There was a moment at the Black Eyed Peas concert Tuesday night at Staples Center when the screams from the audience were enough to shatter glass and earlobes, and it had nothing to do with the powerhouse group.

In fact, the moment occurred during opener Ludacris’ set as the rapper introduced special guest Justin Bieber, the precocious pop sensation who dominates the trending topic stream of Twitter on a daily basis. The 16-year-old took the stage to perform his hit “Baby” with every bit of swagger as the single-named pop stars he is now bumping off the charts.

With the crowd at its feet, and a few girls close by tweeting their hearts out, this was the moment that set the tone for what would be a night of sensory overload as the group responsible for dominating the pop charts last year with its album “The E.N.D.” hit the stage.

Tuesday was the last of two dates the Peas played in Los Angeles, and there wasn’t a single sign of fatigue as they played hit after hit.

Is there any rapper who needs the genre's recent, rampant vocal-manipulation trend less than Ludacris? Chris Bridges has long been drunk on his own gleefully elastic patois, one of rap's most distinctive and ever-pleasurable voices.

On "Battle of the Sexes," his latest, he directs these pleasures toward the Ladies through fizzy pillow talk and respectfully tawdry club fodder. Luda's always been a lover, not a fighter, and a dip in this particular lyrical Jacuzzi is a good fit.

The spooky "My Chick Bad" might be the first rap song with kind words for Tiger Woods' club-wielding wife Elin Nordegren, with a cameo from the ever-delightful Nicki Minaj. "Hey Ho" is a go-girl ode to cheating girlfriends (well, presumably other people's cheating girlfriends) getting their needs met elsewhere, and "Sex Room" and "Feelin' So Sexy" are fantasias of loverman absurdity.

Some of the production work feels slapdash, as in the sopping-synth "I Know You Got a Man," and aside from the undeniable banger "How Low," it's hard to hear the next obvious hit on "Battle." But the album is another welcome occasion to listen to Luda enjoying the real love of his life -- the sound of his own voice.

-- August Brown

Ludacris
"Battle of the Sexes"
Def Jam/Disturbing Tha Peace
Two and a half stars (Out of four)

 
The last 12 months are likely to be remembered for their eclectic cultural sweep -- as the year Tiger Woods was sucked into a vortex of groupie hell, Bernard Madoff’s Ponzi scheme came tumbling down and “The Real Housewives of Atlanta” became a legitimate dinner party talking point. But at street level, ’09 will go down in the annals for something else entirely. It was the year hip-hop finally plunged face-first into full-blown alcoholism.

We’re not talking about “You can find me in the club / bottles full of bubb” -- or any of that namby-pamby, bling-era conspicuous consumption (Jay-Z, as well as every other MC to rhyme “Cristal” with “pistol,” please pay your waitress and leave). Mainstream rap went giddy, downright hiccuping drunk, glorifying alcohol consumption. This year, the pop charts were awash with MCs and R&B crooners extolling the virtues of chasing a buzz and winding up wasted -- hopefully with some kind of sexual conquest to offset the bar bill.

Somewhere, Charles Bukowski and Dylan Thomas are probably tuning in to Power 106 FM. Meanwhile,  auto-tune savant T-Pain and Crunk’s capo di tutti capos, Lil Jon, emerged as this year’s preeminent champions of booze-sozzled hip-hop. So herewith, the top 9 (as in '09) most alcoholic-enabling hip-hop songs of the year.

“I’ve been to a lot of charity events, but I’ve never seen anything like this.”

Old-school rapper Heavy D surveyed the sold-out Hollywood Palladium crowd gathered for the second annual “Common & Friends,” a star-studded affair that featured appearances from a seemingly endless cavalcade of A-list hip-hop stars to benefit Common's Common Ground charity.

The audience had already seen a series of highlights. De La Soul opened the show with a quick, high-energy set, punctuated by a surprise appearance from masked rapper MF Doom, who ferociously ripped through his verse from “Rock Co.Kane Flow.”

Black Thought and Amir “Questlove” Thompson represented for the Roots, and Ludacris ignited concertgoers with a crowd-pleasing set that culminated with “I Do It for Hip-Hop.” The latter allowed him to introduce Nas, who appears on the recorded version (video here).

After a simmering take on “One Mic,” Nas looked on in appreciation as the night’s host, Common, proceeded to spit most of Nas’ “N.Y. State of Mind” verbatim.

The crowd was also treated to an impromptu Black Star reunion, with Mos Def and Talib Kweli hitting the stage together. The two galvanized the audience with solo hits “Umi Says” and “Get By,”  respectively.

But it was Heavy D who offered up one of the most surprising highlights of the show. Among the many unbilled performers of the evening, even those too young to remember Heavy D's late '80s/early '90s hits such as “We Got Our Own Thang” and “Now That We Found Love,” responded to his showmanship and the enduring qualities of the songs.

Word had been circulating throughout the day that one Kanye West would also be among the surprise performers, a fact that Common teased the audience with briefly.

“He’s still going through some things, trying to deal with everything that’s happened because of a choice he made, so he couldn't make it tonight” Common said, obviously referencing West’s meme-generating mike grab from Taylor Swift at the 2009 MTV VMAs. “But he still wanted me to send his love to everyone.”