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While Ludacris may be professing loudly to do it for hip-hop on his latest album, it's refreshing to know he can do it for hip-hop and still do it for the mainstream who may not realize just how artful he really is.
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Even Spike Lee appears to show he got game. All this would be distracting if the 14 tracks weren't so darn good. Luda's lyrics are so sharp and supremely witty throughout.
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Yes, it is Christopher Bridges’s best work (relatively) but ultimately, he might not be capable of a Whut?! Thee Album-level classic. Top track: I Do It For Hip Hop, co-starring Nas and Jay-Z NOW | November 26-December 3, 2008 | VOL 28 NO 13 Go to Music Post a comment : All comments are reviewed.
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This one's stuffed with massive, flamboyant beats; overloud dirty-comic vocals; and all the usual lyrical stops.
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We've watched this movie more than a few times, but it's always fun to see this many talented pals cutting loose together.
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There’s no telling if Ludacris will ever be given the level of respect he desires, but this help proves that he deserves it.
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Though clever and consistent, Ludacris' colorful lyrics and wildly expressive delivery lack the laugh-out-loud, abuse-the-rewind-button hilarity of his best guest verses; it's his misfortune to contribute his meanest 16 bars to other rappers' albums.
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While his previous effort, 2006's "Release Therapy," was much more the thematically tight album and deserved a concept, this loose set of tunes is all-together more entertaining, thanks in no small part to a highly inspired Luda and all the punch lines he lands.
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If the cred-grabbing lyrics feel rote alongside guests like Jay-Z and Lil Wayne, Luda's thundering cadence and pop-wise club jams are strong.
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Ludacris’ force-of-nature vigor attempts the Herculean task of yoking the mess together but can’t quite tame a rambling array of singles.
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His sixth album, proves that the rapper-actor-restaurateur has mastered Hollywood's most abiding lesson: Stick to formula. Each song plays like a scene in a movie, a motif that makes for richly visual storytelling but many a familiar situation.
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Punch line for punch line, Luda is still the best in the business (e.g., promising to get ladies “wetter than Michael Phelps”), but these sex jams and hater disses feel too flat and perfunctory for his thousand-watt personality.
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As a consequence of his preoccupation with acting and "lyricism," Luda neglects to do what he does best: make fun music.
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Luda has suggested he wanted this album to have a cinematic through line, maybe in order to consolidate his diversified media representations, but Theater doesn't cohere in a manner that would satisfy anyone short of Paul Haggis, or anyone who has listened to an album by Prince Paul or Madvillain, for that matter.
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While Theater isn't quite as dire as the above may indicate, like every other Ludacris record, it doesn't grow on you--in fact, it actually contracts.
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Theater of the Mind, ultimately, is a difficult record to absorb. It’s not so much Ludacris’ persona that’s changed and yet this album tries to almost completely change his sound.
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Theater of the Mind is a disappointment and more--snickering through both high-minded social consciousness and insipid cash cows, the album, so flat and fucking boring, serves absolutely no one but Ludacris himself.
User score distribution:
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Positive: 21 out of 24
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Mixed: 1 out of 24
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Negative: 2 out of 24
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Feb 25, 2012Luda is getting worse by the album. Battle of the exes was an ok Album but this album sucked. Luda rushed this album and it had no good songs on it...
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JamesJ.Aug 30, 2009Underrated album.
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robbiek.Feb 26, 2009Perfect album title and sublime lyrics to go with it.He aint got no competition. Luda's the best.