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OPINION The West’s Piru Headed Step Child: Ranking The Games Albums

grYmes

grYmes

The price of a brick goin up…
Happy Juneteenth everyone! Coming off one of the best moments hip-hop has had in a hot minute with Kendrick’s Pop Up… it’s inspired me to get going on my next artist for the ranking series. It’s time now to talk about the man who didn’t get invited. Nor was he invited to the LA Super Bowl halftime show a few years back. Yet he’s a significant artist that held the west coasts flag in that pivotal era between Snoop & Pac/Kendrick & YG. The Game.

He’s a controversial nigga. His off wax antics may of gotten in the way of his on wax longevity at times, but it’s no denying for a time he looked like he was poised to run this whole thing. For the next few days I’ll be looking back at his discography to see his triumphs & set backs, thus ranking his albums to find out if his body of work can withstand the test of time. That isn’t to say he couldn’t drop a great album right now cuz he probably can… but this nigga makes it very difficult to root for him. I’ll be listening to his joints over the week and give my opinion.
 
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10. Drillmatic- Heart vs. Mind (2022)

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I’m of the belief that Game has never had a straight bad album. Even tho this is at the bottom of the list don’t take it that way. Every album he’s had has given me more than a few tracks to fuck with. The major issue I got with this however, is that it’s just way too damn long. At 31 tracks clocking in at 159 minutes… sheesh. What’s even more baffling is that technically this isn’t even a double album. Which makes me wonder if that’s what he initially wanted but somehow there was some confusion. Cuz it definitely feels like this was supposed to be a double album. Besides that, there’s some tracks that go hard on this. We all know Games gimmick by now. The one thing I’ll say about his rap persona is that this album at times feels like a parody of himself. It’s understandable considering how long he’s been on the scene but at times I feel like I’ve heard some of these songs before. The “Black Slim Shady” track is some shit I would have been down with on a mixtape but not an official album. A lot of these tracks felt skippable. Take the best 10-12 tracks of this album & he’s got something solid.
 
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9. The Documentary 2.5 (2015)

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It feels kinda wrong placing this album so low. This is what happens when you have a ten album discography & every album is at worst above average. It took me a couple days to finally come to this lol. Dropping just 8 days after The Documentary 2, this joint at the time felt like icing on the cake after already dropping a gem of a sequel to his debut. One thing I gotta say about this & a lot of other Game albums, the features typically are on point. Scarface, Nas, & Lil Wayne don’t disappoint with their appearances. With that said tho, just like the previous album there is some fatigue setting in when it comes to a portion of these songs. Another instance where if the best joints from this were added to the original Documentary 2 & THAT was turned to a double album… we’d be having a whole different conversation when it comes to classics. In a way it feels like a missed opportunity.
 
Sony Montana said:
Year of the moon blood wolf or w/e that is not being listed yet is crazy
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That’s technically a compilation album & not part of Games solo discography. Tho if it was it easily would have been his worst album & it’s the worst project he’s attached his name to period.
 
grYmes said:
That’s technically a compilation album & not part of Games solo discography. Tho if it was it easily would have been his worst album & it’s the worst project he’s attached his name to period.
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😮 never knew that

That’s good that he doesn’t have that album officially on his jacket

Makes his overall discography even better
 
Sony Montana said:
😮 never knew that

That’s good that he doesn’t have that album officially on his jacket

Makes his overall discography even better
Click to expand...

Yea for a long time I thought it was an actual solo joint too until I looked it up on Wikipedia. He tried to use it as a way to show shine to the dudes on his Blood Money Entertainment label. I don’t know who any of them are to this day & the label obviously never went anywhere. Game was smart to not make this a full fledged solo.
 
8. LAX (2008)

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This album cover has not aged well. I really wished the deluxe edition cover was THE cover. Anyways, lol. After riding high with his first two albums, Game had firmly established himself one of the top rappers of the late 2000’s. After an often forgotten about 8 day stint in jail stemming from a 2007 felony weapons charge, Game worked with nearly every top name in music imaginable at the time to record LAX. Some of the names he worked with that songs did not make it include Andre 3000, Akon, Chris Brown & Snoop Dogg just to name a few. What we got was an album that felt very much like Game was shooting for the commercial stars. Why not tho? He was at this time the face of the west coast not named Snoop Dogg. This the start of Game’s albums sometimes feeling like compilations with lots of features. A lot of the time it works. For an album like Blood Moon: Year of the Wolf it didn’t (good thing it’s not a Game solo joint). This album has some memorable songs (“Angel” with Common is my favorite) & production from Cool & Dre, Kanye & more. Dr. Dre allegedly was going to produce the album but the backstory on why this didn’t happen is a murky one. Game lyrically to me is as sharp as ever on the album cuts. Commercially aimed songs like “Camera Phone” with Ne-Yo & “Games Pain” with Keyshia Cole while nostalgic to listen to, leave you with a bit more to be desired & feels like he’s taking a backseat. This is still a solid third album that suffers from the burden of coming after the greatness of his first two.
 
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One thing I noticed going through these albums… Nas & Game have great chemistry. Every time they’re on each others albums it’s a joy to hear. Wish they’d do an album together.
 
grYmes said:
9. The Documentary 2.5 (2015)

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It feels kinda wrong placing this album so low. This is what happens when you have a ten album discography & every album is at worst above average. It took me a couple days to finally come to this lol. Dropping just 8 days after The Documentary 2, this joint at the time felt like icing on the cake after already dropping a gem of a sequel to his debut. One thing I gotta say about this & a lot of other Game albums, the features typically are on point. Scarface, Nas, & Lil Wayne don’t disappoint with their appearances. With that said tho, just like the previous album there is some fatigue setting in when it comes to a portion of these songs. Another instance where if the best joints from this were added to the original Documentary 2 & THAT was turned to a double album… we’d be having a whole different conversation when it comes to classics. In a way it feels like a missed opportunity.
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Gang signs watch me throw em out the window!!!!!!

Aye both these albums were my favorite of 2015. I consider Doc 2 & Doc 2.5 as a double album

This song >>>>>>>>>>>

 
grYmes said:
8. LAX (2008)

View attachment 1334363

This album cover has not aged well. I really wished the deluxe edition cover was THE cover. Anyways, lol. After riding high with his first two albums, Game had firmly established himself one of the top rappers of the late 2000’s. After an often forgotten about 8 day stint in jail stemming from a 2007 felony weapons charge, Game worked with nearly every top name in music imaginable at the time to record LAX. Some of the names he worked with that songs did not make it include Andre 3000, Akon, Chris Brown & Snoop Dogg just to name a few. What we got was an album that felt very much like Game was shooting for the commercial stars. Why not tho? He was at this time the face of the west coast not named Snoop Dogg. This the start of Game’s albums sometimes feeling like compilations with lots of features. A lot of the time it works. For an album like Blood Moon: Year of the Wolf it didn’t (good thing it’s not a Game solo joint). This album has some memorable songs (“Angel” with Common is my favorite) & production from Cool & Dre, Kanye & more. Dr. Dre allegedly was going to produce the album but the backstory on why this didn’t happen is a murky one. Game lyrically to me is as sharp as ever on the album cuts. Commercially aimed songs like “Camera Phone” with Ne-Yo & “Games Pain” with Keyshia Cole while nostalgic to listen to, leave you with a bit more to be desired & feels like he’s taking a backseat. This is still a solid third album that suffers from the burden of coming after the greatness of his first two.
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California Sunshine was my shit. I wish we got that official Hard Liquor too maybe they coulda used Nas on the remix as opposed to just chattin on the instrumental
 
7. The R.E.D. Album (2011)

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This is during the start of the era where the “The” in the name “The Game” was dropped because he was being sued for copyright infringement by “The Game” Triple H. Just some silly trivia. Anyways after three successful albums Game was ready to call it quits & spend more time with his family. Interscope however wanted to get another album outta Game. After the abject failure that was his acting career which included the blasphemous Belly 2, Game came to the conclusion his best bet for making bread was going back to the studio. After nearly three years of recording we finally got The R.E.D. Album. R.E.D. being short for his RE-Dedication to his craft. Game is spittin on this album. Firmly in the driver seat after in some ways felt like a step back on LAX. Game’s ear for production is also once again on point. Flipping the background song from where Ricky meets his demise in Boyz in the Hood for the song “Ricky” was marvelous. We also get the return of Dr. Dre on a Game album both spitting and on production. The subject matter that comes with album number four doesn’t stray far from the past joints which… I mean if you’re not a diehard Game fan this was probably the album where you stopped checking for him. His slew of friends from every coast and affiliation from Snoop to Rick Ross come in and deliver their respective 16’s. The Game album formula for the next few joints is firmly established here. It’s a good comeback album that’s flaws are not a glaring as I would of thought.
 
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