Album Review - Ludacris- Ludaversal

Ludacris has had a huge career and while he can spit and everyone acknowledges this, he has been long slept on as an overall artist. After a nice long hiatus where he shot movies, worked with charities and otherwise just enjoyed the fruits of his previous labors, Luda is dropping an album ahead of what is sure to be one of the biggest movie releases of the year which he stars in. Pretty much life is good so why even drop an album? Luda actually takes a stab at answering that his his new album release, Ludaversal.


To start off Luda goes in on the album intro in a manner thats extra fresh if you haven't listened to the myriad of freestyles and EP/mixtape he put out leading up to the album. Luda does his normal rap thing over the perfect beat set up for him to go off on. Now the thing I don't care for is when Ludacris goes off on his pseudo 'I'm not a tough guy but I am' routine like on "Call Ya Bluff" even though his verses are fine. He still uses some slightly dated punchlines in referencing Antoine Dodson for instance but he is mostly solid.




"Beast Mode" is cool and the two main verses on "Come and See Me" with Big KRIT are solid as well but I dislike the refrain at the end of the short third verses and the "Viagra" skit and "Get Lit" are typical trite Luda songs that should be skipped. "Grass is Greener" is a simple concept about opposites but it works for what it is, something that isn't too difficult to wrap your head around.

At first I wasn't too fond of the more emotional parts of the album which kind of start with the Miguel assisted "Good Lovin" about lost love. His lyrics don't always translate in being able to make verses on songs like that more descriptive. "Not Long" with Usher is another good song but the emotional high on the record is "Ocean Skies" which features Monica and is about the death of Ludacris' father to alcoholism. Meanwhile he talks about the difficulties of stardom on "Charge it to the Game" and "Money" which also features Rick Ross and he discusses some his recent paternity woes.


While there aren't any must hear iconic songs overall Ludacris came back with another solid addition to his portfolia with this new album. He isn't known as the most emotional or political type of rapper and is seen as just a somewhat humorous guy but he did show a more serious side in a better manner than usual on this album as it is indeed an attempt to show his versatility and overall life. He can rap, but he is never going to be known as a lyricist because his wordplay is often to surface level without any extra levels to it and that knocks him down a notch. The album is a decent bit of entertainment and not everything has to be complicated to be good.

Rating: 3/5