Review Summary: Ludacris knew what to do at the time and HOW to do it.
Ludacris is a different rapper. Different as in humor wise. He retains a humor unlike a wide bunch of Hip Hop artists. It is comical, hysterical, and clever humor. What strikes me so odd about this album, is that it is Southern Rap. And It's great. Honestly, Southern Rap gets too much blame. Many people I've come In contact with, just regard Southern Rap as "Trash." "Lacking complexity in Rhymes." "Missing common knowledge." "Extremely repetitive in play of words." Some may agree, some reside to agree. It's all what people set their minds to. Word Of Mouf contemplates in the same area as the judgements. Yes, some of it is repetitive,corny, and lacking in complexity with the wordplay. Although, It fails to take away the drastic image of Southern Rap. This is a great blend of Southern Rap for the record. Since his debut, Back for the First Time, what is done is drastically different. It was much more serious towards the subject matter, and choice of lyrics. Word Of Mouf is an entire new world. Ludacris takes a more wondering, and easy going approach from the dark themes in Back For The First Time. It is no surprise that when you are handed this CD from a record store, or purchasing it online,It will be amusing in someway shape or form. Just by the album cover. You find Ludacris's monstrous and inky afro. As well as the speculating dog with gold plated teeth.
Enter the vibe and publicity. Word Of Mouf at first really wasn't given too much recognition for being a good basis for Southern Rap. Just outside the shiny box, Mouf gets nominated for the best Rap album of 2002, but sorrowfully fell short by losing to the Eminem Show. Much credit was given to Mouf shortly afterwards. Sells spawned 3,616,000 buys. From around the globe, this is widely regarded as Ludacris's most valuable, best selling and rich album.
He offers many subsides in his image. Ludacris can very well go from being a corny, silly, crack headed wisecracker to being a serious, warm blooded soul. There's always something Ludacris has to offer. Tunes such as Coming 2 America, , She Said, Rollout, Area Codes and Saturday are his unwinding offerings. Others such as Cold Outside, Keep It In The Hush, Growing Pains keep it serious. They tend to focus on the way life was imagined as a toddler and struggling to maintain a family. Ludacris' heavier,massive listens mark Go 2 Sleep, Get The F*** Back, and Block Lockdown. The record includes a freestyle, uncommonly scene by many. It's the title track name. Curious to people it may be, it really isn't all special.
Roller coasters are found on this album. Much emotional whiplash to be found lurking here. Go 2 Sleep offers this. It features an immense variety of ready to do artists. Some of them are angry, a little annoyed, urgent and pumped. Growing Pains is impetuous. It is pretty heart warming, and can reflects you back onto how your life was growing up. Although It is generally depressing, It will make you think for a minute. Get The F*** Back is a little intense for a Hip Hop song. The Chorus is believe it or not, pretty hectic. Ludacris and Shawnna are bananas in this one. They snuggle off the deep end and lash out at anyone trying to stand in each of their ways.
The Beats are mediocre. Some of them tend to be a teasel. Songs such as Coming 2 America and Keep It In The Hush's beats are fairly bland. Both of them don't hold much. I would have loved to see more complexity in the beats and the melodies. Most of them don't really serve much purpose, but to be placed on the song to combine with the lyrics. Lyrics in general for this record are a hold up at times. The Chorus in Growing Pains is painfully generic. Rollout is another weak one. Same goes for Area Codes. The Chorus is a little embarrassing to listen to honestly. But really they aren't so bad you can't physically listen to them. Some of them tend to be a little whack at times. Truthfully it doesn't take away from the album.
Word Of Mouf set a good example for much of Southern Rap at the time. Some listeners might find it offensive, others slapping their knee. 19 Tracks delivers much strength, despite some lousy skits. The story behind this is to not automatically assume Southern Rap is a foul mouth game. There are quite a few artists out their who show much skill, they just tend to be overlooked. Ludacris was at the time. The entire Word Of Mouf album demonstrated full force nature properly placing in the correct category.
