Personnel includes: Ludacris, Nate Dogg, Mystikal, 8 Ball & MJG, Jagged Edge, Twista, 3-6 Mafia, LL Cool J, Keith Murray, Shawnna, I-20, Lil Fate, 4 Eze.
Producers include: Timbaland, Organized Noize, Swizz Beatz, Trackmasters.
WORD OF MOUF was nominated for the 2003 Grammy Awards for Best Rap Album.
"Rollout (My Business)" was nominated for the 2003 Grammy Awards for Male Rap Solo Performance.
For this Atlanta-based rapper, keeping true to street roots has never been a concern, since he's always remained so close to them. Far from the east and west coast hip-hop star mills, this southern sensation rose up from the underground and never abandoned what he'd learned there. His third album WORD OF MOUF may find Ludacris surrounded by a brace of guests that include both heavy hitters (Mystikal, Jagged Edge, Nate Dogg) and more unknown names (Sleepy Brown, Keon Bryce, Fate Wilson), but he draws on his own considerable verbal skills and unique urban vision as the foundations for his work.
What the critics say...
Rolling Stone (1/17/02, p.53) - 3 stars out of 5 - "...Alternates between bleak, nearly joyless hardcore and verbalistic hip-hop slapstick....he sounds like he's having a blast..."
Q (p.137) - 3 stars out of 5 - "[T]he beats still bounce and, crucially, there's a sense that he doesn't take himself too seriously."
NME (Magazine) (2/2/02, p.27) - 7 out of 10 - "...Consolidates on his initial sex-rhyme success, while giving a more rounded picture a life lived below the Mason-Dixon Line..."