarked, "I had to move the bed into another room to make space for the gear."

Around the same time of "Music Sounds Better with You", Bangalter co-produced Bob Sinclar's second single titled "Gym Tonic". The single caused a minor dispute as it contained samples from a Jane Fonda workout tape, which led Fonda herself to refuse permission for the single to be released officially. A different act called Spacedust released an re-recorded version of the track, titled "Gym and Tonic" under the label EastWest to wider commercial success. "Gym and Tonic" became a number one single in the United Kingdom shortly after "Music Sounds Better with You" had peaked at number two in the same chart.

During 1998, Bangalter and de Homem-Christo collaborated with Romanthony in what would become the first of the Discovery sessions. One of tracks produced, "One More Time" became Daft Punk's most successful single in 2000. Bangalter also performed on a Yamaha Cs-60 synthesizer on the track "Embuscade" in Phoenix's debut album United, which was released the same year. He also teamed up with DJ Falcon under the name Together to release their eponymous 2000 single.

Bangalter produced the score to the film Irréversible, released in 2002. A soundtrack album of the same name was later released featuring Bangalter's tracks as well as the works by Gustav Mahler, Étienne Daho and Beethoven used in the film. North American pressings of the album feature only the Bangalter tracks. Three of the tracks from the Trax on da Rocks EPs were released on the album: "Outrun", "Ventura" and "Extra Dry". 2002 also saw the release of the Bangalter produced track "113 Fout La Merde" for French hip hop group 113. Bangalter can be seen dancing in the music video, wearing his Daft Punk helmet.

Together released the single "So Much Love to Give" in 2003. The Eric Prydz track "Call on Me" was initially thought to be a follow-up to the Together release due to the similarity between the two songs and DJ Falcon's use of "Call on Me" in DJ sets.

Bangalter was the sound effects director for the 2009 film Enter the Void, his second work with filmmaker Gaspar Noé following Irréversible. He initially had been approached by Noé to compose the soundtrack of Enter the Void, but Bangalter was preoccupied with work on the score at the time. Bangalter instead provided various clips of drones and ambiance for the film to be accompanied by music by other artists from the 1960s and 70s.

Personal life

In 2002, Bangalter fathered a son, Tara-Jay, with actress Élodie Bouchez. In late 2004, Bangalter moved to his current home in Beverly Hills, California. The move is attributable to Bouchez's career in Hollywood and Bangalter's own interests in filmmaking.

We're trying to separate the private side and the public side. It's just that we're a little bit embarrassed by the whole thing. We don't want to play this star system thing. We don't want to get recognised in the streets. Yes. Everyone has accepted us using masks in photos so far, which makes us happy. Maybe sometimes people are a little bit disappointed but that's the only way we want to do it. We think the music is the most personal thing we can give. The rest is just about people taking themselves seriously, which is all very boring sometimes.

Discography

Albums

Irréversible (2002)

EPs and singles

"Trax on da Rocks" (1995)

"Spinal Scratch" (1996)

"Trax on da Rocks Vol. 2" (1998)

"Outrage" (2003)

References

External links

Category:1975 births Category:Daft Punk Category:French bass guitarists Category:French film score composers Category:French pop guitarists Category:French record producers Category:Living people

Name	Ludacris
Background	solo_singer
Birth name	Christopher Brian Bridges
Born	September 11, 1977Champaign, Illinois, U.S.
Origin	Atlanta, Georgia, U.S.
Instrument	Vocals
Genre	Hip hop
Occupation	Rapper, actor, songwriter
Years active	1998–present
Label	Disturbing tha Peace, Def Jam, Def Jam South
Associated acts	Shawnna
Url	ludacris.defjam.com

Christopher Brian Bridges (born September 11, 1977), He is of African American and Native American descent. Bridges wrote his first rap song at age nine when moving to Atlanta and joined an amateur rap group three years later. He attended Banneker High School in Atlanta, Georgia. From 1998 to 1999, he studied music management at Georgia State University. In Feb. 2007, Bridges lost his father to cancer. Ludacris has a daughter named Karma with an Atlanta attorney named Christine White.

Music career

Radio DJ, Timbaland collaboration

Ludacris collaborated with Timbaland on the track "Phat Rabbit" from his album . Is it later included on Ludacris's debut LP album Back for the First Time.

Back for the First Time (2000)

Ludacris released his major label debut, Back for the First Time, in October 2000. This album was actually a modified re-release of the album Incognegro, made in 1998. It was produced with the help of the underground producer Sessy Melia, whom he dated for a short while. The album reached as high as #4 on the U.S. Billboard 200, and was a major success. Ludacris made his mark on the industry with singles such as "Southern Hospitality" and "What's Your Fantasy", along with his first ever single the "Phat Rabbit", from two years prior. Guest appearances included 4-Ize, I-20, Shawnna, Pastor Troy, Timbaland, Trina, Foxy Brown, UGK, and others. Ludacris stated in an interview on MTV's hip hop program Direct Effect that he came up with his stage name based on his "split personality" that he considered "ridiculous" and "ludicrous".

Word of Mouf (2001)

Ludacris promptly completed his next album, Word of Mouf, and released it at the end of 2001. The video for the lead single, "Rollout (My Business)", was nominated for a 2002 VMA, and Ludacris performed it live at the awards' pre-show. He released singles "Saturday (Oooh Oooh)" with Sleepy Brown, "Move Bitch" with Mystikal and I-20, and "Area Codes" with Nate Dogg.

Chicken-n-Beer (2003)

During the spring of 2003, Ludacris returned to the music scene after a brief hiatus with a new single, "Act a Fool", from the 2 Fast 2 Furious soundtrack. At around the same time, he released the lead single from his album Chicken-n-Beer, called "P-Poppin" (short for "Pussy Poppin'"). Neither of his new singles were as well received by either the urban or pop audiences as his previous songs had been, and both music videos received only limited airplay. Chicken-N-Beer opened strongly, but without a popular single, the album fell quickly. Guest appearances include Playaz Circle, Chingy, Snoop Dogg, 8Ball & MJG, Lil' Flip, I-20, Lil Fate, and Shawnna.

In the fall of 2003, Ludacris rebounded with his next single, "Stand Up", which appeared on both Chicken-n-Beer as well as the soundtrack for the teen hip hop/dance movie, You Got Served. Produced by Kanye West, "Stand Up" went on to become one of Ludacris' biggest mainstream hits to date, hitting the top spot on the Billboard Hot 100 garnering heavy airplay on mainstream pop, rhythmic, and urban radio stations, as well as on MTV, MTV2, and BET. Ludacris was sued by a New Jersey group called I.O.F. who claimed that "Stand Up" used a hook from one of their songs, but in June 2006, a jury found that the song did not violate copyrights. "I hope the plaintiffs enjoyed their 15 minutes of fame," Ludacris said after the verdict.

The album's next single, "Splash Waterfalls", was released in early 2004. A huge pop hit (despite its steamy video and explicit, adult-oriented lyrical content and themes), it subsequently became a success at urban radio and BET, and is the only time he has produced two consecutive top 10 singles from a solo album, except for Release Therapy (an unedited version of the video could only be viewed on BET's Uncut program). It was Ludacris' most sexual video yet, an R&B; remix that featured Raphael Saadiq and sampled Tony! Toni! Tone!'s "Whatever You Want". Ludacris received his first Grammy Award with Usher and Lil Jon for their hit single "Yeah!". Ludacris next released "Blow It Out", which was accompanied by a low-budget music video.

The Red Light District (2004)

Chris Bridges took a more mature approach to his fourth album, The Red Light District. Sohail Khalid helped produce this album with various artists such as T.I., Lil Flip and Bun B. Ludacris openly boasted that he may be the only rapper able to keep the Def Jam label afloat on the opening track. Ludacris filmed and recorded the single "Get Back" in which he was featured as a muscle-bound hulk who was being annoyed by the media and warned critics to leave him alone. He first appeared on Saturday Night Live as a special guest performing with musical guest Sum 41 on a season 30 episode hosted by Paul Giamatti. He then recorded "Get Back" with Sum 41 to make a rock crossover single. The follow-up single was the Austin Powers-inspired "Number One Spot". It was produced by New York City's Hot 97 personality DJ Green Lantern. It used the Quincy Jones sample of "Soul Bossa Nova" and sped it up to the tempo of Ludacris' rap flow. Featured artists on the album include Nas, DJ Quik, DMX, Trick Daddy, Sleepy Brown, and Disturbing tha Peace newcomers Bobby Valentino, Dolla Boi, and Small World. The album debuted at number one on the Billboard charts.

Release Therapy (2006)

In an issue of XXL, Ludacris was placed in the number nine spot for the most anticipated albums of 2006, for Release Therapy. The album Release Therapy was released on September 26, 2006. Ludacris formatted the CD to have two sides: a Release side and a Therapy side on a single CD. Guest appearances include Pharrell Williams, R. Kelly, Young Jeezy, Mary J. Blige, Field Mob, Bobby Valentino, Pimp C, C-Murder, and Beanie Sigel. The first single, "Money Maker", which features Pharrell Williams, was released to U.S. radio outlets on July 17, 2006. "Money Maker" reached number one on the BET program 106 & Park. It then went to become the rapper's second number one single after 6 years. His second single, "Grew Up a Screw Up", featuring Young Jeezy, dispels rumors that the two are or ever were in a dispute. His third single, "Runaway Love", soon peaked at number one on the U.S. Billboard Hot Rap Tracks and won Best Collaboration in the 2007 BET Awards. His album then reached number one on the Billboard 200 album charts with sales of 309,000 in its first week. With the release of this album, Ludacris marked a change in style in his career with his musical style. The new album itself features a departure of the lighthearted mood of his previous albums, and introduces a darker side. A change of hair accompanied this as he cut off his trademark braids for a more conventional "fade" cut. To promote the album, Ludacris returned to Saturday Night Live (as both host and musical guest) on November 18, 2006.

Theater of the Mind (2008)

The Preview, a mixtape to preview the album was released on July 28, 2008. Theater of the Mind, released on November 24, 2008, and in April 2008, the single "Let's Stay Together" appeared on xxlmag.com; supposedly from the new album ("Let's Stay Together" was expected to but was released as a bonus track on the CD). A song with Small World called "Pinky Shinin" was expected to be on the album, but it was dropped. In an interview with Complex Magazine he stated that Chris Brown, Lil Wayne, Rick Ross, T.I., Plies, Common, T-Pain, Jay-Z, Nas and The Game will be on the album; The Game is featured in a track with Willy Northpole titled "Call Up the Homies". T.I. was on the album on a track called "Wish You Would" squashing the long feud between them. The album debuted at number five on the Billboard 200 with 213,493 sold first week. The album was released the same day as Kanye West's 808s & Heartbreak, which took the number one spot. His first single "What Them Girls Like", featuring Chris Brown and Sean Garrett, peaked at #33 on the Billboard 100. His second single, "One More Drink", featuring T-Pain, peaked at #24 on the Billboard 100. The third official single is "Nasty Girl", featuring Plies. He confirmed a "sequel" titled Ludaversal due to be released in 2011.

Battle of the Sexes (2010)

Ludacris' seventh studio album was released on March 9, 2010, with his first promotional single for the album being "Everybody Drunk" which features Lil Scrappy, originally featuring Shawnna. The first concept idea of the album was to have Ludacris and Shawnna battle it out on the album back–to–back, but this was later axed upon Shawnna's depature from Disturbing tha Peace, ending her contract on Ludacris' label and joining T-Pain's Nappy Boy Entertainment label. The first official single released from Battle of the Sexes was "How Low", which was released on December 8, 2009. The follow–up single was "My Chick Bad", released on February 23, 2010. The third single is "Sex Room", peaking at #69 on the Billboard 100. Ludacris’s Battle of the Sexes entered the chart at No. 1, with 137,000 sales in the first week. The album is currently certified gold.

Ludaversal (2011)

On August 15, 2010, Ludacris tweeted that he is currently back in the studio with The Neptunes working on Ludaversal, his "sequel" album to Theater of the Mind.

Ventures

After the success of Back for the First Time, Ludacris started his own foundation. The Ludacris Foundation, started by Ludacris and Disturbing tha Peace CEO Chaka Zulu, is an organization that helps middle and high school students motivate themselves in creative arts.

In 2007 Matt Apfel, a reality TV producer, had an idea for a show about mashups between fans and rock stars. He sat down with Ludacris and Zulu and discovered that they wanted to do something similar. Out of this partnership, they started a new media distribution company called wemix.com. Recently, WeMix.com announced a partnership with PhoneZoo to launch an innovative content distribution platform for new artists. Recently, Ludacris has landed a new fragrance deal with TAG Body Spray. His own packaging of the spray is called Get Yours.

In January 2009, Ludacris collaborated with Norwegian cognac house Birkedal Hartmann to create Conjure cognac. Ludacris and Birkedal Hartmann's blender, Philippe B. Tiffon, selected a blend of ugni blanc grapes from various regions in Cognac including Grande Champagne, Petite Champagne and Borderie. Conjure is a blend of forty eaux-de-vie and is aged in oak barrels that are up to fifty years old. The bottle is decorated with female silhouettes.

Controversy

T.I.

Tensions began when T.I. saw Disturbing tha Peace rapper I-20's video in which a man wearing a shirt with the words "Trap House," was being beaten. T.I. believed the man's shirt actually said "Trap Muzik," perhaps interpreting this to be a reference to his album of the same name. Later, former G-Unit artist Young Buck asked these two fellow Southern rappers to appear on his new record on the track "Stomp". T.I. recorded a verse, which contained a line that Young Buck considered to be a subliminal insult towards Ludacris "Me gettin' beat down?/That's ludicrous/". Young Buck spoke to Ludacris about his interpretation of the event. Ludacris then later recorded a verse that can be found on the album. T.I's record company wanted Ludacris to change his verse before they sanctioned it but Ludacris refused and T.I. was therefore replaced by Game on the album version.

On June 24, 2007 at the Sunset Tower Hotel in West Hollywood, California, T.I. was involved in a physical altercation. During a luncheon held by Kevin Liles of Warner Music Group (parent company of T.I.'s label, Atlantic Records), the MC got into a fight with Ludacris' manager Chaka Zulu. According to witnesses, T.I. punched Zulu in the face and choked him and a small, brief melee ensued.

T.I. was awarded honors for Best Hip-Hop Artist at the BET Awards, and took the opportunity to apologize for his scuffle with Disturbing tha Peace executive Chaka Zulu earlier in the week. While accepting his award, he expressed regret over the situation. "They say it's a fine line between brilliance and insanity," he said, in an apparent reference to his troublesome alter ego, T.I.P. During the broadcast, cameras showed his onetime rival Ludacris smiling in the audience.

The two rappers have resolved their disagreement and have collaborated on two songs: "Wish You Would" off Ludacris's sixth studio album, Theater of the Mind, and "On Top of the World" off T.I.'s sixth studio album, Paper Trail. The original version of the latter had Kanye West.

Bill O'Reilly

On August 27, 2002, political pundit Bill O'Reilly called for all Americans to boycott Pepsi products, saying that Ludacris' lyrics glamorize a "life of guns, violence, drugs and disrespect of women". The next day, O'Reilly reported that Pepsi had fired Ludacris.

2008 presidential election

The song "Politics As Usual" from Ludacris' mixtape has stirred controversy due to lyrics in the song criticizing: Reverend Jesse Jackson "Now Jesse talkin’ slick and apologizin’ for what?/ If you said it then you meant it", (in reference to Jackson stating that he would "like to cut Obama's nuts off"); John McCain "McCain don’t belong in any chair unless he’s paralyzed"; President George W. Bush "Yeah I said it, 'cuz Bush is mentally handicapped/ Ball up all of his speeches and throw 'em just like candy wraps / 'Cuz what you talkin' I hear nothin' even relevant / you the worst of all 43 presidents"; Hillary Clinton "Hillary hated on you, so that bitch is irrelevant", in reference to Hillary's campaign comments against Obama.

Discography

; Studio albums

Back for the First Time (2000)

Word of Mouf (2001)

Chicken-n-Beer (2003)

The Red Light District (2004)

Release Therapy (2006)

Theater of the Mind (2008)

Battle of the Sexes (2010)

Ludaversal (2011)

Filmography

See also

List of artists who reached number one in the United States

List of awards and nominations received by Ludacris

References

External links

Official Def Jam Site

The Ludacris Foundation

Ludacris at Twitter

Ludacris at MTV

Interview w/ ARTISTdirect.com

Category:1977 births Category:African American actors Category:African American rappers Category:American film actors Category:American television actors Category:American people of Native American descent Category:Def Jam Recordings artists Category:Georgia State University alumni Category:Grammy Award winners Category:Living people Category:Native American actors Category:Native American musicians Category:Native American rappers Category:Outstanding Performance by a Cast in a Motion Picture Screen Actors Guild Award winners Category:People from Champaign, Illinois Category:People from Oak Park, Illinois Category:Rappers from Atlanta, Georgia