Game X DJ Skee's The Red Room Mixtape: A Review

To build momentum for Game's upcoming Interscope album, The R.E.D. Album, the West Coast rapper recently released The Red Room, a considerably mixed effort that likely won't win Game any new fans, but will perhaps satiate his die-hard ones.

First, the track sequencing is terrible, especially if you are trying to listen to the mixtape all the way through. The first track is Game's 400 Bars, which loses steam at the end of the first 16. The artist simply is not that interesting and every bar is braggadocio. Fortunately, this version utilizes many different beats, which partially salvages it, though it also leads to Game being off-rhythm on half of them. He fares better as the mixtape starts up proper, trading bars with West Coast rookie Nipsey Hussle over Fat Joe's excellent instrumental Ha Ha (Slow Down).

There are, mercifully, many guests. When Game raps are just his boasts, which is often, he starts to tire very quickly. When he digs deeper, say on Dreams on The Documentary or Old English or the title track on Doctor's Advocate, he shows signs of being able to establish a real hip-hop legacy. Sadly, these points are few and far in between, and nearly nonexistent on this mixtape. If this is simply to re-establish his street credibility during his musical hiatus, which seems to be the intent, it works to some extent on that level. The problem is that the man is obsessed with building a legacy; it is this obsession that infuses every single song and verse. And every other song he makes the kind of amateurish mistakes that undercut his efforts. For example, Ha Ha is followed by The Professionals, which shamelessly apes his frenemy's Jay-Z's 1-900 Hustler concept, complete with three other rappers. (Indeed, it can be tough to get past Game's whole odd passive-aggressiveness towards Jay-Z as it gracelessly intrudes at several points throughout the mixtape, such as his use of the Dirty Money Angels instrumental, which itself interpolates Jay-Z's Where I'm From, or his subliminal shots at the man on Diamonds.) He insults G-Unit's Lloyd Banks on 400 Bars then fails to outspit him on Revolver or the Semi (using the Beamer, Benz or Bentley instrumental) by moving completely away from the concept he himself established. The name-dropping is, as usual, in effect as always, even though with a stable of protégés, three albums and considerable sales, he should feel comfortable enough in his own skin to not be so worried about his place in hip-hop. Aping the AutoTune stylings of Lil Wayne on Drop the World and Trippin is just silly. And his Shyne impression on Heartbreak Hotel featuring Diddy is indicative of his fundamental insecurities, which are laughable at this point in his career.

Never Stop Hustlin featuring Fabolous has the potential for Game to go deeper, but there is nothing here but clichés. Gangsta is one of the first strong tracks given the sinister instrumental and Game's use of triple cadence flow, though it, as the title of the track suggests, offers no lyrical surprises. Gangs of New York could use a stronger instrumental given the caliber of the guests and the subject matter (it could also of course do with a little less name-dropping and more wordplay from Game). Everything Red is much stronger largely because it sounds like it was made for Lil Wayne, and it features Lil Wayne and Birdman. Busta Rhymes releases perhaps one of his worst hooks in recent memory on Lowrider (though his verse somewhat makes up for it). But It Must Be Me is by far the strongest track on the mixtape, given both Pharell's strong production, redolent of his more experimental tracks on The Clipse's classic Hell Hath No Fury, and a seemingly focused Game rapping about his own paranoia, dealing with others. It probably should have been saved for the actual album.

Overall, the mixtape could have used considerably more focus (on something, anything, really...West Coast repping, anyone?) and more personal records, as the mixtape is rather generic. The guests (save the name features) could have been closer to Game's talent level. But for die-hard fans this should be solid. For newcomers this ought to provide strong insight into Game's aesthetic: increasingly generic and trendy gangsta rap with often above-average production but nothing more than that.