Ludacris' Top 10 Feature Verses

(They were all just battling for 2nd place)

QUICK: Random 24-hour music poll. Twitter sucks nowadays, but I make it better with stuff like this one day at a time.

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Next time y’all see Luda, tell him I’m still writing, still nice with the pen, and ask him how he feels about my list. Photo taken at Stacey Abrams campaign fundraiser in 2018. I was a bartender and a newly published first-time author.

Growing up, Ludacris was like pizza, or the color blue, Randy Moss, or Mya… he was every dude’s favorite at least once. He was as entertaining as a Missy Elliot or Slick Rick, as creative as a Busta Rhymes or Outkast, all with the skills of a UGK or a Snoop, or any of your other favorites. With over 20 million albums sold worldwide to date, it seems a great many of you would agree

Something else that a great many would agree on? Luda was actually more entertaining, creative, and skillful in his feature verses.

Most rappers are actually. They come in hot, gun blazing like a wild cowboy, either to take a song from good to great, excite us with a “remix”, introduce themselves to a different fan base, or simply to have some fun. And, outside of folks named Dwayne Carter, Andre Benjamin, Faheem Rashad Najm, and Sean Combs himself, Christopher Bridges can make a strong case for his features and remix verses being some of the best of all time.

But wait... which of HIS are HIS best? Dearly beloved, that’s why we’re gathered here today. As always, the replies are open :)

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10. DEY KNOW (REMIX)

This was just a fun time to be from Atlanta and the South. All around joy, overflow of regional pride, and a 1-of-1 era that was 2 crunk 2 be 4gotten (Hey, Jaya).

In the vein of “alright now, you done got Jeezy, Weezy, and Plies on here too? Let me send in my 16 bars so I don’t get left”… this one takes the cake.

His raw energy and excitement are on full display here. And, almost a decade into his career at the time of this release in the early-late 00s, he was still the showstopper he was when he was throwing bows.

There was a very similar scenario on the “I’m So Hood” remix as well. Just a gang of cats hopping on a popular song. And I get it. Sometimes, you gotta show up and let folks know you’re present and accounted for.

Oh look, there’s some love to Weezy and T-Pain (Oooh I forgot “Chopped N Screwed”), I knew it’d come. And now for Diddy.

9. DAMN (REMIX)

The aforementioned P. Diddy’s footprints are on this one with the bottles clinking and all. And, since he “invented the remix”, it was very clever of them to start it this way. However, this is an article about Ludacris, so let’s stay on topic.

There’s no greater respect in rap than for an artist to be asked to go first on a “Remix”. Because if you’re not going to change the beat, and in some cases the verses, it’s likely the average listener won’t be able to tell it’s a new song if you put the added verse last. They’ll think they’ve already heard it and change it.

So, sometimes, they put the feature verse first, which ostensibly makes it that person’s song now. And, if you’re gonna give your song up to someone, they better rock the fucking house. And Ludacris was good for that any day (and twice on Sunday) during this era. Check it out if you haven’t in a while.

8. YEAH

Here so we don’t get fined. But I will say two things here:

Anytime you have the #1 song in America, with two of the hottest artists in America, and your verse is the one people most anticipate, you’ve done your big one.

And another thing, kudos to all three of these dudes looking the thought of a sophomore slump squarely in the eyes and running back to the well to try and outdo their first smash hit. That took some stones.

If you don’t know which smash hit or three dudes I’m talking about, call your mama into the room. Or, you could just keep reading.

7. UNPREDICTABLE

“ALL ABOARD!

The spontaneous express

Nevertheless, always the more

From the pool table to the kitchen floor

Next stops the G spot... LUDA!

(I like it too baby).”

Don’t you love it when rappers jump on tracks and start talking... you know just casually rhyming and shit before they even start actually rapping? It’s like when you’re watching a ball game, and it goes to overtime or extra innings or whatever, and the announcer says “We got bonus basketball for you tonight!”, except the opposite.

Anyway, as it stands this was an A1 verse, and sits comfortably atop the tier of other “let me make one for the ladies” verses i.e. “Tonight (Best You Ever Had)”, “One Minute Man”, “B R Right”, “Why Don’t We Fall In Love”, etc.

6. GOSSIP FOLKS

Close your eyes for a second and imagine Christopher Walken’s voice. If you’re BCam, you were probably already doing this somehow.

Now, imagine that voice...but during the monologue of Pulp Fiction when he’s talking to Young Butch for 4 minutes straight about that gold watch he hid up his ass. If you’re still with me, you can recall just how unique the entire thing was.

Anywho. This beat is Christopher Walken’s voice, and this verse is that specific monologue. A magnum opus of sorts.

Just so off-tilt, sonically foreign, largely inexplicable, and simply unparalleled, before and since. (All of these are good things by the way).

Considering that by the time Missy finished the line before he started rapping, the song was already on the radio, Luda met the moment in a major way.

5. STOMP (REMIX)

Alright, in rap, there are often scuffles, there are sometimes sometimes beefs, and rarely, we find ourselves watching an all-out war. This wasn’t none of that. It was a simple dust-up. A warning shot, if you will. But it didn’t make this verse any less epic.

Long story short, T.I. used the word “ludicrous” (lowercase “l”) in a line, that Ludacris (capital “L”) took offense to. We’re not entirely sure if T.I. did it on purpose or not, however, the King of the South probably should’ve thought twice about his robust lexicon, if the “beef ain’t legit”.

Nonetheless, whenever a person hops on the THIRD verse of a remix, and the FIRST word they say is “MOTHAFUCKA” (capital “MOTHAFUCKA”), urban legend has it that your ass just might be grass, whether you’re the king or not. I’m serious.

4. LOVERS & FRIENDS

There’s a thing about famous artists and the way they’re remembered long-term. For example, when it comes to Sinatra I think of “I Did It My Way”. Etta James? “At Last”. Luther? “Never Too Much”. The artists just put their heart into the music, everything else is up to the fans.

With that said, this might just be Luda’s version of that. With hundreds of songs, most of which have multiple verses, this isn’t one of my all-time favs, however, in terms of his featured verses, the impact, and its staying power (partly due to Usher and Lil’ Jon also still being relevant 20 years later), this is probably the one they’ll tell the aliens about.

And I’m cool with that. Because this shit is fire.

3. OH

First of all, let me start by saying Hey Q. Kelly!

A crucial element of rap is the ability to inhabit what we call “the pocket”. You can actually “live in it”, you can “ride it”, and you can even simply “find it”, all in one verse. But its presence is often directly correlated to the opinion we have of any specific verse or even a rapper’s overall talent.

Put it like this, if “the beat” is a square or a circle, “the pocket” is a cube or a sphere. Something of a different, added dimension.

Anywho, this was that.

“TRUNK RATTLIN’, WUS HAPPENIN’ HAAAA!”

2. BIA BIA (REMIX)

Lil’ Jon was like pre-workout for a lot of artists around this time. Take that shit before it’s time to rap and you’re bound to light up the weight room. And, as it were, that was Ludacris for many songs of this time. Pull them both together and you get verses like this one.

An underrated gem of this showing? How closely he mirrors Too Short’s verse from the original track. There isn’t a genre more attached to its musical trailblazers than Hip-Hop, and I love that about it.

But more than anything, the nectar of this verse is the simple, dynamic, multi-syllable rhyme scheme he employs in the first half of it. It’s electric. As a child, I, too, wondered why they were acting like a Bia Bia, as I poured out my Henn and Coke and fired up my dro.

1. WELCOME TO ATLANTA

Looka here now, Lucy might have some ‘xplainin’ to do (let Ricky tell it)... but I don’t. This is #1.

For Lack of a Wetter Bird, listen to some Ludacris features this week.

Honorable Mentions:

• Chopped N Screwed

• Holiday Inn

• Trill Recognize Trill

• Made You Look Remix

• Tomb of the Boom

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