The Red Light District is the fifth studio album by American rapper Ludacris. It was released on December 7, 2004, through Disturbing tha Peace/Def Jam South. The album's title refers to an urban tourist district where the standard industry is prostitution. The CD is accompanied by a 41-minute DVD made by Decon of Ludacris visiting the red-light district, a cannabis grow-room, an adult 'cam-house' and the recording of the Red Light District CD/DVD promo concert in Amsterdam, Netherlands.

Production was handled by Timbaland, Craig King, DJ Green Lantern, DJ Toomp, DK All Day, Donnie Scantz, Heazy, Icedrake, LT Moe, Needlz, Organized Noize, Polow da Don, Salaam Remi, The Medicine Men, Tic Toc and Vudu, with Chaka Zulu and Ludacris serving as executive producers. It features guest appearances from Bobby V, DJ Quik, DMX, Dolla Boy, Kimmi J., Nas, Nate Dogg, Sleepy Brown, Small World, Trick Daddy and Doug E. Fresh. A pre-famous Future co-wrote a track on the album, "Blueberry Yum Yum". The album was supported with four singles: "Get Back", "Number One Spot", "The Potion" and "Pimpin' All Over the World" and a promotional single "Blueberry Yum Yum".

In the United States, the album debuted at number-one on the Billboard 200 album chart with 322,000 copies sold in its first week. On September 29, 2005, it received a double platinum certification by the Recording Industry Association of America for selling 2 million units.

Critical reception

The Red Light District was met with generally favourable reviews from music critics. At Metacritic, which assigns a normalized rating out of 100 to reviews from mainstream publications, the album received an average score of 70, based on sixteen reviews. On September 29, 2005, it received a double platinum certification by the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) for selling 2 million units.

Samples credits

  • "Number One Spot" samples from "Soul Bossa Nova" by Quincy Jones.
  • "Get Back" contains an interpolation from “Fuck You Tonight” by Notorious B.I.G..
  • "Child of the Night" samples from "Portuguese Love" by Teena Marie.
  • "Who Not Me" samples an interpolation from “Stick Em” by The Fat Boys.
  • "Large Amounts" samples from “Pick A Pocket Or Two” by Clive Reville.
  • "Two Miles an Hour" samples from "Little Child Runnin' Wild" by Curtis Mayfield and "Summertime" by DJ Jazzy Jeff and the Fresh Prince.

Charts

Weekly charts

{| class="wikitable sortable plainrowheaders" style="text-align:center;"

|+ Weekly chart performance for The Red Light District

|-

! scope="col"| Chart (2004–2005)

! scope="col"| Peak<br />position

|-

! scope="row"| Australian Albums (ARIA)

| 54

|-

! scope="row"| Australian Urban Albums (ARIA)

| 8

|-

! scope="row"| Canadian Albums (Nielsen SoundScan)

| 20

|-

|-

|-

|-

|-

|-

|}

Year-end charts

{| class="wikitable sortable plainrowheaders" style="text-align:center"

|+ Year-end chart performance for The Red Light District

|-

! scope="col"| Chart (2005)

! scope="col"| Position

|-

! scope="row"| US Billboard 200

| 22

|-

! scope="row"| US Top R&B/Hip-Hop Albums (Billboard)

| 8

|}

Certifications

See also

  • List of Billboard 200 number-one albums of 2004
  • List of Billboard number-one R&B/hip-hop albums of 2004

References