Music editor Niki D'Andrea hangs with Ludacris at his star-studded Super Bowl concert

I'm in a three-foot space between the stage and the guard rail, and I'm the only person in the audience this close to Ludacris (everybody else is behind the rail, in the general admission seats). He keeps looking down at me with amusement and smiling. He has to reach over me every time he slaps hands with people in the front row.

For a record label CEO and chart-topping performer with a crowd of more than a thousand screaming people in his pocket, Ludacris is surprisingly humble. In person, he introduces himself by his real name, Chris Bridges, and he loves to share the spotlight with the artists on his label.

When Ludacris begins performing "I Get Money," Northpole joins him onstage and tears up the mic for a verse. Ludacris looks proud of his protégé, and at the end of the song, he slaps hands with Northpole and tells the audience, "Make some noise for Willy Northpole! He's representing Arizona, so go buy his album when it comes out."

Northpole returned to the stage for the last couple of songs of Ludacris' set, along with DTP artist Steph Jones and North Carolina rapper Small World. Before saying good night, they invited everybody to the official after-party at Club Rain in Scottsdale.

After the show, the backstage area's more congested than before. A couple of Cadillac Escalades with California plates are backed up near the loading area, where Lil Fate's smoking a cigarette and drinking from a bottle of Grey Goose vodka. People weave in and out of dressing rooms, looking for each other. Ludacris is nowhere to be seen, but Northpole's hanging out with his homies in one of the dressing rooms. I congratulate him on a great show and tell him to hit me up when his debut album for DTP, The Connect, is released this spring.

Then it's time for me to head home. After hitting three huge pre-Super Bowl parties in three days, I'm bummed that I'm too tired to hit the after-party, because judging by some of Ludacris' comments earlier — "There are some fine-ass ladies in Phoenix, Arizona" and "I heard Arizona got some of the best weed in the country" — he probably had one hell of a good time.