As much as I love Ludacris’s 2000 debut Back For The First Time and his run of singles and guest spots early in his career, I’ll be the first to admit that he’s squandered his potential over and over, paradoxically falling into a rut by trying too hard. For 3 or 4 albums straight, he bogged down his albums with increasingly desperate bids for respect from the snooty old guard that ignored him for so long that by the time he finally got Jay-Z, Nas and DJ Premier on an album, he'd already been lapped by a ton of other Southern rappers. So his recent Battle Of The Sexes is encouraging simply for breaking out of that holding pattern.

That's not to say Battle totally breaks free of the doldrums of Ludalbumitis, though. Some of the R&B cuts on here are as worthless as those singles from Theater Of The Mind, and "My Chick Bad" is a serious contender for most miserable hit song of the year. "Party No Mo" is underwhelming both as a Gucci Mane feature and as the first Luda/Bangladesh collaboration in almost 8 years. On the upside, though, “B.O.T.S. Radio” brings back the goofy high concept vibe of early DTP posse cuts, “Everybody Drunk” is a banger, and “Feelin’ So Sexy,” one of the few remaining collabs with Shawnna, who was originally going to be on the whole album, is pretty successful at retaining the concept of the album without being too soft or too corny.

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