The Documentary: A Review of Game's Debut Album

The bold debut from the West Coast's latest superstar, The Game, The Documentary is a winning combination of solid rhymes and beats. The singles - How We Do, Higher, Hate It or Love It, Dreams, Put You on the Game, Westside Story - are not the only highlights here. Running, Start from Scratch, Like Father, Like Son, and other tracks of the more personal persuasion are excellent as well, and demonstrate the West coast rapper's versatility and candor.

He tends to name-drop a lot-just the first track Westside Story contains the names of seventeen celebrities, and the title track includes the names of twenty-four celebrities, nine album titles, and two singles. This can get a quite tedious, but it is also a bit refreshing in that it is clear that he is as much a fan of hip-hop as he is an artist.

He displays an easy chemistry with the extended G-Unit/Shady/Aftermath clan -G-Unit's 50 Cent and Tony Yayo, 213's Nate Dogg, Eminem, and the Flipmode Squad's general Busta Rhymes, all of whom put in noteworthy appearances. 50 Cent and The Game in particular turn in two of the best records, the irresistible club record How We Do and the reflective Hate It or Love It, made possible by excellent productions from both Dr. Dre and Cool & Dre. More so than even The Game's and Eminem's impressive record We Ain't, the most affecting collaboration comes from Busta Rhymes who provides an energetic and powerful hook as The Game details the emotional impact of the birth of his son on the album's closer Like Father, Like Son.

He's not the greatest rapper, relying on often crude simile and aggressive boasts, but he's aided by a number of strong instrumentals in addition to the featured guests. But solo, The Game proves his lyrical chops over the chunky Just Blaze productions No More Fun and Games and Church for Thugs. Dreams is another affecting record, detailing his rise to fame over an excellent Kanye West beat. He falters a bit on Where I'm From and Special, (both featuring Nate Dogg), more so because in 2005, he was not yet versatile enough to marry his content and flow to tracks, which are almost unpleasantly saccharine. But these are minor misfires on an album full of highlights. This is definitely one of the best albums to be released from that group, as well as one of the best from the first half of the decade.

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