Bloggystyle -- The Greatest

The miracles of piracy never cease to amaze bootleggers. And piracy certainly doesn't cease to really piss off rappers.

Especially if the rappper is a fresh face on the scene attempting to generate buzz for his first major release on Aftermath. The single "This Is How We Do (Fresh 83)" has been a pretty popular one, and given the push this new cat The Game was getting, that single was a good start.

But if a record label can't stop Marshall's albums from being bootlegged, they sure as hell won't stop The Game's album from being bootlegged. From what I've read, this is/was a highly anticipated album scheduled for a late January release.

How Aftermath responds to the bootlegging remains to be seen. But let's be honest, none of us give a rat's ass. All we want to hear is whether or not this is any good. Hell, if it's even mediocre it'll be the best album Aftermath put out in the last 12+ months.

Intro

Typical intro. Whatever.

Westside Story

This beat probably took a minute of tweaking from 50's In Da Club. The Game sorta rehashes the "fall" of the West in the 90s. That would have been clever, but after about 45 seconds The Game just degenerates into the typical thug gangsta talk.

There wouldn't be anything necessarily wrong with that, except what's the point in having The Game when 50 basically has that entire market to himself. And by the way, 50 does the hook, an average one at that.

In his last verse, The Game raps "New York New York, bitch city of dreams." Rumor has it that G-Unit Records is mixing up some diss tracks to Fat Joe's Crack and D Block, and this sounds like an early dig. I for one wouldn't mind listening to Jadakiss slaughter the clowns.

Dreams

"I woke up out that coma 2001 / bout the same time Dre dropped 2001 / Few years later the album is done...rap critics politicking wanna know the outcome / Ready 2 Die Reasonable Doubt and Doggystyle in one."

Well he's not exactly humble. But if he honestly believes that shit, as well as "All Eyez On Me," The Game could challenge Chappelle for comedy if this rap thing doesn't work out.

Kanye West does this beat, and it's pretty tight. By the end of this track, The Game has already compared himself to or namedropped Pac, Snoop, Dre, 50, Marshall, Easy E, Stevie Wonder, Jam Master Jay, Marvin Gaye, Aaliyah and Left Eye. Then, after mentioning so many dead people, he dedicates this track to the slain sister of Venus and Serena Williams. Ok then.

Hate It Or Love It

One amazing thing is that 50 has actually been rapping, not just talking, on his recent guest spots for Encore and this album. 50 actually drops a hot verse on this track.

Dre does the beat. Due to that reason, I'm not exactly impressed but thankfully this isn't Encore material either.

So far, The Game is 3 for 3. I have to admit I'm pleasantly surprised so far. But there's plenty of time to blow this yet.

Higher

Dre does this beat. It reminds me of What You Say off the Em Show. In otherwords, this beat's mediocre by anyone's standards.

There's nothing noteworthy about this track except The Game mentions Nelly's terrible "Eagle" song and says fuck that. I don't care if he's trying to beef with Nelly or not, somebody needed to say that.

Near the end, Dre tells us to look out for Detox, his upcoming album. Of course, it was supposed to be upcoming last year. If anybody should have ever named their album No Said Date, it's Dre.

How We Do (Fresh 83)

Something snapped Dre out of that minifunk for this beat. This beat is incredible.

The Game and 50 spit back and forth on this track. Being the first time I ever heard The Game, I simply thought he was another 50, and I don't even think the rap game needs one 50.

The Game's first verse on this track is terrible. It's like the male version of Missy Elliot's rhyme scheme. To make things worse, The Game then recycles lines from 50's first verse about a minute later.

If I wasn't a night owl and didn't have free time out the ass to listen to this album, I would have dismissed The Game on the basis of this track alone. But the other tracks before this at least proved that the guy can rap.

Don't Need Your Love, featuring Faith Evans

Despite taking a shot at New York, The Game brought Havoc out west to do this beat. It's not Infamous material. It's not even Why by Kiss material.

Lyrically The Game's pretty good on this track. But the production is so obnoxious and I don't want to hear Faith Evans on anything except the One More Chance remix.

Church For Thugs

Just Blaze stops by to drop this nice beat. Seriously, when you can line up Dre, Kanye, Just Blaze etc. to do production, it would take an unbelievably bad rapper to blow it. Not to say Aftermath doesn't have worthy candidates that would qualify, but The Game obviously had something to prove on the equivalent of his debut album.

The only thing I've gotten tired of as far as The Game is concerned is that he constantly reverts to namedropping. He has mentioned Pac, Biggie and Eazy E on just about every track multiple times.

I wonder how this track was titled Church For Thugs. It's like Nas rapping Represent and titling it It Aint Hard 2 Tell.

Put You On The Game

This one was produced by Timbaland. The Game is so proud of calling this album "a memorial to Makaveli and Big Pop" that he actually has the beat stop while he says it again. The album's tight through the first half but some perspective is in order.

This beat is awesome. The only blip in the first half of the album was Havoc's rather average production.

Start From Scratch

Dre and Scott Storch do this beat, and it's nice. The Game discusses what he would change starting with 1994. As far as he's concerned, he wouldn't change anything about his life, despite the fact he caught a couple slugs in the chest (one of which apparently still is lodged in or near his heart).

The rest is a pretty clever lyrical exercise in which The Game would mend Dre and Eazy's relationship, tell Biggie about the LA Rampart scandal, tell Pac about Orlando Anderson. Basically the stuff he's been saying for 9 straight tracks.

The best line of the album so far: "When you a bad boy niggas don't wanna see you shine." The kid's clever. This is the best track on the album.

The Documentary

The hook consists of The Game rapping 8 classic albums into rhymes. This would have been impressive except he's named these albums a few times already.

The Game's second verse is impressive, discussing who he got on this album and didn't get on this album (Jay Z). The Game says that he's the "second dopest nigga from Compton you'll ever hear. The first only puts out albums every seven years."

Runnin, featuring Tony Yayo

I could barely believe my eyes when I saw that Hi-Tek produced this track. But then I listened to it and I could believe it.

The Game drops another clever verse, this time mentioning "Ike with the Iverson jersey" from Nas's What Goes Around off Stillmatic.

The Game is tight but no rapper could have ever made this track replayable: Tony Yayo is garbage and this beat is a pretty poor loop.

No More Fun And Games

Another Just Blaze joint. "So if a nigga every try to Jerry Heller me, tell Dre put up a mil cuz that's what my bail'll be." This track's quite different from the rest of them, but this still works. The Game drops a mindnumbing amount of numbers in his last verse, kind of like a poor man's version of 22 2s.

We Ain't, featuring Marshall

This album was going too well for Marshall not to mess with. So of course Marshall felt inclined to do a beat.

Except this beat is actually listenable. The only really annoying thing is that Marshall has some weird high pitched voice in the back. It sounds like he rented the Juelz Santana kid for this track. But other than that, Marshall basically had his once in a blue moon moment, and thank god this beat landed on The Game's album instead of going to waste on Encore.

The other good news is that Marshall can't drop Big Weenie/Puke type bullshit on someone else's album, especially a debut album. So he's forced to drop a vintage Shady hot verse. Sometimes it's really amazing how automatic Marshall's flow can get in the middle of the verse, he can be like a machine.

The Game opens up the following verse by rapping "Get Dre on the phone quick / Tell him Em just killed me on my own shit." No kidding, but at least he can laugh about it.

Where I'm From, featuring Nate Dogg

"I just wanna fuuuuuuuuck you." This beat is almost a replica of the Dre track on Chronic 2001. There has been a lot better on this album, but it could be worse.

Nate does a pretty lame hook. This is not one of the best songs on the album; I hope they don't feel inclined to make this one a single based solely on Nate's presence.

Special, featuring Nate Dogg

This beat's better, but Nate's hook is lame. Maybe I've heard Nate rap one million times too many about hoes and videos to listen to his hook about a girl being special and that she and Nate will always be.

The Game follows suit by rapping about his special girl. Well, she's special when The Game is in her vicinity, anyway. He's already rapped about liking girls of all colors.

Don't Worry, featuring Mary J Blige

Way too much Mary J to start off this track. This one has a single type soft song feel to it. It's like 21 Questions except The Game is tight. Outside of that fact, this is a mediocre song on this album.

Like Father Like Son, featuring Busta Rhymes

Like Beginning Like End. This track has a really tight beat done by Buckwild, a decent guest spot, and The Game is solid, as he has been consistently.

For the past few weeks I thought nothing good about The Game. His name and the name of his album were pretty unoriginal, even moreso after listening to this. I certainly wasn't going to download it except that it basically fell into my lap, no homo. But everyone except J-Kwon deserves a chance. I was expecting to do a typical review roasting this bitch, but I didn't have to because the album is hot already.

I don't know if The Game is going to reach his goal of bringing the West back, but he's surprisingly tight, at least to start. Instead of being the poor man's 50 that I thought he was, right down to the gunshot wounds, he's light years ahead of Curtis Jackson. If Get Rich Or Die Trying had a tight rapper on it, the product probably would have been The Documentary.