Luda's coming out party was doing mostly party songs for clubs, barbeques, some strip club joints, and suburbia, which made him sell a lot of records and the people checking for his lyricist status also realized he was spitting bars and doing experimental flows/rhyme schemes that are hard to pull off by most rappers. Luda was respected. he got both Nas and Jay on the same track. His BET freestyles were mad entertaining with unexpected punchlines. Luda did outrageous cartoon rap like redman and for the most part, it worked, despite some annoying songs and music videos that paired with those songs..like you guys can't pick the right single that doesn't get repetitive and old after only a few plays?
Luda never pretended to be hard but once TI/Jeezy/Gucci took over with their trap muzik lifestyle and raps in Atlanta, Luda adjusted poorly because TI came after him on subliminal diss tracks. Luda's manager is still gangsta AF and put TI in his place during a confrontation. Luda could have stayed in his lane but his pedigree was being tested and he embraced trap rappers, but washed Jeezy so hard on the album cut that Jeezy had to rewrite a better verse for the "Grew Up A Screw Up" video.
Luda was good until after theater of mind in 2008...battle of the sexes was a bad concept album and it resulted in one annoying ass single after another. This was when thot behavior in raps was beginning to be tolerated/respected like Trina and Shawnna and they can just flaunt their p*ssy-talk without getting barred up and without rhyme schemes/intricate flows like they did in the past. Luda dropped a halfway decent mixtape during his early conjure promotion days that should have been an album. Luda is an album rapper that gave away too many good lyrics wasted on obscure mixtape collaborations. Battle of the sexes ran out of steam to make a compelling album and should have been a mixtape because there's only a few things you can talk about before it became redundant - There's so many posse-cut, random songs on that album that has nothing to do with the thesis of that album title.
Luda's 2015 ludaversal album started off as an EP and then became a full blown album once he saw enough support. But all Luda did was complain his ass off about rich people's problems or frustrations that he still has -- dude's rich and still talks about problems like he's broke. It was like a bad reloaded version of Release Therapy with less hits, dry ass rapping over dry ass beats, no experimental flows/rhyme schemes, and no party/shock value songs that Luda was initially known for. When you're labeled and known as a party rapper, you have to deliver your skills and your lyrical content packaged around party songs...you can talk as reckless as you want on the verses but the beat and the chorus better be popping with experimental rhyme patterns and intricate flows...all rappers slow down and dumb down their craft once they realize they have to repeat their lyrics on stage but aren't consistent Live as they are on record. Luda didn't deliver any of that on his last album and he said fukk it and went back to acting. Dude had skills but the Atlanta scene changed to more dumbed down, illicit drug/crime, thottery, worldstar raps and Luda couldn't keep up, nor should he have tried to chase any of that at all. Luda stooped down his level and got beat by trap rappers who stress more quantity over quality.
www.youtube.com/watch?v=YvxY7D9qSq0
Luda had a career and an audience only had he stayed in his own lane and not get tempted towards trying to create music that everyone else in ATL was creating while making corny, repetitive, annoying, foolish singles for the sake of radio play. University of Georgia had a Ludacris pre-game concert and everybody in the audience knew all his lyrics -- luda's fans are college kids and adult football tailgaters who still play/know all his songs. It's coincidental that Kanye was born in ATL but moved to Chicago and Luda was born in Chicago but moved to ATL...Luda randomly collaborates with chicago rappers like common, chance, kanye, and shawnna.