They may not have certain boxes ticked to be considered part of the G.O.A.T conversations-sometimes not even a honorable mention. Music is an art form where celebrating the best of the best can come down to their list of achievements and public opinion.Ī majority of the time, many legendary acts will still be overlooked entirely. At least for Ludacris, we'll see by October whether he plans to deliver on his end of the bargain.Hip-hop has always been a genre where even the most successful, talented, and influential artists still don't get the credit they deserve. More telling is that it's three months from election day and the support of Obama from the pop community feels awfully similar to the Rock for Change campaign of 2004- most of it generated on bold and yet incredibly vague promises of change. It's a non-story on all fronts, but nothing requires constant churn like hip-hop gossip and election muckraking. But let the volley fit the serve, as Luda spends as many lines describing his car's paint job as he does Obama's qualifications. Essentially, this is Obama's Sistah Souljah moment, giving him the opportunity to make bold disapprovals of Luda's views of Hillary ('she hated on you so that bitch is irrelevant'), Dubya ('mentally handicapped'), and in the money quote, McCain ('don't belong in ANY chair unless he's paralyzed'). Just his luck- Ludacris is just trying to do something nice for Obama and ends up in the recycle bin with Scarlett Johansson's e-mails. Not to mention the extraneous dross that drops in under his stewardship (Playaz Circle, I-20), none more otherworldly than LA the Darkman's 'Coogi Down' (what year is this?), wherein he and Willie Da Kid boast about eating chicken parmesan at Italian feedbaggery Maggiano's without the slightest bit of self-deprecation.Īll of this would've made a mixtape digested and forgotten by the time Theater of the Mind comes out on October 21 if it wasn't for 'Politics as Usual'.

Smith- just say 'DRAM CRUISE- I DO MISSIONS IMPOSSIBLE!' or 'GOOD CHOICE!' or 'IT STARTS WITH YOU LIKE IT STARTS WITH ME' out loud and see what a dumbass you sound like. Obviously, Drama's greatest contribution is acting like he's trying to shout down Stephen A.

Cross Tucker Max with N.W.A.'s 'Automobile' and maybe you've got 'Ordinary Negroes', and while hearing Jim Jones through an autotune is quite possibly the highlight of the record, the fake ad for 'the robot thingie!' belongs in the trash bin of an aspiring 'Mad TV' writer.īigger problem is that DJ Drama is also trying to reassess the value of his 'stamp of approval' at the very same time, and in a manner that's completely contrary to what Ludacris is doing- not since Best of Both Worlds have two rap superstars shared an album less on the same page. You'd have to be a total prude to disapprove him turning quite possibly the only good hip-hop track that advocates against smoking weed (OutKast's classic 'Git Up, Git Out') into a tutorial on puff-puff-pass protocol, but it's done in such a lazy manner that it actually bolsters the original point in a roundabout way. When you try hard, then you die hard- the best Ludacris moments have tended to be the ones with the least amount of guile, and as such, the more scripted moments of humor are straight open-mic night. How is that a guy who's made a career out of stealing tracks with his guest verses ('Holidae Inn', 'Oh' to name a few) can't actually steal a fully made song and call it his own? Yet while his beatjacking is rarely short of competent, there's something lost in the translation- there's almost no track here that improves on the original. The main difference is, for the most part, a carefree tone, with Luda raiding my 2000 Winamp playlist- he handles Prodigy's 'Keep It Thoro' and Gangsta Boo's 'Where Dem Dollars At' with typical agility, and really, dude could turn an El-P instrumental into something for your kid sister to bounce with.

And befitting a mixtape, it's stocked with lame skits, unnecessary guest raps from the DTP crew, and it's about 10-15 minutes too long. And of course, punchline after punchline that's just barely before its freshness date ('I'm 'bout to fuck a bitch and get off like R. No 'Splash Waterfalls'! No shitty Neptunes beats (okay, he does rap over 'Blue Magic')! No Tommy Lee skits about green living.probably! It's typical 'this is for the streets/the love' stuff, meaning that Luda's using his incredible vocal elasticity describing an unstoppable appetite for weed, women, beatdowns, and general act a fool-ness. With that comes DJ Drama Presents: The Preview, and on one hand, well- this simply has to be better than something label-sanctioned.

Ludacris act a fool acapella