Ludacris featuring Waka Flocka Flame “Rich & Flexin’”
You know what’s been missing in 2011? A great Ludacris single, and not the paint-by-numbers, occasionally humorous weak sauce the rapper has been pushing on recent albums, but the outrageously zany, super-hilarious live-action cartoon bangers the man used to pump out with such ease back in his early-aughts heyday.
Recent leakage “Rich & Flexin’” never quite reaches “Southern Hospitality”-like genius, though it has a few glimmers of Luda’s early-career creative heights to be considered a quasi-satisfying between-albums mixtape entry.
Pitched as a TGIF-set celebration of one’s swag, “Rich” boasts an exclamatory party hook (“I’m drunk!/ I’m rich!/ I’m flexin’!/ Ain’t that a bitch?!!”) effectively complimented by a back beat in which the goblin guffaws of Justin Timberlake’s “Cry Me A River” are churned into a raucous, stripper-friendly blend. It’s an ideal set-up for Luda to just go insane in and the hip hop jokester nearly meets that promise with a couple of decent-to-good moments here, the best being the opening verse kick-off “Bitches all on my jock/ They want my dang-a-lang/ Swinging all on my nuts/ Like an orangutan”, which nicely nods to Luda’s classic raunch-and-wit signature.
Unfortunately, too much of Ludacris’ contribution just feels like he’s in auto-pilot mode, and being forced to rely on Waka Flocka Flame to bring the goods doesn’t help matters as his own verse feels like he’s just going through the club banger motions.
Does Luda just not want to do this anymore, cause it sounds like it more and more with each new release. We think it’s time for him to follow Busta Rhymes’ lead and start focusing on making incredible cameo appearances (another thing he used to accomplish so effortlessly back in the day) until he gets his mojo back.
Ludacris – Rich & Flexin’ (feat. Waka Flocka Flame)
