''Ludaversal'' is the ninth

studio album An album is a collection of audio recordings (e.g., music) issued on a medium such as compact disc (CD), Phonograph record, vinyl (record), audio tape (like 8-track cartridge, 8-track or Cassette tape, cassette), or digital distribution, dig ...

by American rapper

Ludacris Christopher Brian Bridges (born September 11, 1977), known professionally as Ludacris (, spoken as "ludicrous" in American English), is an American rapper and songwriter. Born in Champaign, Illinois, Ludacris moved to Atlanta, Georgia, at age ...

under Def Jam Recordings. His most recent album, it was released on March 31, 2015. Recording sessions took place during 2011 to 2015, while the production on the album was handled by several producers; including

Mike Will Made It Michael Len Williams II (born March 23, 1989), known professionally as Mike Will Made It (often stylized as Mike WiLL Made-It) or simply Mike Will, is an American record producer. He is best known for producing trap beats for several Southern hi ...

Rico Love Richard Preston Butler Jr. (born December 3, 1982), better known by his stage name Rico Love, is an American record producer, singer, songwriter, and rapper. He was born in New Orleans, Louisiana, but split his childhood between Milwaukee, Wisco ...

Giorgio Tuinfort Giorgio Hesdey Tuinfort (born 30 April 1981) is a Dutch record producer and songwriter. He is best known for his production work for Senegalese-American singer Akon and French DJ David Guetta. Giorgio has been credited on releases by prominent m ...

and

Da Internz Da Internz are an American music production team originating from Chicago and currently based in Los Angeles. The duo is composed of Marcos " Kosine" Palacios and Ernest Tuo Clark. Da Internz describe their sound as "gourmet ratchet", meaning ...

, among others.

Release and promotion

On March 13, 2012,

announced the album, titled ''Ludaversal'', would be released on September 11, 2012 (which is on his birthday). One of the songs, titled "Ocean Skies", produced by Capsvl, originally featured vocals from singer

Anita Baker Anita Denise Baker (born January 26, 1958) is an American jazz and soul singer. She is known for her soulful ballads, particularly from the height of the quiet storm period in the 1980s. Starting her career in the late 1970s with the funk ban ...

. Baker's vocals were later replaced by singer Monica. On October 9, 2014, Ludacris announced an EP, titled '' Burning Bridges'' will be released in December 2014, and then his album ''Ludaversal'' will be follow-up on March 31, 2015. On October 31, 2014, Ludacris released the lead single from his EP, titled "Good Lovin" featuring American singer

Miguel --> Miguel is a given name and surname, the Portuguese and Spanish form of the Hebrew name Michael. It may refer to: Places * Pedro Miguel, a parish in the municipality of Horta and the island of Faial in the Azores Islands *São Miguel (disamb ...

. On March 3, 2015, Ludacris held a listening party for Ludaversal with Def Jam. The tracks "Ludaversal (Intro)", "Not Long" featuring Usher and "Come N See Me" featuring

Big K.R.I.T. Justin Lewis Scott (born August 26, 1986), known professionally as Big K.R.I.T. (a backronym for King Remembered in Time), is an American rapper and record producer. Born in Meridian, Mississippi, he began his musical career in 2005. He was sign ...

were revealed to the public.

Singles

On December 15, 2014, Ludacris released an EP, titled "Burning Bridges". The final track from the EP, titled "

Good Lovin' "Good Lovin" is a song written by Rudy Clark and Arthur Resnick that was a #1 hit single for the Young Rascals in 1966. Original version The song was first recorded by Lemme B. Good (stage name of singer Limmie Snell) in March 1965 and writ ...

" featuring

, serves as the lead single from ''Ludaversal''. On March 10, 2015, Ludacris released 2 pre-order tracks from the album titled: "Call Ya Bluff" and "Beast Mode". "Come & See Me" and "Grass Is Always Greener" were both later sent to urban radio to further promote the album.

Critical reception

''Ludaversal'' received generally positive reviews from music critics. At

Metacritic Metacritic is an American website that aggregates reviews of films, television shows, music albums, video games, and formerly books. For each product, the scores from each review are averaged (a weighted average). Metacritic was created ...

, which assigns a

normalized Normalization or normalisation refers to a process that makes something more normal or regular. Science * Normalization process theory, a sociological theory of the implementation of new technologies or innovations * Normalization model, used in ...

rating out of 100 to reviews from critics, the album received an

average In colloquial, ordinary language, an average is a single number or value that best represents a set of data. The type of average taken as most typically representative of a list of numbers is the arithmetic mean the sum of the numbers divided by ...

score of 63, which indicates "generally favorable reviews", based on 11 reviews. Darryl Robertson from '' XXL'' called the record "no different" from Ludacris' previous projects, praising his balance of "personal, comical, lyrical, inspirational and socially conscious raps" throughout the track listing, concluding that " ''Ludaversal'' is a reminder that he hasn’t fallen off lyrically, the game should pay attention."

AllMusic AllMusic (previously known as All-Music Guide and AMG) is an American online database, online music database. It catalogs more than three million album entries and 30 million tracks, as well as information on Musical artist, musicians and Mus ...

's David Jeffries said that, "Hip-hop has a towering pile of "the game needs me" albums where an artist returns to stake their claim, but ''Ludaversal'' still feels fresh, alive, and needed, and maybe just because it comes from the unique voice that is Ludacris." Jon Dolan of ''

Rolling Stone ''Rolling Stone'' is an American monthly magazine that focuses on music, politics, and popular culture. It was founded in San Francisco, California, in 1967 by Jann Wenner and the music critic Ralph J. Gleason. The magazine was first known fo ...

'' said of Ludacris on the album: "he's still the same elastically flowing shout-rap dirty bird — gleefully wilding out on Southern party jams like 'Get Lit' and 'Beast Mode'." In a mixed review for ''

Exclaim! ''Exclaim!'' is a Canadian music and entertainment publisher based in Toronto, which features coverage of new music across all genres with a special focus on Canadian and emerging artists. The monthly ''Exclaim!'' print magazine publishes seven ...

'', Samantha O'Connor wrote that Ludacris finds himself in between "owning up to the voracious hunger needed to reach a new level of fulfillment and being trapped by the desperation to regain a title that is no longer his."

Commercial performance

The album debuted at number 3 on the ''Billboard'' 200 with 73,000

album-equivalent unit The album-equivalent unit, or album equivalent, often shortened to just unit, is a sales metric in the music industry that defines the number of streaming media, songs streamed and music download, songs downloaded equal to one Record sales, tradi ...

s; it sold 62,000 copies in its first week, and boasted over 4.8 million streams. It was the second best-selling album of the week. It marked Ludacris's eighth top-five album. In its second week, the album fell to number 18 on the ''Billboard'' 200, selling 23,000 equivalent album units; it sold 18,000 copies and boasted over 3.4 million streams. For a two-week total, ''Ludaversal'' sold just under 82,000 copies and streamed 8 million times domestically.

Track listing

;Sample credits * "Lyrical Healing" contains a sample from "Hubey" performed by Maneesh Bidaye. * "Ocean Skies" contains a sample from "Diamond on a Landmine" performed by

Billy Talent Billy Talent is a Canadian Rock music, rock band from Mississauga, Ontario. They formed in 1993 with lead vocalist Benjamin Kowalewicz, guitarist Ian D'Sa, bassist Jonathan Gallant, and drummer Aaron Solowoniuk. There have been no lineup change ...

. * "Not Long" contains a sample from "Tired of Fighting" performed by

Menahan Street Band Menahan Street Band is an American, Brooklyn, New York–based instrumental band formed in 2007, that plays funk and soul music. The band features musicians from Antibalas, El Michels Affair, Sharon Jones & The Dap-Kings and the Budos Band. The ...

. * "Charge It to the Rap Game" contains a sample from "Lonnie Blacksmith" performed by Maneesh Bidaye. * "Money" contains a sample from "All About the Paper" performed by

The Dells The Dells were an American R&B vocal group. Formed in high school in 1953 by founding members Marvin Junior, Verne Allison, Johnny Funches, Chuck Barksdale, and Michael and Lucius McGill, under the name the El-Rays. They released their first r ...

. * "In My Life" contains a sample from "Changing Faces" performed by The J.J. Band. * "This Has Been My World" contains a sample from "

Human Nature Human nature comprises the fundamental dispositions and characteristics—including ways of Thought, thinking, feeling, and agency (philosophy), acting—that humans are said to have nature (philosophy), naturally. The term is often used to denote ...

" performed by

Michael Jackson Michael Joseph Jackson (August 29, 1958 – June 25, 2009) was an American singer, songwriter, dancer, and philanthropist. Dubbed the "King of Pop", he is regarded as Cultural impact of Michael Jackson, one of the most culturally significan ...

Charts

Weekly charts

Year-end charts

References

{{Authority control Ludacris albums 2015 albums Albums produced by 1500 or Nothin' Albums produced by Alex da Kid Albums produced by Da Internz Albums produced by David Banner Albums produced by DJ Toomp Albums produced by Frank Dukes Albums produced by Illmind Albums produced by J.U.S.T.I.C.E. League Albums produced by Just Blaze Albums produced by Mike Will Made It Albums produced by T-Minus (producer)