By Nooreen Kara

Hammersmith Apollo , London - 25 February 2005

News spread that last month that Ludacris was coming to town, and after seeing him live just over a year ago at the Brixton Academy, I was ready for round two. As a lengthening queue outside the Hammersmith Apollo began to form, inside people bopped their heads, patiently waiting to be entertained by one of Atlanta’s most consistent rappers to date.

At around half eight, Grime collective SLK were on and performed their upcoming single ‘Hype Hype’, which unfortunately didn’t get the crowd as hyped as they’d have liked with the audience instead responding better when Choice FM DJ Dave VJ played Lethal B’s ‘Forward’. Next up were the Jump Off crew with a ‘Street Dance Battle’ for the boys and a ‘Booty Shake’ for the girls. The guys and their street dancing were pretty hot, showing off some impressive moves and acrobatic flips, but it was the ladies and their booty shakin’ who silenced the crowd – the females in shock and the men in awe. The bedroom-like antics of two of the dancers earned them a place in the finals, where they had full control of a rope-tied man, much to his obvious delight.

At about quarter to ten, Ludacris bounded onstage to ‘Number One Spot’, before proving he has the right formula with a vibed-up performance of ‘The Potion’. The ‘Mouth of the South’ then engaged in a little audience fun, telling the left and right sides of the Apollo to raise their middle fingers and shout ‘F*ck that side!’ before telling the middle section to do the same but shout ‘F*ck all y’all!’ What followed was a little segment of the show dedicated to all his women whereby he performed ‘You’za Hoe’ and ensured every member of the audience knew he has “hoes, in different area codes” – and judging by the ladies’ reaction, no-one was adverse to Cris’ sexually-driven verses.

Luda then launched himself into his verses from ‘Yeah’ before explaining that was an old Ludacris, Lil’ Jon and Usher collabo, and asked whether we wanted to hear the new one – cue blaring cries of joy. He said he would only do it if we sang along to Usher’s chorus, and of course everyone duly crooned the words to ‘Lovers and Friends’. We were treated to some real ‘Southern Hospitality’ as the Atlanta performer chanted for all his pimps and hoes to “throw them bows” and then performed ‘Roll Out’, the bass-thumping ‘Act A Fool’, booty-bouncing smash single ‘What’s Your Fantasy?’, ragged ‘Blow It Out Ya Ass’ and the outrageously-explicit ‘Splash Waterfalls’ – which got every female bluntly chanting “F*ck Me” to Luda, who, typically enough, looked like he was enjoying every minute. He then asked for everyone to hold their lighters up for a rendition of ‘Blueberry Yum Yum’ where he rapped “Get ya lighters, roll that sticky, lets get higher” – but if the heavy scent of hip-hop’s most traditional drug that flooded the building is anything to go by, he needn’t enticed the crowd any further.

While Luda was out getting a moment’s rest, he allowed DJ Jay Cee to wow the crowd with his impressive scratching – like last year’s show – before returning and yelling to everyone who was seated upstairs to ‘Stand Up’ – good play on words… if only he hadn’t used the exact same line, once again, at last year’s gig. He then knowingly asked us what we wanted to hear, and an odd-4,000 voices instantaneously shouted back ‘Move Bitch’! Luda obliged and performed that track before ending the night with the boisterous first release from the new album, ‘Get Back’.

While the concert tonight seemed to hold a very similar frame to that of last year’s – minus the cameo by Chingy of course – Luda’s dynamic flow and continually upbeat performances made it every bit as entertaining; we had experienced life in ‘The Red Light District’, and the only drawback was that it had to end.

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