Posted September 24, 2008- When you think of Ludacris, for some peculiar reason, lyrical coinsurer doesn’t ring a bell, and quiet frankly, Chris Bridges aka Ludacris has a serious problem with that. “You know what, as far as lyricism is concerned, I do feel a bit underrated to be honest with you”, says the three time Grammy winner. Theater of the Mind, his sixth solo effort in eight years, is, according to Luva Luva (an On-Air personality moniker from his early radio days) being equated to a feature film; a vast difference from his previous compositions.
Logistics of a feature film include; co-stars, creativity, and unforeseen circumstances that you wouldn’t ponder under the norm. And if you let Luda tell it, Theater of the Mind is just that, and then some. Luda told BET.com of the project, “I’ll be honest with you, this album is not something you can listen to, it’s something you have to experience; every song is a movie and an event. This album is like a movie, you’ll have to hear the album to really grasp what I’m talking about. I don’t have features on the project, I have co-stars; it’s that serious.”
One of the aforementioned co-stars on the set is undisputed boxing champ, Floyd Mayweather. “Undisputed”, a track featuring Floyd’s incentive rhetoric, pits Ludacris spitting bars of fury to every non believer of his lyrical capabilities. “The track, “Undisputed” man I’m definitely rapping with a lot of passion. I’m basically letting my fans know that I’m still as hungry as day one even though this is my sixth album in 8 years, I’m taking it back to the true essence so you can really understand how hungry I am,” Luda explained.
Is Luda out to prove something, well, yeah, he is. Healthier and ready for lyrical warfare, Luda is taking no shorts this time around, “Whenever it comes to the competition level, I’m just letting people know that I’m back in the game, I’m getting healthier, I’ve been working out, I have healthy mind and my flow is all the way right,” he clarified. As far as his placement on any of hip hop’s “lyrical” lists, Ludacris candidly claims Theater of the Mind will relieve all non believers of their misgivings, “This album is out to prove exactly that point; that there are certain places on Top 5 and Top 10 lists that I need to be and Theater of the Mind is definitely proving that.”
Theater of the Mind hits stores November 11 via Disturbing Tha Peace/Def Jam Records The first offering from the set, "What Them Girls Like", which co-stars Chris Brown and Sean Garrett, can be heard right here!