Ludacris, Release Therapy

Oprah Winfrey criticised Chris "Ludacris" Bridges for making derogatory references to women. She had a fair point: the cover of his 2003 album Chicken and Beer featured the Atlanta-born rapper and actor about to gnaw on a "bitch's" leg. For the first half of his fifth album, it's business as usual with "the bedroom gangster" playing to the gallery on Girls Gone Wild ("I'll put 'em in a trance till I get 'em out their pants") and calls on arse-obsessed Pharrell Williams to provide the beats and chorus for Money Maker. The second half finds Ludacris maturing swiftly, as he warns on Tell It Like It Is: "There about to be some grown folks talking here." On Do Your Time he deglamourises the gangsta lifestyle, and Mary J Blige joins him for Runaway Love, which deals with violence against women. Even Oprah should approve.