Hate it or love it? Unquestionably the latter (The Documentary - The Game)

Member Name: simonh7

Product:	The Documentary - The Game
Date:	01/04/09 (41 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Every track is incredible

Disadvantages: The Intro is a waste of time but then again, they always are!

The Game, real name Jayceon Terrell Taylor, is a gangsta rapper from Compton, Los Angeles and 2005's The Documentary, was his debut album. The album features 18 tracks and was co-produced by Dr Dre and 50 Cent. The Game also collaborates with a number of other established artists on the album, such as 50 Cent, Eminem, Nate Dogg, Faith Evans and Mary J Blige.

The style of the album is particularly unique with a heavy influence from The Game's west-coast roots. The content is explicit at times but this is to be expected, as The Game raps about many issues, including feuds with other rappers, gun culture, drugs and sex. His lyrics however, are first class and thought clearly goes into every line rather than just finding words to fit. For a debut album this is literally incredible and has a great sound to it, with old-skool hip-hop backing music akin to mid-nineties west-coast rappers like Snoop Dogg and Dr Dre.

The Game flows very well and shows good versatility in doing both hard and softer tracks, displayed by two of the album's singles - How We Do and Hate or Love it, respectively - both of which feature 50 Cent, before The Game's feud with 50's team G-Unit. This is a great album and I love every single song, especially Runnin', The Documentary, No More Fun and Games and Where I'm From. Dreams was also a hit single and is very cleverly written with lots of contextual and contemporary references. Westside Story was the album's first single and was touted as a west-coast version of 50 Cent's In Da Club.

For a guy who has produced a record of this quality just a couple of years after being shot and in a comer, clearly has bags of talent to burn because this really was Hip-Hop album of the year and probably my favourite American rap album to date in that every track tells a different story in unique fashion.

Summary: Quality west-coast hip hop