Ludacris is to narrate a women's basketball documentary in the hope that doing so will help dampen rap music's bad reputation.

The rapper, real name Chris Bridges, has recently been lambasted by Oprah Winfrey about his misogynistic lyrics.

"I'm doing this documentary because it's dear to my heart," he said. "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 narrating the documentry, The Heart of the Game, will help change people's views on rap music.

"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."