Songoftheday 4/4/24 - you just came home from doin' a bid, tell me what you gon' do?

 

 

"Act A Fool" - Ludacris

from the album 2 Fast 2 Furious (Original Soundtrack) (2003)

Billboard Hot 100 peak: #32 (one week)

Weeks in the Top-40: 2

 

Today's song comes from rapper and actor Chris "Ludacris" Bridges, whose second album distributed through Def Jam Records, Word Of Mouf, spun off five singles that reached the top-40 on Billboard magazine's Hot 100 with "Area Codes", "Rollout (My Business)", "Saturday (Oooh Oooh)", "Welcome To Atlanta" with Jermaine Dupri (which was the bonus track tapped at the end), and the top ten breakthrough "Move B**ch". Also in the beginning of 2003, Cris was featured on Missy Elliott's top ten pop hit "Gossip Folks". 

 

In 2003, Ludacris was tapped to act in the movie 2 Fast 2 Furious, replacing the character played by rapper Ja Rule did in the initial movie, after Rule refused the role. (Biiiiig mistake.) Along with his part in the film, Ludacris recorded the opening song on the soundtrack. "Act A Fool", which was also released as the album's second single after Joe Budden's "Pump It Up", was written by the rapper with producer Keith "Mack" McMasters. His lyrics has 'Cris veering from threatening to hilarious, with a heaping helping of tricked out car descriptions to fit in with the movie. The production is beat-heavy and reminds me of the New Orleans scene, while Luda's flow and energy blows those mush-mouthed wannabes out of the water. The music video of course is set like a little version of the movie with a myriad of people (including stars Paul Walker and Tyrese Gibson) along for the ride...

"Act A Fool" slipped into the top-40 on Billboard's Hot 100 for a couple of weeks in July of 2003, while peaking at #20 on their R&B Singles chart and #10 on the Rap Singles list. On the radio, the song rose to #9 on Billboard's Mainstream R&B chart and #7 on the dance/R&B-oriented Rhythmic format. Internationally, the single made the top-40 in Australia at #39, and was an added cut on the British version of his next studio album, Chicken-N-Beer. The 2 Fast 2 Furious soundtrack, released in May of that year, came in at #5 on the Billboard 200 sales tally, and spent a week at #1 on their R&B Albums chart, going on to sell over a half million copies. At the Grammy Awards in 2004, "Act A Fool" was nominated for Best Song from a movie or television, losing to "A Mighty Wind" from the film of the same name by "the Folksmen" (Christopher Guest, Michael McKean and Harry Shearer). 

A third song from the soundtrack, "Pick Up The Phone" by Ludacris and co-star Tyrese with R. Kelly popped on to the R&B Singles chart at #65. 

Ludacris will be back to the series.

(6/10)

(Click below to see the rest of the post)

Here's a small clip of Luda in concert for MTV...

Up tomorrow: this reggaeton artist emulates Elmer's.