Since the West Coast fell off, the streets been watchin’…
Hip Hop fans have been hearing about “the return of the West Coast” for the last 10 years.
The brief marriage between Tupac Shakur and Death Row Records in 1996 was less about the West and more about money, merchandising and diss tracks. After Pac’s death, the same names that first brought the spotlight’s glare to the Golden State failed to fan their once formidable flames of fame.
Enter Jayceon Taylor.
Performing under the stage name of “The Game”, the Compton-born rapper has created a buzz for his debut album that, in recent years, has only been rivaled by 2003’s coming out party for 50 Cent. And, if you ask enough people who remember 1993…they’ll tell you that the hype machine hasn’t been this…well, “hyped”, since a young Calvin Broadus asked Who Am I? (What’s My Name?).
The one opportunistic constant between then and now is legendary producer Dr. Dre.
On the heels of some underground mixtape fire and with the financial backing of the industry’s most influential label, it’s finally time to play The Game, as he drops the heavily-anticipated Documentary
Westside Story wasn’t the album’s first official single, but it did hit most radio outlets before anything else from the LP. Dre, with help from Scott Storch, basically take 50’s beat from In The Club, sprinkle some sparse piano strains over the top and call it a hit. Groundbreaking? No, but it’s a lot of fun as he calls out to Cali, with an occasional clip of cleverness:
So, I ain’t gotta tuck in my chain like DJ Pooh
I’m gangsta…more like D-Bo when he was Zeus…
Mike Elizondo steps in to assist Dre on the beat for the album’s real first single, How We Do. The production work is certainly catchy with a snap-wire five-step sound, mixing drum claps, snares and synths. However, lyrically, it’s pretty hollow and further brought down by another one of 50 Cent’s copyrighted “just there” cameos.
The second single is reportedly the Kanye West produced Dreams. It’s a slower change-of-pace from what you’ve probably heard on FM and MTV from The Game, but it works. It’s the first of several autobiographical attempts to tell us where he’s coming from, with pieces of Jerry Butler’s No Money Down heard in the background. Although, let’s just hope that his already dated reference to the fleeting 50 Cent/Vivica A. Fox relationship doesn’t become a running gag on wax between his labelmates.
Game gets a little timelier with his shots on the title track. If you can get past the oddly offensive intro to the cut, this one’s another solid (possible) single. You’ll find a few throwaway lines at acts like Xzibit, Guerilla Black and Truth Hurts…but the best reference is saved for Jay-Z.
There’s a line in Game’s Westside Story cut that is so obviously a jab at Jigga, that Mr. Carter reportedly refused to commit to a cameo on this album, even after Dr. Dre interceded. Game addresses the beef and botches the backpedaling in every way by claiming he was talking about Ja Rule. Game’s explanation is simply, “I never take shots at legends.”
But, The Game does talk about legends…constantly.
In an attempt to be accessible to the last few years of listeners’ lyrical leanings, Game throws around names like other rappers talk about money, bitches n’ hoes. It never gets annoying, per se…but, it’s a habit that he’s going to need to break on future efforts, if he’s ever going to grow. Shouting out Tupac and Biggie on one or two tracks was played out before the turn of the last century.
Speaking of shout outs, on No More Fun & Games, Just Blaze brings back the feel of the N.W.A. classic Gangsta Gangsta. The beat is vibrant and updated nicely from a song that’s almost 20 years old, but, again, Game brings it down a notch with his mic work. Credit where it’s due…his “timeline” in the third verse is crazy. His lesbian diss to Alicia Keys and shrug of the shoulders to the Eminem’s “Black bitch” controversy is not.
Slim Shady, himself, appears and produces We Ain’t. For those who say all of Em’s beats sound the same…well, this one does. It’s not a bad beat, but one that is frustratingly familiar. And, for some reason, Game channels the spirit of Eminem’s flow from 2000’s The Way I Am.
The one and only Nate Dogg lends his pipes to Where I’m From, which might be the one track that sounds like a Dre beat, but isn’t. It’s an effective, yet disposable effort, but try and hunt down the original version, which features Dre in the second verse as his ghostwritten renaissance (of sorts) continues.
