New Music: The Game

The Game
“Doctor’s Advocate”
(Geffen)
3 STARS

When gangsta rapper The Game released his debut album, “The Documentary,” in early 2005, he was flying high—and not just because of all the chronic he was smoking. With the legendary Dr. Dre as executive producer and 50 Cent and Eminem as featured guests, The Game knew “The Documentary” would go platinum. It sold five million copies worldwide.

Two years, two Grammy nominations and one much publicized beef later, The Game (born Jayceon Taylor) finds himself in the unfamiliar position of trying to sell an album that includes no Dre instrumentals or Fiddy hooks and, therefore, is not guaranteed platinum status. The cards are stacked against him, but that’s exactly how this former drug dealer from Compton, Calif. likes it.

The title of The Game’s sophomore effort, “Doctor’s Advocate,” is an homage to Dre, a fellow Compton native who discovered The Game in 2002 and gave him his first recording contract. Following a bitter feud between The Game and 50, The Game left Dre’s Aftermath label for Geffen because, as he said, he didn’t want 50 (who records for Aftermath) to make any money on his latest LP.

What’s clear after listening to “Doctor’s Advocate” is that The Game didn’t need 50—he can write compelling songs on his own—but he really did need Dre. Although The Game tries hard to compensate for the Doc’s absence by recruiting some of today’s best beat makers, including Scott Storch, Just Blaze, Kanye West, Swizz Beatz, and Hi Tek, Dre would have executive produced a much more polished and cohesive album.

The Game seems to know this. In the title track, he sounds truly dejected when he reminisces about working with Dre on a record for the first album: “Remember when we got drunk to do ‘Start from Scratch’/ I told you you was like a father to me, I meant that/ Sitting here looking at my platinum plaques/ thinking what the fuck am I without a Dr. Dre track.” The truth is that he’s an exciting West Coast talent, but one with serious identity issues.

A compulsive name-dropper, The Game repeatedly and inappropriately compares himself to hip hop all-stars from the past 20 years. On “It’s Okay (One Blood),” a high-energy head banger, he says, “I’m B.I.G., I’m Cube, I’m Nas, I’m Pac.” Does he actually believe that? I hope not. On the last track, the dazzling “Why You Hate the Game” with the real Nas and Marsha from Floetry, he reflects on the feud with 50 and backtracks on the Pac comparison: “He ain’t B.I.G. and I ain’t Pac, and we just eatin’ off rap.”

The self-aggrandizement is tolerable because we understand that The Game is lost without Dre and we’re willing to listen to him pop off at the mouth so he can feel better. Sometimes, however, he just goes too far. On “Compton,” which has a funky vibe courtesy of will.i.am, he raps, “Look at all the hate I see, I’m sick / You can’t get rid of me, I’m HIV.” It’s difficult to understand why he would say something like that when his rap icon, Eazy-E from N.W.A., whose likeness The Game had tattooed on his right forearm, died from complications from AIDS in 1995.

Without Dr. Dre’s platinum touch, The Game’s goal of moving 1 million units seems unattainable. But if “Doctor’s Advocate” sells well, don’t be surprised if on the third album The Game announces his ascension as a rap superstar by comparing himself to himself.

—Reviewer Andrew C. Esensten can be reached at esenst@fas.harvard.edu.