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THE GAME ALBUM REVIEW: THE DOCUMENTARY

“The West Coast never fell off, I was [just] sleep in Compton…” - The Game, “Westside Story”.

Nowadays in hiphop there’s only a few easy ways to go about getting a DEFINITE rap hit and blow up. Those sure fire ways are to either have Dr. Dre, Timbaland, Pharell, Kanye West or Just Blaze produce you. Well the new artist known as THE GAME has every single one of these guys producing his album called THE DOCUMENTARY except for Pharell and that just shows you that sometimes life ain’t fair. I mean the real world equivalent of having all the 4 aforementioned artists producing you is like having Michael Jordan, Wilt Chamberlain, Allen Iverson, Shaq, and Kevin Garnett on one NBA team. It’s just a ridiculous advantage. In his own words THE GAME came out of no where and “created a buzz without a single like N.W.A. did”. I mean where did this guy come from? Apparently he’s being managed by both Dr. Dre and 50 Cent which means at some point Eminem is probably profiting on this venture as well. I mean is this guy part of 50 Cent’s G-Unit or is he part of Dre’s Aftermath crew or is he solely down with Eminem’s Shady Records? The short version of this guy’s bio is that he’s a former Compton gang-banger/drug dealer raised on Eazy-E and NWA songs and foster homes who eventually took over the drug trade of a certain neighborhood and was then subsequently shot 5 times at his home and left for dead. After being shot he decides to become a rapper and then purposely studies every classic rap album by artists like NWA, Tupac, Jay-Z, Biggie, and Eazy-E (He has a tattoo of Eazy-E on his arm) and eventually caught a local buzz that attracted Dr. Dre’s attention. I don’t know about y’all but this guy Jayceon Taylor aka THE GAME sounds like something made-up in a fantasy land rap story. If you put his style and background together what you have is a guy who has the lyrics of an Ice Cube, the height of a Snoop Dogg (6ft, 4in), the legendary gangsta background of a 50 Cent (He got shot 5 times), and the business smarts of a Jay-Z. His background is just too good to be true if you ask me. Whatever the case though this guy obviously has an intriguing story to tell that is worth listening to and one discovers the depth of this guy’s life and mind as the CD starts its rotation.

The songs that leaked out early before the album officially came out were probably songs that people thought were just more 50 Cent/G-Unit songs as “Westside Story”, “How We Do”, and “Higher” were all produced by Dr. Dre and had similar G-Unit type choruses in the background and also “G-Unit” was heard shouted throughout all those songs. All three are banging songs made for radio and club play. But of course they are because Dr. Dre produced all of them. But what makes a great rap album is if the best songs on the album aren’t all just club songs. And true to form the best songs on this album actually end up being “Dream” that is produced by Kanye West (Again why is Kanye wasting energy rapping and not sticking to producing??) and “Hate It Or Love It” produced by Cool & Dre. Both are very inspirational songs that talk of pain, suffering and a hard-knock life childhood but “Hate it Or Love It” ends up winning out as 50 Cent and THE GAME really put effort into perfectly recreating their hard knock childhoods. I mean I’m honestly blown away by this song as the inspirational chorus goes like this: “Hate it Or love it, the underdog is on top, and I’m gonna shine until my heart stops..Go ahead and envy me, I’m rap’s MVP and I ain’t going no where so you can get to know me..”. What’s even more impressive is THE GAME doesn’t get outshined by 50’s lyrics. This song let me know that THE GAME was for real.

Completing the long list of great songs are “Put You on the Game” produced by Timbaland, the self titled “The Documentary”, and the Eminem produced “We Ain’t” featuring Eminem himself. Adding some soulful depth also are “Runnin” produced by Hi Tek, “Start From Scratch”, “Don’t Need Your Love” featuring Faith Evans and another Dr. Dre produced song called “Don’t Worry” featuring Mary J. Blige. The album has SEVENTEEN tracks and only ONE of them is sort of suspect - “Special”- due to its formulaic and cheesy R&B “you’re special baby” influence.

This is a GREAT album and I would put it in the Must Have category. But like I said the guy has every hot producer scratching his back so that’s to be expected. To THE GAME’s credit he is lyrically adept, very insightful and apparently indeed did study all the greats of the game to come up with a style that works. This album should go at least platinum and probably double if they find the right club/radio single of which there are many to choose from. There are so many great songs that I wish I could describe each one in-depth. While it remains to be seen if this guy’s background is really for real, one thing that is for real is that Dr. Dre has manufactured another classic rap album that is entertaining and adds to his legend and bank account. This album came out of no where and I’m pleasantly surprised that Compton is back on the map. Long live Eazy-E and N.W.A.!!!!!

Benz0
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