Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #12305 in Digital Music Album
• Published on: 2008-11-24
• Released on: 2008-11-24
• Running time: 0 seconds

Customer Reviews

Ludacris - Theater of the Mind 7/10
Ludacris has always been one of the most entertaining rappers to watch and listen to, more for his ridiculous lines and outrageous, sharp humor than any redeeming social qualities. Ludacris has always been the class clown of the Dirty South scene, and Theater of the Mind is nothing if not an absolute embrace of this image. Crass and vulgar, with beats that slam and bounce with no respect for dynamics or subtlety, Ludacris' latest is popcorn entertainment at its finest.

Beginning with the intro, a "please-quiet-down-the-movie-is-about-to-begin" skit that sounds like Pirates of the Caribbean mixed with Atlanta's hottest club cinema, Theater of the Mind pounds home its loose concept by calling each guest rapper a "co-star" and each song supposedly corresponding to a scene from a movie. The production is self-assured and more of what one has come to expect from a Ludacris record: thumping bass `n drums, an active horn section, and vintage R&B samples to complement the synths and occasional sound effects.

One More Drink" co-starring T-Pain (that guy must really like buying more drinks), is a fairly hilarious tale of Luda's drunken adventures with less-than-attractive women combined with Pain's lovely observation that "if I take one more drink / I'm gonna end up ******' youuuuuu," while the lyrical genius continues on "MVP," with the rapper bragging that "women say I talk more game than John Madden" and advising that "she should blow me like candles on your b-day / `cuz I signed more lines than she's passed on the freeway." Deep Ludacris is not.

The "co-stars" are what you would expect from an artist of Ludacris' caliber, ranging from T.I.'s fierce verse on "Wish You Would" to Chris Brown on the repetitive, standard club-jam "What Them Girls Like." The best spots, however, are those that you don't see coming, but fit perfectly into Ludacris' hip-hop theater: boxing champ Floyd Mayweather Jr. on the epic "Undisputed" is spot-on, and when Ving Rhames announces that Ludacris is a "true entreprenegro" and has "expanded his empire into multiple profitable businesses, including his Thai food restaurant," you can't help but admit that Ludacris is, indeed, a born entertainer.

Theater of the Mind, however, has some slow spots you'd just as rather skip through like in every movie. "Nasty Girl" is an increasingly outrageous sequence of prim and proper girls turning wild in bed without an interesting beat to back it up, and "Call Up Your Homies" is your typical "gather up the crew" anthem that you've probably heard a dozen times before. "Contagious" co-starring Jamie Foxx, however, is the worst offender here; the kind of slow-jam ballad that you cringe upon hearing; it's the awkward sex scene spliced into the middle of an otherwise great picture.

The highlight of the record, however, the quite cinematically-titled "Do The Right Thang" co-starring Common and Spike Lee, is the exact opposite of much of the rest of the album; a plea to urban youth to stop and "use your brain," making for one of Luda's most immediate and meaningful songs and a sharp contrast to the other tracks. When the track blows up into a horn-laden `70s funk jam and Luda proclaims "I see the sunshine gazing through window pane / blazing like indo flame, it's time to wake up," it's a heartfelt closer to a record that, while it does have its missteps, remains a guaranteed blockbuster.

Ludacris - Theater of the Mind
This is the first classic Luda album since Word of Mouf. While Chicken N Beer was great, the rest of his releases were just decent at best. Luda always has and always will be one of the greatest pure rappers of our generation, but he is sometimes inconsistent as far as whole albums go. But this album is a true classic, and is giving Nas a run for his money for rap album of the year. While I do wish that he would have cut the features or in this albums case, "Co-Stars", down by about half. He only gives us three solo track and all three are phenominal tracks. Starting with "Undisputed" which technically features Floyd Maywhether, but hes really only in the song for a few seconds so i dont even consider that a feature, but the track is just a classic raw Luda track where he just goes into attack mode on what could almost be considered a freestyle over just a phenominal beat by Don Cannon who turns out to be a great producer on this album. And then on the again technically featured track "Everybody Hates Chris", "Co-Starring Chris Rock", but again Chris Rock only makes a very brief appearance at the intro to the song and the outro, so i dont really even consider that a feature. But Cris just kills this old school soul beat by Don Cannon with this super catchy hook. And then on one of the best Luda tracks ever, the brilliantly DJ Premier produced "MVP", Luda just smoothly glides over this beat, its an record you could tell Luda was really going all out on and really put alot of thought into. Then you get the signature club track singles from "What Them Girls Like", "One More Drink" and the sure to be follow up single "Nasty Girl" co starring Plies. And then you get that signature "Meaningful Song" in "Do The Right THang", but none of this album comes off corny or fake or forced like some songs on his previous efforts. This is the first rap album that i have been truly satisfied with since Nas's Untitled album. Good Job Luda, you got a classic on your hands again!


Grade:
A-

Well produced, but a little too "pop variety" for me.
All of the tracks are well produced and there is not much filler (eg: tracks with just skits on them) on this album. A lot of the "skit" material is worked into themed songs which are creative and well orchestrated and mixed.

Some of this album comes off sounding too "pop variety show" for me, though, and I don't really care for Everybody Hates Chris or the slow tracks (excluding One More Drink.) This may just be a personal thing.

The tracks that really show off southern hip hop do it with great effect. Wish You Would, Call up the Homies, Last of a Dying Breed, I Do It for Hip Hop are all fantastic. The good tracks are amazing, and leave me wishing the whole album was filled up with these instead of feeling like a variety album.

Fans of just one style may feel the album is lacking. If you like a lot of the styles that are popular in hip hop nowadays, this album delivers a good mix of different flavors, but if you're hitting the skip over some tracks, you may end up enjoying half an album worth of entertainment.

The mixing and production is top-notch. Pop hip hop (hate to say it but this style of hip hop is pop nowadays) has a great new album addition.