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Shows like “Selena + Chef” and “Luda Can’t Cook” feel like exercises in branding as much as entertainment, where culinary expertise is secondary to the sparkle of the star.

In the video, taken inside a recording studio, Ludacris rapped over an instrumental version of Ye’s “Devil in a New Dress”: “Never been Illuminati, only ill Luda naughty.”

“It didn’t go dark for me until after Luda and we started going with back-to-back shots,” he tells his friends during the live podcast taping the next day.

“What else would you expect?” asked Luda, a retired teacher who spoke on the condition that her last name be withheld for fear of Russian reprisals, as she shepherded her children home for the night.

“So far, we weren’t shelled in this area,” said Luda, Albina’s mother.