Ludacris - Theater Of The Mind

Theater Of The Mind is the sixth record from your boy Luda. Heath and I were discussing the other day how Luda is pretty much the cameo king. In retrospect, there's a strong argument for Jadakiss or Fabolous to fill that slot, but think about it: Ludacris makes DJ Khaled songs sound good. If you can do that, you're practically King Midas in the rap game. On the heels of his stellar cameos on that dung heap of a Khaled track and that Felli Fel joint, I **ahem** 'acquired' the Ludacris catalog recently, then picked up Theater Of The Mind on the heels of that reimmersion.

Luda is a smart guy who has always made the most of the options his fame has afforded him. Like his man David Banner says, "rap money is good--but you should see these movie checks". Luda has been stepping up his acting game, starring in Crash and Hustle And Flow and reaping the benefits therein and of. That's all well and good, but when your acting career seeps its way in as a weird concept for your next record, that's when it gets a little sketchy for me. As does the "many sides of Ludacris" cover. Is that ever a good idea? That shallowly said and hated on, the music on Theater Of The Mind pretty much makes us for any misgivings I have about the cross-career promotion.

Luda has his own label, Disturbing The Peace, which operates in conjunction with Def Jam. It's a good combination, perhaps increasingly for Def Jam, as they've been shitting the bed pretty consistently with Jay-Z at the helm. The argument has been made about Jay-Z keeping the rest of the roster down in favor of his releases and it's increasing looking more and more accurate. If you can't sell a million of the last Roots record, something is fucked up with your promotion.

Theater Of The Mind should sell big, especially with guest shots from Nas, The Game and Lil Wayne. Production is well-rounded, too, with tracks by Toomp, Clinton Sparks and even an up-and-comer you might have heard of called DJ Premier. It's notable that with all the guest appearances here, Luda rips the hell out of that Primo track all by himself. It's called MVP and might just be the best track on the record. I Do It For Hip-hop has Nas and Jay-Z in an actually-not-so-terrible guest appearance. Call Up The Homiez with The Game and Willy Northpole is another banger that should definitely be afforded single status. If It doesn't happen, I see it being all over the mix tape circuit. There are a couple tracks that I could do without, and the presence of Spike Lee on one of the tracks seems a wee bit desperate, but all in all, Theater Of The Mind is one of the few hip-hop records I've heard this year that I would actually pay for. Check out the web presence here.

R