The Documentary

by

The Game

Edit

I was first introduced to The Game on Lloyd Banks' "Hunger For More" CD on the track "When The Chips Are Down". The song was pretty good but seeing that this was the newest member of G Unit, I wanted to hear him on a few more tracks before I tried to form an opinion on his skills. However, when I heard The Game on Jim Jones' "Certified Gangsta (Remix)", then I knew that The Game had skills. On the track, The Game puts Jim Jones and Cam'ron to shame on their own track as he clearly steals the show. The Game would also be featured on Young Buck's "Straight Outta Cashville" CD on the track "Stomp" that also featured Ludacris. The track originally featured TI and Ludacris but TI decided that he didn't want to be featured on the track after the tongue lashing that he got from Ludacris. My roomate then purchased a mixtape entitled "DJ Neptune Presents The Game Westside Story". This mixed CD has alot of nice tracks and freestyles on it. The best being "Westside Story", "Get Your Money Right" featuring Jay Z and Dr. Dre", "Still Cruisin" w/Eazy E, and the whole track from the Boost Mobile commercial, "The Whole City Behind Us" featuring Kanye West and Ludacris. After listening to this mixed CD and other downloads from The Game, I was anxiously awaiting "The Documentary".

"The Documentary" definitely doesn't disappoint. On "Westside Story", The Game tries his best to give the west coast a 2004 national anthem, as he gives props to the west coast groups and artists that came out before him and how he's going to keep the west on the map for awhile. Dr. Dre clearly proves why he is still one fo the best producers today with this track. "Dreams" is produced by Kanye West and The Game does a good job mixing in the clever wordplay with Kanye's sample on the track. "Hate It Or Love It" is produced by Fat Joe's boys, Cool & Dre and features 50 Cent. This is my favorite track on the CD so far as The Game and 50 Cent use the old school sounding track and reminisce to how things were going on back in the day before they started making records and had any celebrity status. "Higher" is another Dr. Dre produced track that has The Game talking and bragging about certain topics. Although, at one time he said that he wouldn't touch Ashanti if she was butt naked and in his bed. I am not sure about you, but I find that very hard to believe. "How We Do" is the first single from "The Documentary" and this track has The Game and 50 Cent making a faster version of "In Da Club". "How We Do" will definitely have you on the dance floor even if you have 2 left feet like I do. Havoc from Mobb Deep produces "Don't Need Your Love" which features Faith Evans. This is actually one of the most serious tracks on the CD along with the Busta Rhymes featured "Like Father, Like Son". Between all the bragging and the word play it's nice just to hear a song where an artist is just reflecting and past times and speaking from life experience that don't involve what they did with females and how they were on the block all night. Timbaland shows up to produce "Put You On The Game" which has the potential to be a single later on down the road. Timbaland always knows how to produce the club banger and he does so again on this track with The Game. "Start From Scratch" features Marsha (the singer) from Floetry. The Game reflects on events that happened in his life and he is saying if he could change the way that the events happened, then he would do things differently in certain situations. "Runnin'" features G Unit's Tony Yayo and his Hi Tek on the track. The Game uses his clever wordplay and Tony Yayo puts his desert eagles on to make one of the better tracks on "The Documentary". "No More Fun And Games" is produced by Just Blaze. If this track was longer than 2 and a half minutes then this track would be my favorite track. The Game rides the sample by creating 3 nice verses. This shows that although he overuses the wordplay that The Game definitely has versatility. "We Ain't" features and is produced by Eminem. As expected, when you are featured on a track with Marshall Mathers, he is going to out do you on your own track and The Game even playfully admits that on the song's last verse. I am mad at "Where I'm From" because the original track had a verse from Dr. Dre. However, The Game and Nate Dogg still rip the track produced by Focus. "Don't Worry" might as well be a Mary J. Blige track that features The game because for the 1st minute and 15 seconds of the song the only thing that you hear are Mary's vocals. However, the Dr. Dre track makes you forget that as The Game still has nice verses on the song.

Overall, "The Documentary" gets 2005 off to a nice start as far as new releases are concerned. You will get tired of The Game droppin' verses using Dr. Dre, 50 Cent, Mase, Eazy E, Lloyd Banks, Young Buck, Snoop and other artists' names in the middle of verses but his skills will override all the negative opinions of the CD. As he says on the title track, this is his "Straight Outta Compton". After you listening to "The Documentary" then you will understand why. If The Game can stay out of trouble and concentrate on rapping and working to get even better, The Game will be around for a long time.

James' Top 5

1) Hate It Or Love It w/50 Cent

2) No More Fun And Games

3) Dreams

4) Runnin' w/Tony Yayo

5) Where I'm From w/Nate Dogg

the game's delivery is half-decent and dre's beats are hot, but overall, the game doesnt come close to his hype. the cat is little more than a studio gangster: he's never killed anyone (note: not that this is a bad thing!), but still fronts with a tear-drop tattoo to try and rack up the street cred. i mean, come on, he was on the tv show "change of heart" a few years ago (seriously)!!! how hard can he be? plus, all he talks about is how he got shot. do you know what he was shot over? TWO POUNDS OF WEED! HAHA!!! who the heck shoots someone over weed???? IT IS ALL AN ACT!

overall, you can tell he lacks skills simply because he is the biggest name-dropper i have ever heard. every other word on this cd is either "dre" or "50". simply pathetic.