The Game - L.A.X.: Album Review
The Game, L.A.X. (Geffen, 2008)
Despite his being kicked out of G-Unit and disowned by Dr. Dre, the Game's last album, Doctor's Advocate, somehow managed to be the rare commercial rap album that's actually worth a shit. Can he repeat that feat here, or was it just a fluke?
INTRO
The Ronnie Dobbs of hip-hop, DMX, kicks things off with a prayer. Hilarious. X pronounces Jayceon the same way Ras Kass does. Or is that how it's pronounced?
LAX FILES
It's been too long since (I'll admit) I watched the first season of the X Files, but I think this beat might incorporate that series' theme. Hmm... Also, the Game, whom I don't anyone has ever regarded as technically gifted, kicks this awkward doubletime flow.
STATE OF EMERGENCY
Another confession: I used to own that shitty anti-globalization video game that shares a title with this song. I think I lost it in a move. Or maybe I still have it somewhere. Who knows? Anyhoo, I'm feeling this a bit more than that first one. It's got old, irrelevant Ice Cube on the chorus (and just the chorus, thank god), as well as that Ohio Players synth squeal that you find in so much West Coast rap.
BULLETPROOF DIARIES
Speaking of being old and irrelevant, Raekwon drops some guest raps on this. If him and the Game were actually in the studio together at all, I'm sure the two of them commiserated about trying to put an album out with that damn Dr. Dre.
MY LIFE
Question: Why is it that every major label rap album that comes out these days has gotta have a song with Lil' Wayne on it? Man, funk dat!
MONEY
Oh no, that's not... tell me that's not... a sample of that motherfucking Donna Summer record, "She Works Hard for the Money," or whatever it's called. Damn, I think it is. Also: I'm pretty sure this is just a song about how much money the Game has. Like one of those old Cash Money records, except with less of an excuse.
CALI SUNSHINE
This song's teh ghey chorus, sung by Bilal, is giving me flashbacks of several of my least favorite moments from the two Lupe Fiasco albums. Scary!
YA HEARD
What's the point of taking such an obvious sample and twisting it into such an avant garde form? Everyone knows this is "Jam on It." Except, now it's that much more migraine-inducing. Somewhere, J Dilla's corpse is rolling over in its grave.
HARD LIQUOR
A voicemail message Nas left for the Game. If ever there were two rappers made for one another...
HOUSE OF PAIN
Wasn't there a Dr. Dre record that sounds just like this, except without all of the musicality stripped out of it? God, DJ Toomp is worthless. How many more songs are these rappers gonna let him ruin, just because he had that one hit with T.I.?
GENTLEMAN'S AFFAIR
Holy crap, this is gay! Someone's gonna have to figure out a way to out Ne-Yo, so these rappers won't feel right about putting him on their albums anymore.
LET US LIVE
The keyboard Scott Storch used to make this must have a "meh" preset.
TOUCHDOWN
A third teh ghey R&B record in a row, just to round things out. The sad thing is, none of these has any shot at becoming a hit single.
ANGEL
The Kanye-produced Common feature. It sounds a lot more like something from the last Common album (in a bad way, natch) than a Game record.
NEVER CAN SAY GOODBYE
Game raps from the perspective of 2Pac, Biggie, and Eazy-E, the nights they died. Huh? There's stannery, and then there's stannery. This is obviously the latter.
DOPE BOYS
What should have been this year's "One Blood." If only it didn't have seemingly the most obnoxiously bizarre production evar.
GAME'S PAIN
Another early single that failed to set the world on fire. This one's problem is that it sounds like a Keyshia Cole record. Like, maybe they took one of the throwaways from her last album and tacked a couple of Game verses onto it.
LETTER TO THE KING
A rap song about Martin Luther King? Really? Let me guess: Nas got this idea from the most recent entry in the Michael Eric Dyson book of the month club? Choice line: "I need Rihanna's umbrella for Coretta Scott's teardrops... I wonder why Jesse didn't catch his body before it dropped. Will he answer my question? Probably not."
OUTRO
DMX is back, and he's way more amped up than he was on the intro! Roffle.
COMMENTS: If you listen closely, you can hearing a swishing sound in the background of this album. Those of us who went to college will recognize it as the sound of the law of diminishing marginal returns beginning to set in with regard to the Game's career. Well, at least artistically. Probably commercially as well, though. Doctor's Advocate didn't do nearly as well as The Documentary; and the only reason it did as well as it did is because it was fucking killer. This album, meanwhile, is fucking gay.
BEST TRACKS: Who cares?
BONUS VIDEO: "My Life"
