No. 35: Ludacris

Full disclosure: the first time I heard Christopher "Ludacris" Bridges, I thought he was just another wack southern rapper. And if we were to base it solely on that lead single — "What's Your Fantasy?" — I'll maintain to this day that my first impression was correct. That song kind of sucked.

But over time, Luda has grown on me...and I've got to give the man his due.

Unlike most southern emcees (and by "most," I mean 99 percent of them), Ludacris actually sounds like he's put more than 4.3 seconds of thought into his lyrics. He doesn't rely entirely on danceable beats to get him over like most of his brethren from America's bastard half....and admittedly, I didn't figure that out until he made a guest appearance on the deliciously old-school Nas cut, "Virgo":

Little cute thing said 'What's your name?'
I put my necklace in her face and told her 'Read the chain'
Ooh ooh so stuck up told me shut the fuck up
Ludacris is in the hou-oooh-ouse...

Move, bitch. Get out the way.

On paper, the lyrics weren't golden — but for the track, they were delivered perfectly, a wonderful homage to the Doug E. Fresh/Slick Rick era...which was exactly what Nas was going for (Doug E. even blessed the record with something resembling a verse).

At that point, I was sold.

We can't pretend that he's ever been anything other than a mainstream rapper, more than willing to accept a place on the pop charts...but unlike most 21st-century emcees, Luda makes sure that he offers at least some semblance of lyricism, dropping clever punchlines and such on his way to multi-platinum sales status. In a sense, he's the southern version of Redman. Really, the two aren't all that dissimilar. (Red's better and he's been around longer, but hey, the north wins every battle...deal with it.)

I guess what I'm getting at in a roundabout way is this — since the turn of the century, almost all mainstream rap has sucked rhino cock. I won't even call most of it hip-hop, because it's really just pop singers pretending to be hard now. But Ludacris has at least made some effort to keep it hip-hop, and his impeccable delivery and flow put his otherwise slightly-above-average lyricism into the mix.

Considering that nobody who made a major-label debut after him is in the top 50 (again, that's not a spoiler if you have a brain), that's pretty high praise.