Ludacris (born September 11, 1977) is a rapper and actor from the United States. Ludacris signed with Def Jam South after founding his label, Disturbing the Peace, in the late 1990s, and went on to become one of the first Dirty South rappers to attain mainstream recognition with his subsequent releases. Ludacris has won three Grammy Awards and an MTV Video Music Award for his music. Ludacris was born in Champaign, Illinois, and moved to Atlanta at the age of nine, where he began rapping. After a brief time as a DJ, he released his first album, Incognegro, on his own in 1999, to modest success, but gained national notice the following year with his major-label debut, Back for the First Time, which featured the smash singles "Southern Hospitality" and "What's Your Fantasy."