Back for the First Time is the second studio album by American hip hop recording artist Ludacris. The album, his major label debut, was released on October 17, 2000, under Disturbing tha Peace and Def Jam South.

BACKGROUND

Most of the tracks are taken from his first album, the independently released Incognegro (1999), except for “Stick ‘Em Up”, “Southern Hospitality”, a remix of “What’s Your Fantasy”, and “Phat Rabbit”.

When Def Jam signed Ludacris in 2000, the Atlanta rapper had already released a regionally successful independent album (Incognegro) with a hot single (“What’s Your Fantasy”). So rather than send Ludacris back into the studio to record a follow-up album, Def Jam chose to repackage Incognegro as Back for the First Time (the title a play on the re-released nature of the music) and append some new material. The decision proved wise. Incognegro had been a strong album debut, produced largely by talented newcomer Shondrae, along with Organized Noize (who produce “Game Got Switched”) and Jermaine Dupri (“Get Off Me”), and featuring a roster of hungry underground rappers (I-20, Fat Wilson, Shawnna, Pastor Troy, 4-Ize). Plus, “What’s Your Fantasy” was already a proven hit, if perhaps too explicit for mainstream radio play. The real difference between Incognegro and Back for the First Time, however, is the newly recorded material — four songs, each a standout: the Neptunes-produced club-banger “Southern Hospitality,” the previously released Timbaland-produced “Phat Rabbit,” the rowdy U.G.K.-featuring “Stick ‘Em Up,” and the provocative Trina and Foxy Brown remix of “What’s Your Fantasy.” The most significant of these additions is “Southern Hospitality,” a feel-good party song that — sequenced late in the album, at track 14 — comes as a pleasant relief after the proceeding up-from-the-underground hardcore tone of Incognegro/Back for the First Time.

COMMERCIAL PERFORMANCE

The album debuted at number four on the US Billboard 200 chart, and sold 133,000 copies in its first-week of sales. As of November 2009, the album has sold 3.1 million copies in the United States to date. The album was eventually certified triple Platinum by the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) for shipments of more than 3 million copies.