Revisiting Review Nov 2022: Firstly, I forgot how good the rapping performance on 'Girls Gone Wild' is. As I've been revisiting these albums, I remember thinking I heard some Eminem influence on his debut album, and on the aforementioned song, I definitely hear it more so. I know Ludacris rates Em highly, but I can't say for sure that he was influenced by him. As all Ludacris albums do, this again starts off fiery with the 'Intro'. 'Grew Up a Screw Up' somewhat matches the intro for energy but I think Jeezy's different delivery hurts the song. Ludacris rapping every verse or getting a different type of rapper would've fitted the song better. Next is the Neptunes produced 'Money Maker' that is overrated given it won a Grammy for best rap song, but it's still entertaining, and the album doesn't let the listener down across the first four songs.
'Ultimate Satisfaction', sampling Benny Benassi's 'Satisfaction', goes for something very different though and is easily the worst song here. I don't like the production, the hook is boring, and the rapping doesn't save it.
From 'Mouths to Feed', for the most part the content gets more serious, and it's easily the most grown up Ludacris had been on an album up until this point in his career. 'End of the Night', and the better 'Woozy' with R. Kelly, give us some pop rap/R&B in the middle of the album, but then there is a song about prisoners keeping their head up on 'Do Your Time', responsibilities on 'Mouths to Feed', a storytelling track about three different young girls in trouble with 'Runaway Love, feeling a little like Luda's version of 'Brenda's Got a Baby', and life's struggles on 'War with God' and 'Slap'.
The production is never amazing, but it holds up well, and while perhaps less fun in parts, the content is more interesting from Luda, and there's only one skip. Some of his previous albums have higher highs, but this album wins for consistency with most of the album being 4/5 songs. It's his first album without stupid skits that is a bonus too when playing the album through.
Beats: ★★★★
Rapping/Bars: ★★★★☆
Hooks: ★★★★
Best Tracks: Warning (Intro), Girls Gone Wild, Mouths to Feed, Woozy, Slap, Runaway Love
Songs ordered (best-worst):
Girls Gone Wild ★★★★☆
Mouths to Feed ★★★★☆
War with God ★★★★☆
Slap ★★★★
Tell It Like It Is ★★★★
Runaway Love ★★★★
Grew Up a Screw Up ★★★★
Warning (Intro) ★★★★
Woozy ★★★★
Do Your Time ★★★☆
Money Maker ★★★☆
End of the Night ★★★
Freedom of Preach ★★★
Ultimate Satisfaction ★★
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Original Review: The dreads are off and we have a more serious Ludacris
I reviewed this when it came out but have decided to edit it having heard Luda's other albums since (the rating is the same though). Firstly to the artist himself and Luda is one of the better rappers going around these days, particularly that you hear on the radio. He always sounds like he enjoys what he does, puts effort into it and is distinctive - put Luda over a good beat and he is probably in the top 10 of the voices I'd wanna hear. As far as this album goes, having now heard his others, I think this is comfortably my favourite one. On the whole, the beats are the most to my liking, there ain't many, if any, really 'poor/skippable' tracks like his other albums, and Luda has more to say and a larger variety of subject matter which makes it my fav.
Track for track RT begins with an intro titled, ‘Warning’, for which the beat matches the title, begins the LP well and gets you into the mood. Track two, ‘Grew Up a Screw Up’, which features a Biggie sample as its hook is a fairly good track with some catchy bars that are mostly brag rap. Other tracks in this 'fairly good' vain are ‘End of The Night’, ‘Do Your Time’, ‘Freedom of Preach’ and ‘Money Maker’ which are all solid tracks but no world beaters. Oddly all of those mentioned are songs with featuring artists while the best tracks ‘Girls Gone Wild’, ‘War With God’, Tell It Like It Is' and ‘Slap’ are all just Luda himself. 'Girls Gone Wild' has a beat that I probably normally wouldn't find interesting but Luda raps excellently making the track great. I said on his '08 album, 'Theater of the Mind', that that had too many features and he really doesn't need to have many. Luda can carry tracks himself if he has something to say. However, honourable mentions are given to ‘Woozy’ and ‘Runaway Love’ which feature the legends R. Kelly and Mary J. Blige respectably.
Overall, while RT is nothing brilliant it's more of what a Ludacris album should be like. I find his previous albums fairly hard to get through largely being hit or miss. This has a few too many tracks that I don't like quite enough for RT to get an excellent score but I enjoy enough.
Best Tracks: Warning (Intro), Girls Gone Wild, Mouths to Feed, Woozy, Slap, Runaway Love
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