Even though Ludacris feels feels that he may not get the critical respect that Kayne West or Jay-Z get, he is one rapper that is consistently entertaining and humorous in his lyrics. That might be some critics’ issues with him, but he has always found a fan in this reviewer. On Ludacris’ fifth album, the Atlanta rapper tries for a bid for artistic legitimacy, but at the cost of what made his earlier albums fun, for the most part.

“Therapy” starts off well enough with “Warning”, which is the usually strong opening track for Ludacris, where he goes off on people who have been bothering him since the last album. Oprah Winfrey is a well chosen target, and he makes the rhymes entertaining enough and hard hitting at the same time.

The early part of the album meets but does not exceed expectations, with the heavy drum beat of the first single, “Money Maker” and the bounce of “Girls Gone Wild”. The former track may not be the catch phrase inducing tracks of yore (such as “Move B----“), but its smooth delivery grows on the listener.

Somewhere along the way however, “Therapy” becomes very uninteresting. The boasting about his sales grows tiresome on “Ultimate Satisfaction” and the flow of the song just falls flat. Tracks such as “Woozy” and “Slap” do not even come close to being memorable. Ludacris tries to be the smooth operator of the hip-hop game on “End of the Night”, and just wants to love you, but slow and sensuous jams are not part of Ludacris’ A-game.

The album does have a highlight late in the album, with “Tell it Like It Is”, where he goes into a whole narrative on the woes and pitfalls of the rap industry. Unfortunately, nothing else hits with the potency of that song.

Let me tell it like it is in conclusion; “Release Therapy” is an ambitious attempt by Ludacris to become more serious, but to be honest, we liked him better when he was the class clown.