That he’s able to harness all this to his usual rollicking, all-in-good-fun persona is a testament to the best rapper in the business, one of the few who’s actually celebrating something - and having a great time doing it.

Chicken -N- Beer, his third album (to go along with dozens of guest spots), shows a rapper balancing the weed, women, and fried chicken with shots at those who’ve crossed him and a look at a few celebrity perils, delivered with his lightning-quick phrasing and cutting wit. No matter what the song, Ludacris steps to the mic like he’s onstage in front of thousands, and no matter what he’s doing on Chicken-N-Beer, he always makes sure it’s a performance.Audacious on his rhymes and indulgent with his appetites, Ludacris may flaunt the cartoonish side of his personality, but he isn’t just another unreconstructed Southern rapper. “Blow It Out,” “Stand Up,” and the nothing-but-punchlines “Hip-Hop Quotables” are definitive Ludacris: pranking us, himself, and everything in between with a bellow that is equal parts country preacher, irate Grandpa, and radio shock jock (Luda got his start as a DJ on Atlanta’s Hot 97.5 FM). He was could switch up his flow for some good-and-raunchy love songs (“Splash Waterfalls”) or Southern-cooked funk (the indelible “Diamond in the Back, an interpolation of William Devaughn’s anthem “Be Thankful For What You Got”), but he is always at his best when the track is bouncing hard and he is free to let it rip.

He had completely grown into his persona as the loudest and most lovable mouth in the South, and was stomping across tracks with the tail-swinging ferociousness of a T.

Everything came together for Ludacris on Chicken-N-Beer.

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