The Game ft. Lil Wayne "My Life"
The Game ft. Raekwon "Bulletproof Diaries"
If The Game is anything, he is a rap nerd. While the incessant name-dropping has been rather contemptuously deemed unoriginal by those who just plain find it grating, Game's style is more a reflection of his ardent rap standom than anything. I get the sense that all his day really consists of is rapping at the studio then coming home to listen to rap classics and to read the blogs on the latest gossip in the world of hip-hop. What happens is that while other rappers, who look or even exist outside of hip-hop to any degree, can make metaphors or punchlines relating to The Beatles or Days Of Our Lives or kung-fu or something, hip-hop is the entirety of The Game's sphere of influence so that's all his lyrics and metaphors can relate to--other hip-hop. The standom-as-art isn't unlike the innumerable producers who love old school soul and funk so much that they sample these records to make new music out of their experience as listeners. It's just that while their favorite music was the funk and soul they grew up on, The Game grew up on '90s-era hip-hop. So really, all you can blame The Game for is being closed-minded enough to not step outside of hip-hop to sample or reference something else in his lyrics ..... but c'mon, who the hell am I to accuse someone else of being musically closed-minded?
On the solo tracks on LAX, his stannery for West Coast g-funk is apparent as he sticks to the bitches, blunts, dubs, and drugs topics pretty zealously. I can't completely believe that he's dealt drugs before, but I know that Eazy-E used to so The Game just channels his hero and puts that fiction to paper as well. On collabos, The Game switches targets and channels his featured guest. It's endearing to imagine The Game in the studio with Raekwon or Common or Ice Cube, geeking out because he gets to even breathe the same air as these rap heavyweights he's read about so much at HaterPlayer (......). So when he writes his verse, all he can do is jock these cats who are in front of him, adopting Cube's blunt flow structure and fiery delivery on "State of Emergency" featuring Cube, sprinkling Wu-Tang slang into "Bulletproof Diaries" with Raekwon, and proclaiming how he fell in love with H.E.R. on "Angel" featuring Common (who by the way, turns in another pretty lackluster verse).
The hands-down best track of the album is "My Life" featuring a great, emotionally vulnerable vocoder hook from Lil Wayne to go with Game's emotionally unstable verses mulling his own mortality, whether taken at the hands of his enemies or by his own hands. There are some really classic moments here, like when he offers to share his mom with the now-motherless Kanye or when he rides around Hell, smoking blunts with Satan while playing The Chronic backwards. It's a glimpse both of the unabashed honesty that makes him so attractive and the creativity he still finds by staying within the sphere of hip-hop.
LAX is another solid album by a rap fan with an excellent ear for beats and an eagerness in his words. If the name-dropping doesn't explode your head, take a seat and think about how much you have loved or still love hip-hop too.
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7 hollergrams:
By your description, Game sounds a lot like me. Except for when you mention his studio time: that is just an apt description of what it would (or maybe, more optimistic, will) be like to get into a booth with all my my hip-hop heroes.
I'm also really glad your final judgment on this record was positive. From all the Little Brother, DJ Jazzy Jeff and J-Live I've been bumping, I was beginning to think Game was my hip-hop guilty pleasure.
Yeah, well it's easy to write him off as a guilty pleasure because he leaves himself open and can at times say some genuinely stupid shit. But that's part of his attraction: his willingness to say whatever the fuck is on his mind (or to be mad cheesy, in his heart), even if it might sound stupid as all hell.
And if you Youtube him on an old dating show called Change of Heart ..... hilarious.
I've had a similar thought and you said it well, but it's almost like there's different kinds of rap nerds or nerds in general. Jay-Z, who is really pretty much totaly bullshit with the verses he's stolen is like a nerd, who obsessively listens and categorizes and thinks about rap and channels his life through it. Game is the kind of guy that never had a life.
Game's references are also incredibly obvious like, all the time.
I'm struggling with it, but it's the difference between like a comic book nerd who reads a lot of comics and the one who like pontificates on meaningless shit like the physics of superheroes or something. One's life is informed by comics, one's life IS comics.
I never thought of Jay as a rap nerd but I guess considering all the relatively obscure verses he jacks/samples/signifies on, that makes some sense. Jay however does it to hone his skill (and/or steal ideas) so I see him as more of a craftsmen. I think Game's ..... well, not.
And I know you want me to compare you to Jay-Z as Jason Lee in Mallrats is to Game, but I'm not having it Brandon hah!
I've never seen 'Mallrats'?
That's the big thing about Game though, his rap references aren't obscure really. Not that it's important, but he's like this huge fan of the stuff he grew up on. It's like how my Aunt's really into music but it's just like Def Leppard and Poison because it's what she like, fucked to in high school.
Watch Mallrats. I think you'd find the inappropriate comic nerd-dom funny in a creepy way.
Okay so as opposed to a rap nerd who's all about the music and digging for more and more artistry to consume, Game is more about the emotions and experiences he's associated with the music he's heard and such.
Maybe rap "nerd" wasn't the right term. He's just a big fan who is overzealous around rappers he still idolizes.
Given the manner in which Game educated (and, to some degree, re-educated) himself on the "classics" after his coma - a story to which he alludes on a few records - I think the term "nerd" is safe to apply.
Of course, I would go as far to say that none of his rhymes were born from his listenings to hip-hop while growing up, but a large portion of his skill development was born from this structured focus on the "classics" from around 2001 and beyond. It was certainly not an education that was completely (or even mostly, I would say) naturally acquired through listening to rap throughout his lifetime.
And, if anything, this comment lets everyone else know that I am a Game nerd. Guilty pleasure!
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