Blogs

Unreal's old buddy Ben "Shirtsoff" Westhoff sent us this link to a recent New York magazine blog blurb that references Ludacris' 2001 song "Area Codes."

Specifically, the post, on the magazine's "Vulture" blog, points to another blog that displays a graphical illustration entitled "Area Codes in Which Ludacris Claims to Have Hoes."

Cool map!

The blog, "Strange Maps," credits the work to one Stefanie Gray, who described herself as a feminist geography major and noted, among other things, that:

• Ludacris heavily favors the East Coast to the West, save for Seattle, San Francisco, Sacramento, and Las Vegas.

• Ludacris travels frequently along the Boswash corridor.

• There is a "ho belt" phenomenon nearly synonymous with the "Bible Belt."

• Ludacris has hoes in the entire state of Maryland.

• Ludacris has a disproportionate ho-zone in rural Nebraska. He might favor white women as much as he does black women, or perhaps, girls who farm.

• Ludacris's ideal "ho-highway" would be I-95.

Presumably the Vultures at New York mag preferred to make a funny of their own rather than quoting one of Gray's. They write:

Finally, Geographers Get Their Act Together: Where has Ludacris committed perpendicular vehicular Ho-micide? Where has he eaten Hos d'oeuvre? One brave geographer has finally mapped it out. Of note: Who would have expected that Ludacris has a ho-zone in East St. Louis, but not in St. Louis proper?

Hi-larious!

And wrong!

As you can plainly see, Ludacris has hoes in St. Louis but not in East St. Louis!

Here's proof via a lyrics site. The relevant couplet:

5-0-4, 9-7-2

7-1-3, whatcha gon' do

You checkin' up the scene, I'm checkin' a ho tonight

With perpendicular vehicular homicide

3-1-4, 2-0-1

Too much green, too much fun

That's 3-1-4, not 6-1-8. What's more, St. Louis even made a cameo in the song's video:

Detail:

-Unreal