Ludacris releases 'Ludaversal' days before 'Furious 7', says he never left rap

NEW YORK, April 10 (UPI) -- Ludacris released his eighth album "Ludaversal" March 30, and XXL Mag calls it a "reminder" that the rapper hasn't gone anywhere, "the game should pay attention."

The artist, busy with the Furious franchise, hasn't released an album in five years.

The new collection features tracks ranging from manic to emotional, touching on the artist's growth, and constancy, since his last album "Chicken-N-Beer." The especially touching track, "Ocean Skies" covers Ludacris' struggle with his alcoholic father, who died in 2007.

"The record about my father was very hard," he told Rolling Stone in a phone interview. "I did everything in my human power to get him to stop, and he just would never stop," he said, "...it's a disease."

The rapper reportedly quit drinking for a whole year in 2012, just to see if he could. "It was a discipline thing," he said, "at the end of the year, I was like 'I made it happen!' Then I started drinking again, and it was all downhill from there [laughs]."

Ludacris' lifestyle has noticeably changed since the early 2000s, however. He married Eudoxie Agnan in December, who announced in a March Instagram photo that she was pregnant with their first child together. Ludacris reposted the photo on his own account.

"At the end of the day, I'm very happy where I'm at now," he told Rolling Stone, "I could be out partying every day and night, but I'd rather be with my kids, so it's slowed down a lot."

But the artist hasn't gone soft. "I know I'm the best rapper there is. I know that I will slaughter any rapper that is out there," he said. "And to the people who feel like I might not be as good, I'm going to continue to slap you upside the [expletive] head until you wake up."