Artist: Ludacris
Album: Theater of the Mind
Release Date: 11.25.08

He’s six albums deep so by now, we know what to expect from Ludacris right? Some thumpin’ beats, a boatload of clever puns and humorous metaphors, a few panty-droppers, and some keep-it-real message songs. While this sixth album doesn’t experience any major deviations in content, the few cosmetic changes to its overall presentation are what make it worth the listen. Enter the Theater of the Mind, a craftily written compilation of short stories with cameos from today’s hip-hop elite and some Hollywood headliners. The star of the show is the fun-loving lyrical mastermind Ludacris, and he takes a bolder, more confident approach in stating his case to prove that he’s the best in the game.

Ludacris is a modern-day storyteller and has an unmatched ability to build mental images through his lyrical wordplay and his vocal inflections. He calls up the homies on Call Up The Homies, featuring The Game and Willy Northpole as the main characters partying in different cities where circumstances call for some major reinforcements. Luda slows it down a bit in the Theater’s love scenes adding Jamie Foxx on the smooth and sexy Contagious, and Plies lends a hand on the ultra-sensual Nasty Girl, recommended to all the uninhibited sex kittens out there. Producer Wyldfyer contributed two of the hottest tracks on the album: I Do It for Hip Hop (with Jay-Z and Nas) and my top pick for this album, Last of a Dying Breed (feat. Lil Wayne). He attacks the latter of the two with a ferocity that eliminates any doubt that he lives up to all his hype. Ludacris turns up the humor with funnyman Chris Rock on Everybody Hates Chris, and drops a dose of reality alongside Common and Spike Lee for the album’s closer Do The Right Thang.

The overall highlight of this album is its ability to paint vivid pictures in the mind of the listener. I could easily imagine a music video for each of these tracks. Again, there’s nothing really new here in terms of content, but Luda’s delivery gets better and better, and he finds new ways to make his music more appealing. Undoubtedly, this will make platinum album #6 for Ludacris, but I don’t know that it’s his best effort. I still feel that Release Therapy was his finest contribution. But when it comes to hip-hop’s greatest, Ludacris is right: he’s a bonafide MVP of this rap shit…

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-Mack-