Ludacris jumped at the chance to narrate empowering new women's basketball documentary The Heart Of The Game to prove once and for all there's more to him than derogatory rap music.

The rapper, real name Chris Bridges, was appalled when he was publicly blasted by talk show host Oprah Winfrey for his misogynistic lyrics, and now aims to show his critics that he has nothing but love for powerful women.

Ludacris took the criticism so harshly he's now speaking out about the foundations he has set up to help women's groups.

He explains, "I have a foundation called the Ludacris foundation where I've helped out charities that are geared specifically towards women and I'm doing this documentary
because it's dear to my heart."

"It's about self-empowerment, self-improvement, self-education and self esteem. I want to help out and, from watching this movie, you will get that there's nothing these young ladies can not accomplish and how powerful they are if they just have that confidence in themselves."

He hopes the film, and more involvement in it will help to give hip-hop's big names a better rap.

He adds, "People give hip hop a bad rap. It's the easy cop out. Everybody wants to blame us for everything... By me doing this documentary about empowering women, I can lead by example."