The Game needs no introduction. The man who was kicked out of G-Unit and made a whole album about whinily stalking ex-benefactor Dr. Dre has most recently performed two actions: 1) Releasing a diss track called "Uncle Otis," whose targets include Tyler, the Creator; and 2) releasing a collaboration with Tyler, the Creator. Therefore, I expect this liveblogging of his fourth album to be immaculate. Let's see.
"Dr. Dre Intro"
"Being born there ... is just like dying there."
"The City"
Rick Ross' fantasy life has nothing on the Game. Off the bat, he brags about wrestling alligators in the Everglades. Then there's "I'm probably top five/ Game, Biggie, Hov ... probably Pac, Nas." We're not five minutes in! I don't know who Kendrick Lamar is, but he compared himself to a record and didn't explain why (you spin him 'round maybe?). The Game acknowledges that critics said LAX was average, but he doesn't seem to disagree. Laughing my ass off at this stewardess style-warning about wearing gang colors in L.A..
"Drug Test"
"Do what you do/ Drug test's on you," is that the hook? Not bad -- a sexy, minimally stabbing beat, too. This Nate Dogg replacement guy they got is creepy (Snoop and Dre are on here too).
"Martians vs. Goblins"
In which Uncle Otis brings Lil Wayne and Tyler, the Creator, to the R.E.D. planet for a faceoff. "Have a bonfire with old Harry Potter books" -- my girlfriend's gonna be pissed. This track is classic Eminem, a tinkly, lightly mocking nursery rhyme beat where Tyler calls out fish-in-a-barrel like Bruno Mars and Tyler Perry, and goes "I suck? Where the fucking ring pops?" while Game brags about eating out Erykah Badu. Pretty playful creative exercise for all involved, when push comes to shove.
"Red Nation"
This album's brisk! Hey, Lil Wayne was barely on that last one, but he actually has a verse here, right after Game threatens to "kill Satan." "Angeles/scandalous/gamblers" is a good end-rhyme sequence for Game. Weezy's been nothing special on this album so far, but I don't mind him saving it all for non-Game albums.
"Dr. Dre 1"
I can't even remember the last rap record I heard with skits. I wasn't keeping track when he and Dre patched it up, either.
"Good Girls Go Bad"
Oh man, beautiful sample. "We don't wanna see Nicky fight with Kim/ There's missing girls out there, let's focus on them." The title had me worried, but this is a relatively good concept; Game says his mom is better off without his abuser dad. I keep warming to Drake on other people's records, then going back to Thank Me Later and punching myself. Game then comes back and abandons the abused-girl conceit to explain exactly whose wives are okay to sleep with.
"Ricky"
Minute-long intro with a shootout and lots of sax and strings and gun noises, before Game comes in to talk about no one named Ricky. He compares himself to Malcolm, so it makes sense his lawyer of choice is Cochran. "Keep it clear like Belvedere vodka" --pretty good!
"The Good, The Bad, The Ugly"
Operatic samples and a deep-voiced attempt at a Biggie narrative, down to removing himself from coitus to check the window. Not bad until he details the shit he took between gundowns.
"Heavy Artillery"
Ross the boss comes in to rhyme bitches with snitches, and awesomely compares his shit to "pancakes." This album's lush and quick, and has some of the tightest Game rapping I've ever heard. But it's dangerously unmemorable unless you're taking notes like I am. "Ain't nothing changed except the bullets in my clip," raps Beanie Sigel. Didn't you fall out with Jay-Z, or is he just going to come back and narrate the skits on your next album?
"Paramedics"
This one's a riot. Young Jeezy's "heeeeeeey!" Greek chorus sounds great with the siren-like guitars, and I don't understand at all why he keeps shouting (well, throating) "Here come the paramedicssssssssss!" Oh god, is this like his high five with Game after "winning" at shooting? And Game with his vodka metaphors again! Best thing on the album so far.
"Speakers on Blast"
I'm sitting up and paying attention now. This is another beat I like; grandiose yet low-key. Game wants you to know he can't come to the phone right now because his balls are in someone's mouth. Oh no, now Big Boi's talking about his balls! He also compares himself to Optimus Prime and a librarian. E-40 always sounds like he's making fun of everyone (like Del the Funky Homosapien), but he just sounds like that.
"Hello"
How does this album still have 30 minutes left? A slow jam, with Lloyd quoting "Single Ladies" -- jarring, especially after that balls song. "She used to wake up to a kiss, now she wake up to a shoe." What?
"All the Way Gone"
Is this gonna be all easy listening from here on out? Because this is not Game's métier. Mario sings about "looking for love in all the wrong places," confirming that I think I heard it right in the first verse when Game says he hits it from the back and the front and then something about his mama. Walé shows up and that guy is just tuneless.
"Pot of Gold"
Yup, another soft one. Featuring none other than Chris Brown -- isn't this guy's revamped ubiquity gross? [Ed. note: yes] This is the best of the slow ones so far, sadly. "The spotlight is not for me," Brown sings. Please leave then?
"Dr. Dre 2"
I don't know much about gang etiquette, but isn't it like, really dishonoring his dead Crip mom for Game to subsequently "cross the tracks until everything turned red"?
"All I Know"
Just Blaze-y Jay/Ross-style bombast I'm just too tired for this late in the proceedings. Game is, too. I don't really get how the "struggle" Luu Breeze in singing about factors in a sex object whom Game sneers at for her breast and ass implants. Oh, he explains, "I'm sleeping with the enemy." Is he still talking about his Crip mom? And you thought his Dre complex was intense!
"Born in the Trap"
"I was born in the crosshairs without a pot to piss in," is a compelling start, but I'm just too tired. Ever since "All I Know" he's resorted to The Documentary's name-dropping again. Just like T.I., just like Outkast, he was born in the trap. I bet he goes on to name other ATL rappers when he does that part. Yup: Goodie Mob, Ludacris, Shawty Lo. None of which -- I'm sure you already know this -- he's like.
"Mama Knows"
Kind of cool, jazzy beat. I like this one, a quick-shuffled narrative, even though he has no light touch: "[My dad] beating on my moms like her head was a percussion." On the hook is a waning Nelly Furtado, who really does sound like a fucking bird. This has to be the third time on The R.E.D. Album he's compared himself to Malcolm.
"California Dream"
God, this one's annoying, even by chipmunk sample standards. He hates the kid he's about to have. "I ain't cleaning that shit up!" "Kids the best, but they be coming at the worst time!" He should audition for Are We There Yet 3D -- he lives in L.A., I'm sure one of his boys can hook this up. In all seriousness though, it's somewhat amazing to hear him so laser-focused on storytelling, and this one is detailed from his babymama not being able to buckle her car seat to the breathing in the hospital. Wait, did he just say she "gave her life for his baby girl"? Is he being figurative? There's a weird skit afterward where the mama's alive?
"Dr. Dre Outro"
Twist: "Taking care of your family is the most gangsta shit you can do"! This must be how the Juggalos felt after ICP revealed the sixth Joker card was God.
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