Words by Francesca Djerejian Rating: 4.0 out of 5.0
With a strong presence in the gaming industry, thriving acting career, and over 10 million albums sold, Ludacris has every reason to be coming for that number one spot. In fact, on his sixth solo release, Release Therapy, Chris Bridges boasts that he has not only the South, but the entire Universe on lock. An impressive feat considering it's only been eight years since 'Cris first appeared on Timbaland's "Tim's Bio" and won the support of heavyweights from Scarface to Kevin Liles, scoring a Def Jam South deal and asserting pop culture dominance.
Though an album entitled Release Therapy might suggest a preoccupation with self, the conceptual scope of Ludacris' sixth album is refreshingly expansive. He airs the frustrations of a regular 9 to 5 hustler who fantasizes about killing his boss on The Runners' slow ridin', electric guitar-laced "Slap." For the emotionally-charged "Runaway Love," Luda tells three tales of female struggle alongside Mary J. Blige. And Luda enlists the help of jail veterans Beanie Sigel, Pimp C and C-Murder to bring the cellblock alive on "Do Your Time." Another criminal minded rapper, Young Jeezy, contributes a standard snowman verse to Luda's rags-to-riches story on "Grew Up A Screw Up," with a sinister beat by Orlando's DJ Nasty and a B.I.G. sample holding the conceptually mismatched collabo together. The featured rappers are mainly from below the Mason-Dixon line, but it's a damn shame that the Jadakiss-assisted banger "More, More, More" never made it on the album.
Make no mistake about the altruistic subject matter, Ludacris has plenty of personal matters to address as well. He is at his most defiant while promising to look out for his peoples over the triumphant bounce of DJ Toomp's "Mouths to Feed," who unsurprisingly delivers one of the best produced tacks on the album. Luda then bemoans the rap industry's pitfalls on "Tell It Like it Is" rhyming: "Rappers ain't above the law but our life is so fast / that we got a special task force of police on our ass / All that, and this is really just the start of it!/ Hip-Hop! You really wanna be a part of it?"
The mental release continues on the diss record "War With God," as Ludacris delivers a lyrical tirade at all frontin' rappers over a deceptively gentle beat. Momentarily scrapping his exuberant delivery in favor of a more subtle style, Luda taunts the fronters in whispered tones, "do like your records say or shut the f--- up."
Of course 'Cris also invests a lot of his therapeutic energy in the ladies, from the relatively tame Neptunes club single "Money Maker" to the R. Kelly-assisted "Woozy," where Kells and 'Cris are at their smoothest and raunchiest.
Still, in comparison to the party-hardy tone of last year's Red Light District, this latest offering features a lot more sobering and thought-provoking material, and reaffirms Luda's versatility.
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