Rating:
Genre:
Rap
Release Date: 10/17/2000
When
Def Jam signed
Ludacris in 2000, the Atlanta rapper had already released a regionally successful independent album (
Incognegro) with a hot single (
"What's Your Fantasy"). So rather than send
Ludacris back into the studio to record a follow-up album,
Def Jam chose to repackage
Incognegro as
Back for the First Time (the title a play on the re-released nature of the music) and append some new material. The decision proved wise.
Incognegro had been a strong album debut, produced largely by talented newcomer
Shondrae, along with
Organized Noize (who produce
"Game Got Switched") and
Jermaine Dupri (
"Get Off Me"), and featuring a roster of hungry underground rappers (
I-20,
Fat Wilson,
Shawnna,
Pastor Troy,
4-Ize). Plus,
"What's Your Fantasy" was already a proven hit, if perhaps too explicit for mainstream radio play. The real difference between
Incognegro and
Back for the First Time, however, is the newly recorded material -- four songs, each a standout: the
Neptunes-produced club-banger
"Southern Hospitality," the previously released
Timbaland-produced
"Phat Rabbit," the rowdy
U.G.K.-featuring
"Stick 'Em Up," and the provocative
Trina and
Foxy Brown remix of
"What's Your Fantasy." The most significant of these additions is
"Southern Hospitality," a feel-good party song that -- sequenced late in the album, at track 14 -- comes as a pleasant relief after the proceeding up-from-the-underground hardcore tone of
Incognegro/
Back for the First Time.
~Jason Birchmeier, All Music Guide
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