Ludacris' New Album THE BATTLE OF THE SEXES Debuts at #1 Soundscan - His 5th #1 Debut Album!

NEW YORK, March 17 /PRNewswire/ -- Three-time Grammy Award-winner Ludacris earns his fifth #1 debut album with THE BATTLE OF THE SEXES (released March 9th), as it enters the Billboard 200 albums chart in the top spot, on first week sales of 137k units.  THE BATTLE OF THE SEXES, the 7th solo studio album from Disturbing Tha Peace/Def Jam artist Luda, and his fifth #1 Soundscan debut, features "How Low," the #1 Urban Radio smash, certified RIAA platinum for U.S. sales in excess of one million units.  The album's second single pick is "My Chick Bad" featuring Nicki Minaj, impacted radio on February 22nd making the single the greatest gainer at radio last week.

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Ludacris is in his second month as special guest on the Black Eyed Peas' The E.N.D. Tour of North America, which began early February.  The 10-week, 32-city tour of stadiums and major arenas runs through April 11th in Vancouver.

With tour venues quickly selling out, fans also have plenty of chances to see Ludacris on television – starting over the past two weeks with appearances on NBC's Late Night with Jimmy Fallon and ABC's Live with Regis & Kelly.  Appearances continue on March 26th on NBC's The Tonight Show with Jay Leno.  Luda will round out the month with an appearance on E! network's Chelsea Lately on March 29th and TBS's Lopez Tonight with George Lopez on March 30th.

THE BATTLE OF THE SEXES is the long-awaited follow-up to Luda's previous concept album, Theater Of The Mind (November 2008), which spun off a pair of singles that both hit Top 20 on the Billboard R&B/Hip-Hop Songs chart and the Top 40 stretch of the Hot 100: "What Them Girls Like" (featuring Chris Brown and Sean Garrett), and "One More Drink" (featuring T-Pain).

It was October of 2008, in the heat of electioneering fever, when Ludacris (Chris Bridges) made hip-hop history as co-star of two major motion pictures that opened within two weeks of each other that month: Max Payne, based on the popular video game, in which Luda starred as an internal affairs agent alongside Mark Wahlberg, Mila Kunis and Beau Bridges; and Guy Ritchie's RocknRolla, in which Luda joined Gerard Butler and Thandie Newton for an exciting tale of the Russian mob in London.  Luda went on to co-star in the Lionsgate film Gamer (September 2009), joining Gerard Butler for another action thriller.

Theater Of The Mind followed-up Luda's RIAA platinum Release Therapy of 2006, which debuted at #1 – the same week that its first single, the RIAA platinum "Money Maker" (featuring Pharrell Williams) hit #1 on the Billboard Hot 100 and R&B charts.  Luda's next #1 single was "Runaway Love" with Mary J. Blige, which they performed with special guests Earth, Wind & Fire at the 49th annual Grammy Awards worldwide telecast.  Release Therapy won the Grammy for Best Rap Album, and "Runaway Love" won Best Collaboration at the BET Awards '07.

In addition to appearing as both guest host and performer on NBC's Saturday Night Live, 2006 was a landmark year for Chris 'Ludacris' Bridges.  He scored rave reviews for his star appearance in Law & Order: Special Victims Unit, the show's highest rated episode ever.  His role in the critically acclaimed film, Crash (which opened in 2005) earned him honors in 2006, sharing the SAG Award for Best Ensemble, the Critics Choice Awards for Best Ensemble, and winning him the NAACP Image Award for Outstanding Supporting Actor in a Motion Picture.  

SOURCE The Island Def Jam Music Group