Although it’s been a while since Ludacris last dropped new music — he’s a busy man, after all, what with learning to cook, learning to fly airplanes(!), and starring in the Fast & Furious sequels over the past year or so — he’s found a clever backdoor back into the rap game, combining his love of the culinary arts with his tongue-twisting gift of gab for “Butter ATL,” a slippery new single partially inspired by his Atlanta contemporary Gunna.
Not only does Luda prove adept at adopting the legato flow of his hometown’s current crop of hip-hop stars, but he also gets a little side action as his mention of Jif peanut butter in one of his eye-popping punchlines ties nicely into Jif’s new ad campaign. In the commercial, Luda struggles with finding a new flow to catch the song’s hypnotic beat before getting caught with a mouthful of peanut butter on his next take. His newly muddled attack perks up Gunna in the background, who notes, “That flow crazy.” Luda challenges followers on TikTok to duplicate his feat, inviting them to spit their own verses with a mouthful of Jif.
@ludacrisdtp #ad Put Jif in your grill and duet me for real. #JifRapChallenge @jif
The ad arrives in midst of a rap resurgence for the Atlanta veteran, who has popped back up with feature verses on Conway The Machine’s “Scatter Brain” with JID and Justin Bieber’s “Peaches” remix and is set to perform at the Lovers & Friends festival in 2022.
Check out “Butter ATL” and Luda’s new Jif commercial above.