Ludacris: "Im Top 5 Dead or Alive!"

When Ludacris drops his Theater of the Mind album in the fall, he wants the world — including the MTV News Hip-Hop Brain Trust — to realize one thing: "I'm top five, dead or alive, and MTV, y'all must be out your muthf---ing mind. That's the statement I'm trying to make."

Cris didn't take too kindly to being left off of the "Hottest MCs in the Game" list two times in a row, but one thing the Mixtape Monday family can agree on is that Luda has been one of the most consistent lyricists for years. And despite his sometimes jolly demeanor and outrageous eye candy in videos, you have to take the ATL giant seriously when it comes to ripping that mic.

"I surprise myself sometimes," he told us when asked what surprises he'll unveil on his album. "I don't know when it's coming. It's like when you go to the mall to buy some clothes and you don't know what you want until you see it. We'll know when it comes out. I definitely have everything planned, but the man who knows he has everything planned knows he don't have sh-- planned."

'Cris is still a month out from completing the project (he won't reveal any collaborations until he turns the project in to Def Jam), and a single should be out in a couple of weeks.

"Timing is everything," he noted. "When it came down to putting everything into a cohesive body of work, it came at the right time. Everything started flowing at the right time. The beats came at the right time. [Three 6 Mafia's] Juicy J and DJ Paul produced the 'Let's Stay Together' joint. You see where that is going. I feel this album is all of Ludacris' albums put together. So this is album number six. I've had so much material I've talked about, but it's just creativeness on a whole 'nother level. You've got some of the fun-loving, funny Ludacris; you've got some of the serious Ludacris; some of the ill, slit-your-throat Ludacris; some of the highly competitive Ludacris — all wrapped in one."

http://www.mtv.com/overdrive/?vid=253298