Showing posts with label Ludaversal. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Ludaversal. Show all posts

Tuesday, April 7, 2015

Ludacris' Ludaversal Album Review

Hip hop is universal. I've preached this sort of thing countless times, always have, always will. Some things begin to sound like a broken record, no matter how differently these things are said, but depending how you hear these things, they certainly have the potential to hit your ear differently, and maybe even persuade you in some type of way. The father of crunk music dripping southern swagger and diamond encrusted necklaces can only say the same things so many times and have people still want to hear it. You like to believe artists have the ability to grow and branch out of their usual subject matter, but after so long you start to wonder... is what their saying becoming a universal language, or is it played out?  Ludacris' latest album might have hit your ear a bit different than his past efforts.

The "Ludaversal Intro" is probably the biggest stand out of the album, though it'd be wrong to say the album goes downhill from here. Luda starts off the album as good as he possibly can with this intro, and his flow on the song is absolutely ridiculous. It's pretty safe to say that if you ever doubted Luda or thought he had lost a step, "Ludaversal Intro" is the track to prove you wrong.


Luda keeps the spitting coming like hot fire (Dylan) on the intro and other tracks like "Beast Mode" and "This Has Been My World," but Luda also switches it up and instills some life lessons in some tracks, the biggest stand out being "Grass Is Always Greener." This track keeps a steady paced, snap-ya-fingas type of vibe that would probably bump pretty well in the car. Ludacris has always been known as the poster rapper for turn up music, but tracks like "Grass Is Always Greener" and "Ocean Skies" show that Ludacris is very capable of making you think, even though he chooses to take that route less often than people might like.

Ludacris has been known as one of the funniest rappers of his time, and you can't help but get a good laugh out of his "Viagra Skit." Luda goes on to call the Viagra people about his "hard problem" during the skit, and to his luck a very lonely woman answers and drives over to help Luda out with his problem. It cuts off at the part where the lady asks "where the drank at", but I think we all know what happens after the fact. Obviously the lady got her drank and was very happy.

A Big K.R.I.T feature is always one to boast and bump, and Ludacris did just that on his K.R.I.T-assisted track "Come And See Me." This is the Ludacris that old fans love to hear, his descriptiveness talking about his cars and his women has always been able to catch fans' ear, and the thump of the bass in "Come And See Me" along with a couple of K.R.I.T verses helps to do exactly that.

                                         (*I do not own these songs, or the rights to them*)

Ludacris keeps the features to a minimum on Ludaversal, and it's kind of a welcoming back feel you get from Luda's music on Ludaversal, although the features he boasts (K.R.I.T, Miguel, Usher) fit in very well with the sounds of each song, and as a whole on the album. Hearing Luda and Ursher on a track again brings back great memories of club and booty bouncing jams, although they both do a great job of giving fans more of a jazzy feel on their track "Not Long."

So is Luda back?  That feeling that you get listening to a Ludacris song; you know, the getting hyped up over a fast beat with some banging drums, Luda's light speed flows and wordplay and the head bobbing and trying to keep up with the words; you can only get that feel from a Ludacris song. The beats are top notch, the lyrics are just as appetizing and catch your ear as fast as ever (you have to keep up with him, though that's where the fun lies), and Luda still has things to talk about. Ludacris has become a staple in the game, and even when you think he's down and out and ready to throw in the towel and give up, he shows you that he's still able to keep up with todays young guns. Yes I believe that Luda has become universal, and his latest effort is one that every fan of him, old and new, can respect. Some new music can be refreshing, yet give you that same old feel that you got the first time you heard the old music.      






   

 


Friday, April 3, 2015

Ludacris' 5 Catchiest Tracks

MOOOOVE BITCH! GET OUT THE WAY! STAND UP! WHEN I MOVE YOU MOVE! JUST LIKE THAT?! WHATCHU GONE DO?! ACT A FOOOOL! Ludacris makes that kind of shit that makes you want to get up, ask that hot chick you've been staring at all night to finally dance, fight, and maybe even make sweet lovin to your chick (whom you probably got dancing to a Luda song). Ludacris has been such a monumental name in hip hop for so long that people almost forget about the (arguable) classics that he has released over the last 10 years, and mostly because too many people are focused on his "falling off", or his "not being able to make music as good as old," or his constant involvement in the Fast & Furious movie series, though it has kept his career alive to some degree. But fuck all of this, and I say this because it swerves people's attention from where it should be placed, and that's Luda's music. Here, in light of Ludacris' latest album Ludaversal, here are Luda's 5 most recognizable songs, songs that even people who aren't fans of Luda have to love.

Roll Out (My Business)

This is my personal introduction to Ludacris, his Word Of Mouf album means more to me than it does the average listener simply because this is not only my introduction to Ludacris, but one of the first albums included in my introduction to hip hop, and boy is it grand. The attitude he brings on not only this song but the entire album is something you could only wish you'd live with, and Luda also brings some funny, witty wordplay, along with fantastic flow that keeps you engaged for the entire album.

What's Your Fantasy

On a more sensual (not really though, more of a rough, thug nasty) note, Luda crashed MTV and the internet with "What's Your Fantasy", a Shawnna assisted, fast paced, dirty, fore play inspired jam that we all got so used to hearing from Luda (more so the fast paced flow and witty lyrics, not so much the sexual vibe). "What's Your Fantasy" lived on Ludacris' indie debut studio album Incognegro, which was released in 1999. "What's Your Fantasy" gave you the vibe that Ludacris had something to offer to rap, but nobody really knew quite what it was at this point so early in his career.

Move Bitch

 
The hilariousness of Ludacris is certainly cemented like freshly dried pavement in his song "Move Bitch". The parody rap train followed soon after this release, you could almost say that "Move Bitch" started the parody vibe in rap songs that garnered so much attention in the early 2000s, it almost makes it seem as if it's made to be completely serious and succeeds at it, yet so many people hear the song (even today) and can have a good laugh. How many songs can you say you hear today that are successfully able to tackle both?  This proves Luda's underrated ability at being able to build a concept.

Get Back


Another hilarious music video accompanying a pretty hard song from Luda, "Get Back" is another one of those songs that makes you want to just start swinging on somebody whose "all in ya ear", as Luda so eloquently puts it. Luda is looking like the black Popeye in this video with his ridiculous Tiny-sized arms (oh yes, that was a Crash Bandicoot reference for those hip enough), though tiny is as ironic a word to use as it gets.

Runaway Love

                                  (*I do not own these songs, videos, nor the rights to them*)

My last pick for Luda's catchiest tracks might not hit the ear as well as some of his other smash hits, but in terms of real, personal content that hits home, "Runaway Love" is Luda's "Dear Mama." Luda wasn't known as that rapper that always had a message in his tracks, but the raw, real feel that "Runaway Love" gives is so eye opening that even rap haters have to just sit and listen to the hard hitting story that Luda is getting across with such detail, just as he explains little Nicole's abusive stepdad and her friend Stacy. You have to have a heart of stone to not have the message in this song affect you some type of way.

So often in hip hop (or music, period) we get incredibly comfortable with the presence of certain artists in our life. It's a calming comfortable, almost as if these artists hit a type of musical purgatory, you don't listen to anything new they put out, yet you can't live without remembering the awesome music they're so greatly known for in your past. It'd be criminal to say that Ludacris has hit this purgatory, though how else can you explain his career as of right now?  It hurts me to say that Luda has fallen off, but if I said this I'd be incorrect in that statement. Maybe people don't quite see Ludacris' music as they once did, maybe people believe Ludacris has fallen off, or maybe Ludacris just doesn't have the appeal that today's artists do, but if there's one thing that we owe Ludacris, it's another chance. His newest album Ludaversal has recently released, and I believe we owe Ludacris the chance to see if he's still got it, because you remember "Get Back" and the affect it had on you.