This came out in 2001 – or at least that’s when I got it. Here’s what I said about it back then (with some minor editing):
In the kingdom of bragging bad-boy rappers, Atlanta’s Ludacris is a court jester.
Sure, on Word of Mouf — his third album in 18 months — he fronts like a stone-cold corner boy and spins tall tales of his bling-bling lifestyle just like every other wannabe mack daddy on the mic. But unlike his poker-faced competitors, Luda always cracks a smile, delivering his rhymes in a weirdly offbeat style, tongue-twisting his lyrics until they become entirely new words and throwing down punch lines — “My rap career goes back further than your father’s hairline” — like a Catskills comic. Set to bumptious, grimy Dirty South grooves with plenty of bounce to the ounce, tracks like Growing Pains, Area Codes and the single Rollout (My Business) never fail to get entertainingly wiggy wid it. He may be just a jester now, but remember, there’s a fine line between clown prince and crown prince.
