#Ludacris act a fool zip full
"Undisputed" takes the concept of Ghostface's "The Champ" full stop, and perhaps in a show of Def Jam's priorities, he gets Floyd Mayweather as his trainer rather than a non-licensed Rocky rip. Obviously, it leads to a constantly jarring listen, though the first third does provide its share of high points. But it flows less in a "cinematic" manner and more like Nick at Nite of the Mind- going from slapstick single-cam, drippy rom-com, and the self-serious drama to close things out. It's not all that far-fetched considering the "lyricist" moments of The Preview, last year's mixtape with DJ Drama and the one boast he used twice by his second album- "My rap career goes back further than your father's hairline." But the main problem stems from a boast on the intro- "Give me 16 bars on another nigga's song and I'MMA FUCKIN' KILL IT." True enough, but give him 50 minutes of passable beats on his own album, and he might kill it, like, 45-55% of the time.Īs to be expected from someone who spends a lot of time with questionable screenplays, Theater of the Mind somewhat unintentionally breaks up into three distinct acts. Forget gunning for the #1 spot over Austin Powers instrumentals, Ludacris is gunning for those nebulous "top five, dead or alive" props.
But while Release Therapy sought to prove (in a relative sense) that Ludacris had important opinions about things other than pussy poppin' on the handstand, Theater is every bit as serious-minded in a different fashion.