"she wears underwear with dick holes in em."

Unlike Suchfriends, I love southern hip hop. But The Game is by far my favorite West Coast rapper. He's amazing. I love DOCUMENTARY, but DOCTORS ADVOCATE and LAX are even better. Trust me. You don't need to check out his indie albums or mixtapes until after you've digested those two.

guy is terrible.

OK, mine:

1. Doom
2. Jay-Z
3. Outkast (replace this with Andre 3000 or Big Boi, depending on whoever actually gets around to releasing something. By the evidence of Shine Blockas though, Big Boi's will KILL)
4. Kanye West (Yeah, I agree with NR that it's as a producer mainly, but the fact remains that if his name is on the album then it generates more interest in me than most other hip-hop artists)

After that their are too many people on roughly the same level of interest for me to choose from. Only just really getting into Wayne, but he may well be on their when I've heard more that 1 album by him. Also I only know the first two Ghostfaces at all, so maybe he'd be on their two once I know more.

As to the Game, I know none at all. Recommend ONE album and I'll check it out.

Doctor's Advocate.

Talk about fucking deep. The record title is a reference to the fact that Dre was producing it. But he didn't end up producing it. And the album is half about how Game doesn't need anyone else to make a great album (which it is) and half about how he's upset that Dre (and everyone else) turned their back on him after the success of The Documentary and the pretty-much dissolution of G-Unit. It's a really fucked up weird major label record. Awesome.

you have to understand, the Game is mob music, and in that regard, the lyrics are at least a low B. Mob Music is music that the criminal/ghetto element of society can relate too directly. As e-feezy said, "i love to make that music y'all can sell drugs too.."

i dont' even fully agree. I just think he's underrated as a lyricist.

The Game
 

Is there any word on when the Kill off an FKL character game will be back/ I am missing playing it.

From what I've heard of The Game, I thought his lyrics were quite advanced in the context of West Coast hip hop.


"I had visions of makin' a classic
Then my wall turned black, like I was staring outta Stevie Wonders glasses
It's kinda hard to imagine, like Kanye West
Coming back from a fatal accident, to beat makin' and rappin'
But, we da future
Whitney Houston told me that, it's gonna take mo' than a bullet in a heart to hold me back."

if I could rep you again, I would.

I'd rep you back but I seem to rep you way too often haha.

he was pretty good, first two album were good but hes fallin off a bit, i wouldnt be into him anymore!
hes still nothing compared to other hiphop artists releasing music this year like mf doom, MOS DEF, Mr. lif, q-tip, raekwon, royce da 5" 9

Have you actually heard his 3rd album, LAX? It's unbelievable.

MF DOOM - apples vs oranges. Completely different style of hip hop, style of lyricism, style of flow, etc.

Mos Def - again. Apples vs organges.

Mr. Life - I PHANTOM and EMERGENCY RATIONS are great. After that all his shiz sounds the same to me.

Q-Tip - apples v oranges again. I mean. Seriously WHY would you think to cmopare these two? They're practically different genres of music. Like comparing the Melvins to Prince.

Raekwon - straight up, CUBAN LINX 2 = boring. I don't care. I said it. And I was pumped for it. But his DA VINCI CODE mixtape was far better than CL2.

Royce - never saw the hype. He's okay. I have a fair amount of his work. Nothing staggering.

in regards to mob music and intellectual lyrics.. its not that the Game doesn't have any good lyrics with substance, there are actually a few really good lines and those are what really keep me into the Game, but again, it is mob music, and its audience/fan base are folks who can relate to several varieties of criminal life. That being said, for folks who live criminal lives, the Game and other mob music is in fact GENIUS lyrics. These kinds of folks think highly of the lyrics which many of us might consider unseemly, talking about promiscuity, violence, anti-police, gang shit, etc etc.

I think the Game sums up that vibes when he said, "hell yeah its fucking real Uzi dog.."

whether or not the Game is a studio gangster is a different argument, but what he points out most often in his lyrics is that gangster rap is not about pretending, its about real life drama. Its not a movie. While for most mid-west, middle class white kids picking this shit up off of iTunes and MTV, of course they don't get it, but for other folks this shit speaks volumes.

i particularly enjoy mob music, is it a kind of art form. After all, art must reflect the experience/perspective of its audience, and for gangsters, street folks and other low lives like myself, we like to hear about ourselves and our daily grind in our music. I am sure a bunch of pencil pushers enjoy that REM shit, but when you got to get yr hustle on while lookin over yr shoulder for the rollers, than you need something a bit more rough around the edges ;)

@noisereductions :

lol, i was comparing them because there both hiphop but i guess your right there very different, the game is kinda modern mainstream gangsta rap wheareas those artists i named are generally alternative positive hiphop

and yeah cuban linx 2 isnt amazing, but have you heard mos def's THE ECSTATIC?

that is not entirely accurate. It is not fair to assume the Game's music is negative, which I took as your implication with 'alternative positive hip hop'

they are just about different things, covering different issues for a different audience. The Game is not entirely negative there, in fact his last two albums had a closing prayer!

Yeah, it's quite good. Certainly better than TRUE MAGIC (which I liked more than any critic did) and THE NEW DANGER (which I still liked a lot). Mos is a great lyricist, who thinks too grand and then has trouble actually delivering when it comes to the album format. He also suffers a bit from too-good-a-debut. But that's another story altogether.

nekrobumped for louder.

(haha, in 2009 I actually put TI In my "top 5 rappers currently making music"? That's hilarious considering how far he fell off since then. Yikes)

haha omg great thread. yeah well, Paper Trail was actually pretty good for a mainstream rap album.

Lil Wayne used to be so popular here, whoa.

personally The Documentary is in my top 10 fav rap albums of the 00's, but i see what you mean with Game being a lot more interesting when he's facing struggles & getting fucked up.
i wish he worked with Kanye again, but they don't get along anymore.. it's funny how Game fought with many of the people who helped him to blow up with his debut.

Papertrail was great. Honestly, KING / TI VS TIP / PAPERTRAIL was such a great string of albums. But right around the time he got tangled in nonstop jailtime is when his focus seemed to really shit the bed.