Songfacts®:

• Rockers would often boast about having a girl in every major city, but Ludacris covers whole area codes. He lists 43 different area codes in total.
  
  Asked how he chose which ones to include on the cut during a Reddit AMA, Ludacris explained: "The song could only be but so... long. And yes, there are many area codes that I wish I could've put in there. However, I tried to get the ones that were as honest to the actual hoes I had in those area codes as possible."
• The lead single from Ludacris' second album, Word Of Mouf, "Area Codes" was used in the movie Rush Hour 2 and first appeared on the soundtrack.
• In the clean version, "pros" is substituted for "hoes."
• That's the late Nate Dogg crooning the hook and bridge (he died in 2011 from complications of multiple strokes). In the early 1990s, Nate Dogg was in a rap trio called 213 with another canine-monikered artist, Snoop Dogg, known at the time as Snoop Doggy Dogg. He references his old group here when he sings:
  
  I call (I call), come running
  2-1-2 or 2-1-3
  You know that I ball (I ball), stop fronting
  Or I'll call my substitute freak (hoes)
• Nate Dogg appears with Ludacris in the video, which takes place at "Ludacris International Airport," where his "pros" like to travel. It was directed by Marc Klasfeld. There's also a version with scenes from Rush Hour 2 mixed in.
• Jazze Pha produced this track. He was also at the controls for "1, 2 Step" by Ciara.
• The song plays briefly in a scene from the 2001 movie The Fast And The Furious. Ludacris didn't appear in that film, but he went on to play Tej Parker in the sequels, landing the role after Ja Rule, who was in the original, exited the franchise.
• This samples "Do It ('Til You're Satisfied)," a 1974 song by the soul group BT Express. That song's writer, Billy Nichols, is credited on "Area Codes" along with Ludacris, Jazze Pha, and another writer, Nathan Hale, who often worked with Nate Dogg.
• This song somehow got the attention of the conservative commentator Bill O'Reilly, who had a show on Fox News called The O'Reilly Factor. Ludacris had a deal with Pepsi and was starring in one of their commercials, so O'Reilly called on his viewers to "fight back and punish Pepsi for using a man who degrades women, who encourages substance abuse, and does all the things that hurt particularly the poor in our society." He cited the lyrics to this song, blasting Ludacris for boasting about having "hoes in different area codes."
  
  The next day, Pepsi cut ties with Ludacris, saying they "heard from a number of people that were uncomfortable with our association with this artist."