LAX
With his third, and allegedly final, album, The Game returns to the subject he knows best: his home turf of Los Angeles. *LAX* is conceived as a collage-like portrait of Game’s past and present life in Southern California, as “LAX Files,” “Cali Sunshine,” and “House of Pain” weave references to local avenues, neighborhood flavors, and people. Even the sound design makes subtle reference to classic California electro. “Ya Heard,” “Let Us Live,” and the brilliant Kanye West production “Angel” echo the bass-heavy, squiggly-synth sounds so beloved by fans of L.A. radio. Lyrically, Game is still playing the maverick, unafraid to speak his mind and name names. In regards to his contentious relationship with mentor Dr. Dre (who was originally set to produce LAX by himself), Game says on “Dope Boys:” “And tell Dr. Dre to pick up a phone / Before I climb through his window like, ‘Nigga I\'m Home’.” Aside from Game’s emotional dynamism, “My Life” conjures a verse that stands with the best lyricism you will hear all year: “Walk through the gates of hell, see my Impala parked in front / With the high beams on, me and the devil sharing chronic blunts / Listening to The Chronic album, playing backwards / Shooting at pictures of Don Imus for target practice.”
With his career in a statistical downfall, the L.A. rapper and his inferiority complex return for another round.
There are plenty of reasons to hate The Game: the cheap nostalgia and stupid beefs, the glorification of gang-banging, the cynical exploitation of his stint in a coma after being shot (that's gangsta!), the constant toadying up to mentor Dr. Dre, the gratuitous name-dropping, his love of G-funk clichés. There's only…
After two albums driven by his worship of legendary West Coast producer Dr. Dre plus feuds with fellow rappers like 50 Cent and the G-Unit crew, the Game's third official effort is his least important release to date and the strongest argument yet that it just might be time to move on.
For a rapper who doesn’t rap very well, the Game is proving to be amazingly resilient as well as oddly charming.
Since the start of his career, basically one narrative has followed The Game: He’s an artist whose success is completely unrelated to his talents as a...
<p>LAX is an intense and remarkably focused record - almost every syllable concerns Compton</p>
The Game - LAX review: Solid hip-hop, but excessive to a fault. Too many guests, too many shifts in style and theme.