Defsounds

Hip Hop is easily one of the only musical genres left that holds such a tight grip of male domination over the airwaves. Although there have been female artist who are able to speak for their fellow sisters, many either fade away after a fast start, or their career shows promise but never actually materializes; because of this female fans have gone through a period where they have not had someone who could speak on their side of things. With this album, Luda decided he would finally give women that Venue. Battle Of The Sexes unlike other concept albums that have come out in the last three years,not only stood true to its intended topic, but also gave an honest opinion from the female side, just like Luda said it would. But with all of that done, the question remains to be seen, whether Luda was able to speak to and for the ladies completely, while putting out an album that would make fans remniscent of some of his earlier work. This question pans out to be the dominating thought while listening to the album, which in all honesty either hit or miss with fans from both sides of the battle.

Production-8.5

This may be biased, but any song that can bump through the speakers of a car or the sound sytem of a home, and give the listener that transcendent vibe, that some musical productions have done deserves to be considered a great beat. Fans of heavy drums, bass and booming systems will love the production on this album, it gives off a party vibe throughout, head bobbing, heart pounding, and chair dancing will definitely be something of the norm while listening to this album, as it induce's rythm, through the multi pattern drum styles incorporated into many of the beats. Production like "How Low" done by T-Minus stands out as one of those cant miss tracks that draws you into the album before you even realize what has happened. With the tempo and sound changes fitting Luda's style like a glove, he chose the right people for the formation of this album, and as many know the right production helps to convey the feel of an artist album.

Lyrics-8.0

There are five kind of lyricist, there are the ones who say stuff over a beat, and hope that something sounds catchy or that the beat makes it sound good. The rapper who gives punchline after punchline. This starts off as entertaining but eventually a listener can get bored. The rapper who's adlibs are better than his/her skill set (Jim Jones, Uncle Murder), the rapper who speaks in metaphors so their music can always have a different meaning depending on when your listening, and then the rapper who just destroys the track, and takes you on a roller coaster ride throughout the entire song. In case you were wondering which one Luda was, its the last one. His lyrical skill still far surperior to at least 80% of the game puts him on another level when rapping. His ability to change tempo and the tone of his voice in the middle of a song is completely amazing, adding wordplay punchlines, and actual relevant topic and you have someone who destroys virtually every track that he raps on from delivery alone. That's before he even drops a hot line.

Songs 7.5

Unfortunantly the weakest part of the album is also the strongest part of the album. For those of you who are confused with the 7.5 rating, here is an explanation. Luda does his job. He say's it will be an album that speaks for both of the sexes, and that is exactly what he does, but some songs he fails to give the real female perspective. Unlike most albums this was one that should have had more features, at least from the female perspective. Songs like "Hey Ho" feat lil Kim give the perspective from both sides, and more of that is needed instead of the freebee feature's he gave to his label mates. Luda's ultimate failure on this album can only be described with one song "Sexting". With respect to what he was trying to do, this song was by far a complete abomination to anything respectful in Luda's style of rap. Hardcore Luda fans should listen to this song and be completely offended by this song, skip past it if possible, add the cd to your playlist and skip past that song, if possible destroy any evidence of that song ever existing. Other than the abomination titled "Sexting" the songs are pretty good, once again hardcore fans may be a little dissapointed by the softer approach this album takes, but good music is good music, and Luda has plenty of it on this album.

Conclusion-8

This is another solid offering from Ludacris. He did everything he said he wanted to do with this album, and unless there is a major shift in how women think, the female population will love this album. The male demographic will have more mixed feelings towards it, the male fans of his who are sexist will completely hate it, and the fans who love gangsta rap should not even consider paying for this. This album establishes nothing about Luda that we did not already know, but it dosent make you question his skills either, its a solid album that will go great in any car with a banging sound system. Or a good option in the CD collection for when the ladies come by to give you a more woman friendly collection. At the end of this discussion it is clear that Luda has not strayed from the foundation that has made him so sucessful, but he has played with the topic, and like with any artist that takes a chance he gets props for making an attempt in an industry dominated by simpletons. Its a solid effort, he did it for the ladies, we'll be waiting to see what happens on his next turn.