Okay, as pretentious as Theater of the Mind may sound, don’t judge a book, well, an album by its cover. One of the favorite sons of the South, Ludacris is back and has managed to combine elements of his older works with a healthy dose of intelligence and wit found in Release Therapy.
Being a theatrical concept album, many non-musical celebrities make cameos on these tracks. It doesn’t hurt the album because they seriously don’t try to rap! Left to Luda, you can see the advantages of cuts like Undisputed, which “co-stars” former boxing champion Floyd Mayweather in a choked (but far from dead) cut with similes and punching.
Some would be looking at Wish You Would, the collaboration with former rival IT and crackling in their pants, but while they deliver mediocre at worst lyrically, the pacing provided by Toomp and 8TRIX is a headache. Even more crap is the Chris Brown and Sean Garrett collaboration What Them Girls Like – yes, it’s obviously a club / radio song so you can jump on it, but don’t go for quality, although Ludacris does drop some decent lines. , except “I love women so much that I am one!” … umm … moving forward …
Despite them, there’s a lot to say about the last three tracks on the album, so I’ll spare you and tell you this: MVP (‘scored’ by DJ Premier; yeah, who thought it wouldn’t happen, but it did happen?), I Do It For Hip Hop (‘co-starring’ by Nas and Jay-Z), and Do The Right Thang (‘co-starring’ by Common and, appropriately, Spike Lee and ‘scored’ by 9th Wonder) – yes, the quality of the clues match the names involved in this triple threat … I mean try. Believe.
You have to love concept albums, as long as they are done well enough. Aside from actor cameos (also from Chris Rock and Ving Rhames) and ‘co-star’ and ‘scored by’ credits, Ludacris’ Theater of the Mind isn’t one that really sticks to the point when it comes to being an album. Conceptual, but through it all, it still packs a lot of punch and you’ll get quite a few kicks too. Definitely a must see.
Available through DTP / Def Jam Records