Ludacris: Back For The First Time : Music Reviews : Rolling Stone

Album Reviews

Atlanta's Ludacris is that rare brand of rapper who shows you his skills as much as he tells you about them. His lyric-heavy approach churns out results that range from the sublime ("Tired of fast food so they cooked up dope") to the whimsical ("You all wet behind the ears but it's a drought in your brain") to the head-scratching ("I'll cut your Achilles tendon and put a sock in your mouth"). On "1st and 10," a "Twelve Days of Christmas"-like rhyme cipher, Ludacris and friends trade lines by the numbers ("I started with ten Mac .10's, ten clips and ten peers/Got ten times richer in the span o' ten years"). On his current hit, "What's Your Fantasy," he and guest Shawna offer to do all the things your guy or girl won't do: He suggests doing the do on the fifty-yard line at the kickoff of a Falcons game; she obliges by offering to wet his birthday suit with her tongue. The album's bounce-inducing, sweat-producing soundtrack -- provided by such producers as Timbaland, Jermaine Dupri and Organized Noize -- is layered like childhood issues and packs drama like your ex-lover. While nothing matches the undeniable groovability of "Fantasy" or its potty-mouthed revamp featuring Foxy Brown and Trina, there's enough to make you look forward to Ludacris being back for the second time.