Artist: Ludacris and DTPTitle: Ludacris Presents…Disturbing Tha PeaceRating: 3 StarsReviewed by: Sidik Fofana
So Ludacris has very generously decided to take his crew along for a sequel ride to the Def Jam contract room. Some have deserved to offer their John Hancock on the dotted line, others should have stayed in the parking lot and have just been allowed to play with the pretty sound system in Luda’s car. The problem with “crew albums”, in this case Ludacris Presents…Disturbing Tha Peace (DTP/Def Jam) is that you can’t tell anybody no. On a poor block in College Park ten years ago, Chris “Ludacris” Bridges made too many
promises.
Thankfully, at this point in time, any piece of wax that either has Ludacris’s vocals on it or his trademark on the actual vinyl will sell and sound halfway decent. This album’s lead single, “Georgia” featuring the Ray Charles inspired Jamie Foxx is a certified head nodder and the “Two Miles Hour an Hour Remix” is a cool reminder
that we were right about the original’s worthiness.
Cue the album’s problems. There’s the hourglass but there’s not enough sand in it. The Disturbing Tha Peace crew was granted their chance to record an hour of music, but they fumbled in terms of what they did with it. There’s a cipher song involving the whole crew called “Family Affair” that goes a little too much beyond our
listening attention span. There are a couple of good appearances like 1-20’s on “DTP for Life” that aren’t too developed due to the overwhelming cast size. And, there’s the all too cliché “Put Ya Hands Up” type track and it’s called…”Put Ya Hands Up.”
Still, a star emerges amidst this collage of voices and her name is Shareefa. Her solo track “I’ll Be Around” is arguably the most feelable track on the CD. This young soul singer has proven that she’s straight as far as merit goes when roll call comes along and her melodic humming in “Family Affair” makes the otherwise too long
song a bit more bearable. But, can she Bobby Valentino it, people? It’s up to the label gods to decide.