Aside from throwaway goofs like Skee-Lo, hip-hop hasn't had much of a sense of humor since left-fielders like De La Soul and A Tribe Called Quest sent up the genre's narrow-minded gangsta mentality in the late eighties. Which might be why Atlanta-based rapper Ludacris took last year's grim hip-hop scene by storm with his Def Jam South debut, 'Back for the First Time'. It featured oddball fantasies -- like making love to a woman on the 50-yard line of the Georgia Dome -- and a funhouse-style production that eschewed the usual sampling sources for sound effects like cars peeling off into oblivion. 'When my album came out', Ludacris says, 'it seemed like no one wanted to be fun or crazy anymore'. Hip-hoppers may still have their sights humorlessly trained on the high life, but that hasn't stopped Ludacris: He spent the summer busily completing tracks with producers like Timbaland and Swizz Beatz for 'Word of Mouf'. Ludacris boasts, 'cause it's so good that it could sell on word of mouth alone'. The smash single 'Area Codes' and the club anthem 'Southern Hospitality' both figure on new album 'Word of Mouf', a set packed with future urban anthems and hard party tracks that will maintain Luda's forward momentum without fail.