Ludacris Surprises Miami High School Students with $75,000 in Music Instruments

Christopher “Ludacris” Bridges made a big surprise to Hialeah-Miami Lakes Senior High School and donated $75,000 in music instruments, according to WSVN.

Ludacris and his charity arm, The Ludacris Foundation, collaborated with StubHub’s #TicketForward program to announce the donation. The StubHub program has a three-year commitment in partnership with Mr. Holland’s Opus Foundation, to put $3 million worth of instruments into public schools.

“You can feel the energy. You can feel how much love there is in this room,” said Ludacris, “not only for their band director and their band teacher, but surprising them and giving them $75,000 worth of equipment, which is obviously something great to boost confidence. It feels phenomenal. It feels great.”

To add good fortune to the pot, Ludacris also gifted the school’s band director, Kevin Segura, with two Super Bowl tickets for the NFL championship game in Miami.

“It’s a very happy day for us,” said Segura. “This means, you know, that we’re actually going to have music education here at HML,” he said. “You know, because of budget cuts, we don’t have the instruments that we need for all the kids.”

“It makes me feel great. I feel with power comes great responsibility. I always say that. I think it’s my duty to make them understand how powerful they are and what they can accomplish,” Ludacris said.

“When you look at music education and funding, it has continually gotten stripped. We know that finding those programs with instruments donation and to keep these programs driving is an incredible thing to be able to do,” Jeff Poirier, StubHub General Manager tells CBS Miami.

“We have instruments being held together with tape, they don’t move, they’re banged up,” Segura said. “So these instruments are going to improve our sound and going to motivate kids to want to do band so hopefully I can build up this program to what it once was back in the day … I’m really, really excited that I’m going to the game. I didn’t think I was going so this was a nice surprise for me.”

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Ludacris Surprises Miami High School Students with $75,000 in Music Instruments

Christopher “Ludacris” Bridges made a big surprise to Hialeah-Miami Lakes Senior High School and donated $75,000 in music instruments, according to WSVN.

Ludacris and his charity arm, The Ludacris Foundation, collaborated with StubHub’s #TicketForward program to announce the donation. The StubHub program has a three-year commitment in partnership with Mr. Holland’s Opus Foundation, to put $3 million worth of instruments into public schools.

“You can feel the energy. You can feel how much love there is in this room,” said Ludacris, “not only for their band director and their band teacher, but surprising them and giving them $75,000 worth of equipment, which is obviously something great to boost confidence. It feels phenomenal. It feels great.”

To add good fortune to the pot, Ludacris also gifted the school’s band director, Kevin Segura, with two Super Bowl tickets for the NFL championship game in Miami.

“It’s a very happy day for us,” said Segura. “This means, you know, that we’re actually going to have music education here at HML,” he said. “You know, because of budget cuts, we don’t have the instruments that we need for all the kids.”

“It makes me feel great. I feel with power comes great responsibility. I always say that. I think it’s my duty to make them understand how powerful they are and what they can accomplish,” Ludacris said.

“When you look at music education and funding, it has continually gotten stripped. We know that finding those programs with instruments donation and to keep these programs driving is an incredible thing to be able to do,” Jeff Poirier, StubHub General Manager tells CBS Miami.

“We have instruments being held together with tape, they don’t move, they’re banged up,” Segura said. “So these instruments are going to improve our sound and going to motivate kids to want to do band so hopefully I can build up this program to what it once was back in the day … I’m really, really excited that I’m going to the game. I didn’t think I was going so this was a nice surprise for me.”

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Monday's Best Deals: Valentine's Day Chocolate, Muscle Milk, Light Therapy Lamps, and More

A sweet lunch box, laundry detergent, combination locks, and a lap desk lead off Monday’s best deals from around the web.

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Eric Bieniemy Is Good Enough to Win the Super Bowl, Just Not White Enough to Be an NFL Head Coach

As a lifelong Denver Broncos fan, part of me is disgusted that our division rival, the Kansas City Chiefs, won their first Super Bowl in 50 years on Sunday night. But the rest of me is elated for two very specific reasons: For one, a black quarterback—generational talent Patrick Mahomes—emerged victorious in an…

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Lil Wayne gets booted from ‘The Masked Singer’ on season three premiere

Sunday night’s third season premiere of The Masked Singer debuted on Fox and a certain entertainer dressed as a Robot caught the judges and audience by surprise when he was revealed to be Lil Wayne.

READ MORE: Lil Wayne ‘all goody’ after federal agents raid private jet

The rapper sang the Lenny Kravitz song “Are You Gonna Go My Way” but the audience voted the performance the least liked of the night so he had to reveal his identity. Before he did, however, judges Jenny McCarthy, Ken Jeong, Nicole Scherzinger, and Robin Thicke, joined by guest judge Jamie Foxx, were puzzled, guessing him to be Floyd Mayweather, Flavor Flav, Shaun White, Johnny Knoxville or Steve-O, according to Pitchfork.

When the mask came off, Wayne said he chose the mechanical Robot costume to score cool points with his four children.

“My kids, man, my kids,” Wayne said. “My kids watch the show with me and (I) know they’re going to like the robot costume.”

Six of the 18 new singers – known as Group A – performed in costume on Sunday, following the Super Bowl. They were introduced by host Nick Cannon as Kangaroo, White Tiger, Llama, Miss Monster, Robot and Turtle as having a collective nine Super Bowl appearances. He added that the entire 18 singers have 69 Grammy Award nominations between them, 88 gold records, three stars on the Hollywood Walk of Fame and more than 160 tattoos, according to PEOPLE magazine. The next two episodes will feature Group B and Group C, also each comprised of six singers. The audience will vote off three singers from each group, leaving a total of nine to perform for the Golden Mask Trophy.

“He just made this show so much cooler, right?” Cannon said after Wayne’s mask came off.

We’ve been seeing Kobe all over the place lately.

The Young Money rapper and executive just released his 13^th album, called Funeral, on Friday. The album includes two tributes to Kobe Bryant.

READ MORE: Nick Cannon let it be known that he has Gabrielle Union’s back in her claims against ‘AGT’

Wayne gave his fans a glimpse into the 24-track album on Instagram, where he sang, “Welcome to the funeral, closed casket as usual.” The number of songs on the album was one tribute to the fallen NBA legend; the other is a 24-second moment of silence on track No. 8, called “Bing James.”

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