Webinar: “Thinking A Century Ahead” With Louis XIII And Ludacris, Presented By Haute Living

There is nothing ordinary about an iconic brand like Louis XIII spearheaded by the Global Executive Director, Ludovic du Plessis, Grammy Award-Winning producer, rapper and actor, Ludacris aka Chris Bridges and our own, Haute Living CEO Kamal Hotchandani, getting together to have a conversation about the value of time, delaying gratification and what makes a legacy.

Bridges, a huge fan of Louis XIII, joined du Plessis and Hotchandani for a virtual experience of the steps to enjoy Louis XIII cognac while celebrating the simultaneous worldwide release of his new single “Silence of the Lambs”.

The webinar began with a toast led by Ludovic du Plessis in true Louis XIII form. “First thing for you to understand is that we are going to drink time,” he said. “At the end of the day, for me, there is only one thing in life which is Luxury and that is time. This is the only thing you cannot buy. Tomorrow you can buy an island, you can buy an iceberg, you can even buy friendship, but you can’t buy time. Important to note, that our cellar master today is working on Louis for people that are not born yet. We think a century ahead. Each bottle is the life achievement of generations of cellar masters.”

Here is a glimpse at the conversation that left us wanting more.

Kamal Hotchandani: Both of you guys think ahead of your time. We’re here drinking Time, celebrating 20 years of your (Ludacris) success, 20 years of consistency and greatness. That’s true excellence. Ludovic, my brother in Paris, you’ve completed five powerful years with Louis XIII. You had something very interesting with John Malkovich that you did, as well as with Martin Scorsese, if you could just touch a little bit on that so our audience can know a little bit about what you’ve done in the film world.

Ludovic du Plessis: What we did first with John [Malkovich] reminds me of a very good souvenir. Because we think a century ahead, we asked John Malkovich to make a movie that we named “100 Years”. This movie, no one is going to see it before 100 years. We have to wait for 2115 to see that movie. So he said ‘yes, I want to do it.’ We put the movie, the only reel, in a safe and we closed the safe for 100 years. When we close the door, it starts the timer. Only time will open the safe. We don’t have a key or a code to open it. Louis has a long-standing relationship with time and on the 15th of November, 2115 at 7 p.m., that movie, “100 Years of John”, is going to be an amazing party.

KH: Ludacris, you have your movie (“Fast and Furious 9”) in the pipeline. Was it delayed due to COVID-19 or do we know when we’re going to see you back on the screen?

Ludacris: So it was delayed due to COVID-19. “Fast and Furious 9” was supposed to come out this month. Unfortunately because of the pandemic, now it comes out in April 2021. It has been pushed back to keep everyone safe and to keep in mind all the fans that have been supporting it for all these years. The good thing is I’m hearing talks of a “Fast 10” and maybe even a “Fast 11”. I didn’t think it was going to go past Fast 10. But you know, there are rumors circulating and we’ll see what happens as this is a game-changer, because Universal put out a movie that went straight to video on demand. It was an animation and it was for children, but it didn’t even go to the movie theaters and still did over $100 million, so you never know what’s going to happen after we come out of this pandemic. This is a time where a lot of people are shifting and doing different things and trying out different creative ideas, and see how we can move forward post-pandemic.

KH:  From where you started 20 years ago and through this journey that you’ve gone through, what are some of the great takeaways that you’ve had in your career that we can learn from, and what do you see in the future?

Ludacris: That’s a great question. Some of the great takeaways for me are that you have to change with the times. If you don’t embrace what’s new you’ll become your own worst enemy. I think those are words of wisdom. Coming from when I had to put out an independent album and I was selling actual CDs out of my trunk and then moving into the streaming era, people are in competition with one another but this Verzuz thing that I’m sure everyone has heard about is just so interesting and has created so many phenomenal conversations about competition, about music, about how music ages, about how long it can last, about which artist can even play the game and have 20 songs ready and prepared because certain artists can’t do that. And I think it’s a reality check for a lot of individuals. So to answer your question, the biggest takeaway from me is being in the industry for two decades and being blessed enough to have music that has lasted this long. Of course, some have lasted a little longer and aged better than others, but when you have a catalog and you can even have a conversation about which ones are good and which ones may not have aged as well, you’re already in a category of eliteness on your own, so I can’t wait to see what else comes from the Verzuz and what matchups there are. But I was glad to do it at a time in which most people are still going to be locked down because two, three, four weeks from now, we don’t know if it’s going to be the same type of emotional attachment and feeling because people will have the option to actually leave their homes and still be on their phones or be on their tablets to watch these things, but it’s not going to be the same. So I love that inside out the Swizz (Swizz Beatz), the Timberland for making it happen, man.

To watch the whole webinar click here or watch below.