Ludacris - Incognegro (May 16, 2000) / Back For The First Time (October 17, 2000)

Christopher Bridges, known to Hollywood insiders as "that Ludacris guy", is a rapper/actor from Atlanta, Georgia, by way of Illinois. He is best known as a radio-friendly smart-ass that can ride almost any beat like a roller coaster at Busch Gardens, but in his secret life he is a college graduate that does very well for himself in the real estate market. I suppose it's always a good idea to have a backup if the whole rapper/actor thing doesn't pan out.

He started off his entertainment career on the radio in Atlanta, under the assumed name DJ Chris Luva Luva. He was paired up with Alani "La La" Vasquez, who would later go on to stardom in her own right as a veejay on MTV, and later as Carmelo Anthony's baby's mother (have you seen the pics of her in the new Sports Illustrated swimsuit issue? All I have to say is, 'Melo, well played, sir). Luda was discovered while he acted a fool as an on-air personality, and quickly found himself in the studio with hip hop production heavyweights such as Timbaland, and Jermaine Dupri, which sounds strange to write today considering the animosity Timbo and JD have toward each other, but that's the way the music industry works.

The newly-christened Ludacris quickly recorded his debut, Incognegro, with the help of his friendly neighborhood weed carriers, whom he referred to as DTP, or the Disturbing Tha Peace crew. Naturally, he allotted some guest spots to his friends: naturally, he blew them all out of the water. Luda's often-hilarious rhymes (early on in his career he didn't have a care in the world, it seems) were in direct contrast to the violent and dark tales coming from other rappers in the region whose names weren't either Big Boi or Andre, so Incognegro stood out in its genre as a rap album that (gasp!) may actually be entertaining.

I haven't actually heard Incognegro in a long time, so here goes nothing.

1. INTRO

Standard-issue bullshit rap album intro with dialogue taken from some unknown TV show or film.

2. U GOT A PROBLEM?
This actually surprised me on the first listen. The beat grabs your attention almost immediately, and Luda's three verses (thankfully he didn't feel the need to add a hook here) are pretty fucking entertaining. It almost makes you believe that this guy's more than meets the suspicious-of-the-South's-chart-dominance eye. Almost.

3. GAME GOT SWITCHED
Oops, I spoke too soon. This song sounds like everything else that was coming from the South in the year 2000, and the hook is straight-up hot sewage. I find it very hard to believe that this wasn't a cutting-room-floor track that production team Organized Noize (famous for their work with Outkast and Goodie Mob) just happened to find and give to Luda in exchange for a quick paycheck.

4. 1ST & 10 (FEAT INFAMOUS 2-0 & LIL FATE)
Weed carriers so early on in the sequencing? Infamous 2-0, or I-20 depending on if you care to use an alias of his, is pretty meh, and the other guy sounds as if the beat in his head is much slower than the one he should be paying attention to. As a Wu fan, I appreciated the Method Man lyrical homage, but that's about it.

5. IT WASN'T US
This song sounds fucking awful. Luda would later reuse his lyrics on his contribution to The Neptunes's album The Neptunes Present...Clones, not-so-coincidentally on a song titled "It Wasn't Us".

6. COME ON OVER (SKIT)
I'll admit, I actually laughed out loud at the punchline of this skit the first time I heard it. That said, I didn't laugh today, and it's not as funny when you know what's coming. But kudos to 'Cris for trying.

7. HOOD STUCK

The hook sounds like something a screenwriter would quickly come up with when trying to establish the token black guy as a guy who isn't a rapper but is assumed to be one by his white friends. (Cue the white guy: "Oh snap! That shit is tight, son!") The bullshit hook took me out of the whole song, I'm sorry.

8. GET OFF ME (FEAT PASTOR TROY)
This Jermaine Dupri-produced monstrosity sounds terrible, and Pastor Troy's guest appearance is still grating on my nerves, and the song ended five minutes ago.

9. MOUTHING OFF (FEAT 4-IZE)
Comes off as a meticulously-planned spontaneous freestyle cypher. Luda acquits himself nicely over this sparse, freestyle-friendly beat, but 4-Ize turned out to be the guy that I paid more attention to, what with his references to Double Dragon, Bozo the Clown's Grand Prize Game, and the Illudium Q-36 Explosive Space Modulator, which was just awesome to hear, since Marvin the Martian doesn't get mentioned enough in rap songs.

10. MIDNIGHT TRAIN (FEAT CHIMERE)
The lyrics aren't horrible, but the hook has got to go.

11. HO (SKIT)
...

12. HO
I can't believe this song actually hit the radio airwaves, but I'm not sure if it was ever officially released as a single. Having heard this, it's not that hard to imagine why Luda continues to be portrayed by protesters at every college campus appearance as a sexist pig.

13. TICKETS SOLD OUT (SKIT)
Once you hear the punchline, you'll feel just like the announcer on here: you'll believe the last thirty seconds of your life was just wasted.

14. CATCH UP (FEAT INFAMOUS 2-0 & LIL FATE)
The beat sounds more like something DJay would spit over than something Skinny Black would ever consider hearing. Speaking of which, am I the only person that thought Luda's performance in Hustle & Flow was the weakest in the whole film, a movie that also featured DJ Qualls, a guy I just hate on general principle? I did like Luda's work in the overpraised Crash, though.

15. WHAT'S YOUR FANTASY (FEAT SHAWNA)
The single that sealed the deal for Luda's commercial breakthrough. Luda figured out early on that sex sells, and he capitalized on that advertising theory with such a degree of success that it's not surprising to learn that he is five or six albums deep into his catalog today. For what it is, this song still sounds decent, but I do wonder why it's buried near the end of the disc.

16. ROCK AND A HARD PLACE
The beat is both soothing and energetic, a combination that usually sounds terrible together. This isn't the best song in Luda's catalog, but it works well for what it is.

Incognegro apparently sold a respectable fifty thousand units, and when you consider that most of those discs were sold out of the trunk of Luda's car, it's even more impressive. Houston-based rapper Scarface, whose rap name is Brad Jordan, had inked a deal with Def Jam Records to have a subsidiary based in the south, and he creatively called it Def Jam South. Luda Bridges ended up being its first signee, and his major label debut Back For The First Time dropped a few months later. For the most part, it's the exact same album as Incognegro, but Luda utilized the opportunity to drop some of the filler tracks and record some new stuff with his new-found more famous friends.

1. U GOT A PROBLEM?
Thankfully, the ridiculous intro was dropped for the major label release. "U Got A Problem?" is essentially the same song as before, minus the sound bite that repeats "You got a problem with it, come see me", which ostensibly gave the song its title.

2. GAME GOT SWITCHED
Same song as on Incognegro.

3. 1ST & 10 (FEAT INFAMOUS 2-0 & LIL FATE)
Same song as on Incognegro.

4. WHAT'S YOUR FANTASY (FEAT SHAWNA)
Same song as on Incognegro.

5. COME ON OVER (SKIT)
...

6. HOOD STUCK
Same song as on Regulate...G Funk Era. (Gotcha!)

7. GET OFF ME (FEAT PASTOR TROY)
Same godawful song as from Incognegro.

8. MOUTHING OFF (FEAT 4-IZE)
See track number seven.

9. STICK 'EM UP (FEAT UGK)
This isn't that good of a song to warrant inclusion on the major label release, but I'm usually a supporter of anything that exposed UGK to a wider audience. The beat is pretty weak, and both Pimp C (R.I.P.) and 'Cris sound bored as shit, but Bun B, who for my money was always the best rapper in UGK anyway, steps in and helps put the track up on the high shelf.

10. HO (SKIT)
...

11. HO
See: "..."

12. TICKETS SOLD OUT (SKIT)
...

13. CATCH UP (FEAT INFAMOUS 2-0 & LIL FATE)
From the same album that track number two appeared on originally.

14. SOUTHERN HOSPITALITY
Luda's first collaboration with the then-production giants The Neptunes, if I'm not mistaken. When it dropped as the second single, it quickly established Luda as the type of artist that could easily make music for both the club audience and the "I can't get in the club so I'll stand outside in the parking lot with my drink and try not to look like I'm freezing my ass off" audience. This song still sounds pretty good today, but you have to remember that I'm a fan of the early Neptunes work, so this shouldn't be much of a surprise.

15. WHAT'S YOUR FANTASY (REMIX) (FEAT TRINA, SHAWNA, & FOXY BROWN)
An all-female version of Luda's song, in which the three ladies all rhyme about fucking, which may work for you, especially if you're the type that busy imagining Trina in bed on all fours while her verse plays. (By the way, in regard to the visual imagery, you're welcome. No, it's perfectly fine; you can pay me back later.) Shawna kind of surprised me with her verse, especially since all she did on the original song was perform on the chorus, so since she can actually rhyme words together, she gets a pass. Foxy Brown, whose inclusion I had always questioned given her non-career, sticks with the dirty talk that got her the Def Jam deal in the first place, but she describes a sex act that is physically impossible: she basically demands that you eat her pussy while she sits on your dick. Um, huh? Ultimately, this isn't a good song at all, but more of a curiosity piece for new listeners to Ludacris and/or horny fourteen year old boys. The first time I had ever heard of this remix was on the radio (a miracle in and of itself, considering the subject matter: every third word had to be censored in some fashion), and I remember there being a fourth verse performed by Ludacris himself (he doesn't appear on this version, save for on the hook), which ended with a line sort of like "...and then I smoke a cigarette". Has anyone ever heard that version, or is Max just crazy? Anyone? Bueller?

16. PHAT RABBIT (FEAT TIMBALAND)
The exact same song that appeared on Timbaland's Tim's Bio: Life From Da Bassment. Included mainly because it technically was Luda's first appearance on a mainstream album, but it's still not very good.

FINAL THOUGHTS: Incognegro and its evil twin Back For The First Time serve as an above-average debut for a Southern rapper that has his flow down, but just needs to fine-tune his ear for beats. Luda comes out of the gate as a fully-functional artist ready to work, and proved it later by appearing on remixes to everyone's songs, a business practice that he still follows to this day. If there were more rappers out there from the South with his work ethic (and, oh yeah, talent), then I wouldn't complain so much about the South whenever it pops up in a write-up.

BUY OR BURN? Incognegro is readily available for purchase online, but since it's basically the same album as Back For The First Time, I would recommend that you pick up the Def Jam debut. Just like the Warren G album, it's entertaining to listen to, but you won't walk away from it with any life lessons. For that, you'll want to pick up Lloyd Banks's The Hunger For More.

BEST TRACKS: "Rock And A Hard Place"; "Southern Hospitality"; "U Got A Problem?"; "Mouthing Off"

-Max