Chicken N Beer
Ludacris--2, Bill O'Reilly--1. The disismightier than the sword, and Ludacris wastes no time berating Fox News pundit Bill O'Reilly (O’Reilly enticed Pepsi to cut Ludacris off their payroll citing his lyrical irresponsibility). On "Blow It Out," he taunts his conservative right-winged adversary with lines like, "…I’ma start my own beverage/it will calm your nerves/Pepsi, The New Generation/Blow it out ya ass." Likewise, on "Hoes In My Room," a slick souled-out collabo withSnoop, he wonders aloud who could have possibly let all of these revolting groupies into his room, post-concert. O’Reilly, who else? To Ludacris’ credit, his third album is more sonically fluid and versatile thanWord of Mouf. From the hypnotic first single "Stand Up" to the classy "Diamond in the Back" (yeah, we’ll forgive him this time for utilizing that vastly overusedWilliam Devaughnsample) large chunks of the album are highly listenable…subject matter notwithstanding. By the second half of the album he goes full-on debauchery, flipping bushels of potty-mouthed rhymes in poor taste; "Teamwork" is his audio rendition of what a ménage a trois might feel and sound like, while on "Hip Hop Quotables" he spits about 64 bars with no hooks, once explaining why he can’t find the right lady ("…a lot of y’all are more stuck up than tampons"). Yep, as with any Ludacris record, this one comes with a big phat caveat. If you're not down with the hoes and Heineken (please refer to one-half of album title), you might wanna cop this albumandthe newJeru the Damajafor some balance.--Dalton Higgins