Theater of the Mind - Ludacris

“King of the south” Ludacris brings us his sixth studio album “Theater of the Mind”, a concept album seeking to continue the success from his previous LP “Release Therapy” (2006). The album features a plethora of collaborations, with “co-stars” including The Game, Jamie Foxx, Lil Wayne, Floyd Mayweather Jr., T.I., Chris Brown, Chris Rock, T-Pain, amongst many, many more.

In “Theater of the Mind”, the concept of each track is based on a movie scene, with a story and theatrical, hence the vast number of “co-star” collaborations. Perhaps the album “co-stars” are a few too many, as it’s a rarity to find a track with just Ludacris as the sole focus.

In “Wish You Would”, co-starring T.I, Ludacris dares all the “haters” that are allegedly jealous of him, to face him in a number of major U.S. cities, be it “come into my hood” or “come into they hood”, with “they hood” including, Houston, Dallas, New York, L.A, amongst many others.

On top of a fairly basic beat, Ludacris claims the “haters” hate him “cause I got it” and “cause they still ridin’ tha MARTA train” whilst Ludacris boasts about his luxuries, like a “Bentley Car cover lookin’ like a laced frontwig”. Ludacris and Chris Rock comically elaborate further on the hatred of Christopher “Ludacris” Bridges in the track “Everybody Hates Chris”.

In “One More Drink”, Ludacris teams up with T-Pain for the fourth single of the album to deliver a comical track about the aphrodisiac affects of alcohol. The pair warn about the drunken debauchery’s that will arise when given another drink, including “grab the camera phone, and take a buncha’ drunk pictures”. The track has a nice beat that you can easily bounce, enjoying the frivolity of the content.

“Call Up the Homies” is the fifth single on the album and co-stars The Game and Willie Northpole, and the trio rap on the dangers of the streets to a fiery beat. Ludacris warns “Keep one eye open, cause the streets down sleep” and the The Game threatens “If the streets get hungry, then the streets gon eat”. Willie Northpole finishes the last verse opened by Ludacris with “Big homie I got ya, stick to ya like a cactus”, and ending “I see some n*gga staring at us, with a lame frown, I’m a call up the homies”.

“Southern Gangsta” is a flaunting track with a steady beat, co-starring Rick Ross, Playaz Circle & Ving Rhames. Ving Rhames comically narrates throughout, beginning by describing Ludacris as “a hustler” and “with a reckless disregard for the haters”, whilst each rapper takes it in turn to praise himself.

Ludacris starts off with his showy claims as “I’m already rich, so talk more figures” and threatening “I got gangstas that’ll rearrange your whole face”. Rick Ross follows with a lyrical contribution showing their wanted gangster status, “I got a letter from the government” that “said we were hustlers” and boasting “I got 20 cars, why exaggerate, it cost 5 grand jus’ to fill the gas tanks”. Playaz Circle drops a comical line “It’s an election year, I support strippers” before commenting on his skill on the mic “I’m on time with the flow, not a minute nor a second late”.

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