You know that friend who always tags along when you go out, and does his best to fit in by copying whatever the cool kids in the group do? If your social clique was made up of the most famous rappers in the world, then that friend is Game. Ever since his debut album dropped in 2005, he’s been notorious for name-dropping and an overreliance on guest artists. And in that sense, The R.E.D.Album is the disc that he’s always been destined to make.
Averaging a guest spot per track, The R.E.D. Album brings together hip-hop’s past (Dr. Dre and Snoop), present (Drake and Rick Ross) and future (Kendrick Lamar and Tyler, The Creator). The one constant linking them all together is Game getting routinely slaughtered on his own songs. At some points, he even comes across as doing a poor impression of the artist who’s killing him. For example, on “Martians vs. Goblins,” he bites Lil’ Wayne’s Martian persona, spits an Odd Future-style 16 lowlighted by a bizarre Rihanna dis, gets completely upstaged by Tyler’s verse, and then follows up by confessing that Wayne once “killed me on my own track, so what?”
Game doesn’t help things much by appearing very confused about his own place in rap’s landscape from the outset of the album. On the disc’s first song, “The City,” Game somehow finds the stones to declare himself one of the top five MC’s of all time (along with Biggie, Jay, Pac and Nas) before seemingly retracting his own boast by calling himself “the black Slim Shady” (Game recently confessed to being terrified of Eminem’s lyrical prowess). But wait! Right before the track ends, Game changes his mind again, calling himself better than Snoop Dogg. Then Kendrick Lamar predictably murders him, and the next track comes on featuring none other than the Doggfather himself.
Competition aside, there is certainly no shortage of quality cuts (loading your album with hot guests and producers means the worst case scenario is still pretty high). There are L.A.-themed street anthems that may not quite be The Chronic, but are worthy descendants. And there are also radio-aimed joints that are sure to get heavy rotation before the end of the year. The highlight of this group is “Good Girls Go Bad,” featuring Drake telling one lucky lady that he loves her “like Milhouse loves Lisa” and “like the Ninja Turtles love pizza.”
There is one track that proves Game is capable of carrying an entire song. “Ricky,” named for the doomed high school football star in Boyz N The Hood, chillingly intertwines clips from the film with Game’s first-hand accounts of his own near-murder. Had the whole album consisted of cuts like this, rather than songs that highlight the strengths of his guests, The R.E.D. Album could have been Game’s opus, rather than an SNL episode where the host gets outshined by the cast. It’s a solid listen, but consider Game rap’s Michael Phelps.
Game Ft Drake – Good Girls Go Bad
3.5 /5 bars
