The Time Traveling Rapper

Ludicrous

An adjective.

Something utterly ridiculously because of being absurd, incongruous, impractical, or unsuitable.

Comes from the early 17th century. From the Latin ludicrous < ludus for “play”.

All in all it was clever for Chris Bridges to call himself that as a stage name. Plus after seeing his videos and his general demeanor you can see that he enjoys the occasional silly or absurd thing. Keep in mind that this is the guy who wore a midget from a chain in one video and spent another video with giant Popeye arms.

The years have been good to Luda with albums, movie roles, businesses, and other successes. But in my opinion I was skeptical as to whether he would make anymore music after Battle Of The Sexes. I was afraid that he’d grown like Andre 3000 with sporadic features and the occasional single release.

Any thought of that was quelled when I downloaded his mixtape entitled 1.21 Gigawatts (Back to the First Time).

Just listening to it took me back to his debut studio album Back For The First Time. And it also served the purpose of putting to rest any doubts I had over his microphone prowess and longevity. It is safe to say Luda is here to stay. As always with my music reviews I will enumerate for you a few favorites. Here they are:

-“Intro”-The thing you can always say of Luda’s album intros is that they are designed to get you hyped for the album. This one puts me in mind of the “Southern Fried Intro” from Chicken & Beer. This song samples Back To The Future (which provides the theme for the mixtape) well and his lines are pure Ludacris. You can’t sit still after this one.


-“Bada Boom”-I’m not usually one for beef records but this one was interesting. Similar to the aforementioned this song samples a movie, in this case The Fifth Element. This song was a shot at newcomers Big Sean and Drake. Interesting…even for a diss track.

-“Rich & Flexin’”-Justin Timberlake’s “Cry Me A River” plays as the main basis of the beat here until the beat switches into something unexpected. I love it when something unexpected throws you off. The flow and subject matter is what you expect from Ludacris. There is also a feature by Waka Flocka Flame. I loved it and listened to it a few times through before moving on to the next song.

Time travel seems possible here, minus the DeLorean and the white haired scientist. Ludacris took it back for us all.