Customer Reviews

The Documentary

5 star:		(261)
4 star:		(103)
3 star:		(45)
2 star:		(28)
1 star:		(69)

 

 

I was first introduced to The Game on Lloyd Banks' "Hunger For More" CD on the track "When The Chips Are Down". The song was pretty good but seeing that this was the newest member of G Unit, I wanted to hear him on a few more tracks before I tried to form an opinion on his skills. However, when I heard The Game on Jim Jones' "Certified Gangsta (Remix)", then I knew that The Game had skills. On the track, The Game puts Jim Jones and Cam'ron to shame on their own track as he clearly steals the show. The Game would also be featured on Young Buck's "Straight Outta Cashville" CD on the track "Stomp" that also featured Ludacris. The track originally featured TI and Ludacris but TI decided that he didn't want to be featured on the track after the tongue lashing that he got from Ludacris. My roomate then purchased a mixtape entitled "DJ Neptune Presents The Game Westside Story". This mixed CD has alot of nice tracks and freestyles on it. The best being "Westside Story", "Get Your Money Right" featuring Jay Z and Dr. Dre", "Still Cruisin" w/Eazy E, and the whole track from the Boost Mobile commercial, "The Whole City Behind Us" featuring Kanye West and Ludacris. After listening to this mixed CD and other downloads from The Game, I was anxiously awaiting "The Documentary".

"The Documentary" definitely doesn't disappoint. On "Westside Story", The Game tries his best to give the west coast a 2004 national anthem, as he gives props to the west coast groups and artists that came out before him and how he's going to keep the west on the map for awhile. Dr. Dre clearly proves why he is still one fo the best producers today with this track. "Dreams" is produced by Kanye West and The Game does a good job mixing in the clever wordplay with Kanye's sample on the track. "Hate It Or Love It" is produced by Fat Joe's boys, Cool & Dre and features 50 Cent. This is my favorite track on the CD so far as The Game and 50 Cent use the old school sounding track and reminisce to how things were going on back in the day before they started making records and had any celebrity status. "Higher" is another Dr. Dre produced track that has The Game talking and bragging about certain topics. Although, at one time he said that he wouldn't touch Ashanti if she was butt naked and in his bed. I am not sure about you, but I find that very hard to believe. "How We Do" is the first single from "The Documentary" and this track has The Game and 50 Cent making a faster version of "In Da Club". "How We Do" will definitely have you on the dance floor even if you have 2 left feet like I do. Havoc from Mobb Deep produces "Don't Need Your Love" which features Faith Evans. This is actually one of the most serious tracks on the CD along with the Busta Rhymes featured "Like Father, Like Son". Between all the bragging and the word play it's nice just to hear a song where an artist is just reflecting and past times and speaking from life experience that don't involve what they did with females and how they were on the block all night. Timbaland shows up to produce "Put You On The Game" which has the potential to be a single later on down the road. Timbaland always knows how to produce the club banger and he does so again on this track with The Game. "Start From Scratch" features Marsha (the singer) from Floetry. The Game reflects on events that happened in his life and he is saying if he could change the way that the events happened, then he would do things differently in certain situations. "Runnin'" features G Unit's Tony Yayo and his Hi Tek on the track. The Game uses his clever wordplay and Tony Yayo puts his desert eagles on to make one of the better tracks on "The Documentary". "No More Fun And Games" is produced by Just Blaze. If this track was longer than 2 and a half minutes then this track would be my favorite track. The Game rides the sample by creating 3 nice verses. This shows that although he overuses the wordplay that The Game definitely has versatility. "We Ain't" features and is produced by Eminem. As expected, when you are featured on a track with Marshall Mathers, he is going to out do you on your own track and The Game even playfully admits that on the song's last verse. I am mad at "Where I'm From" because the original track had a verse from Dr. Dre. However, The Game and Nate Dogg still rip the track produced by Focus. "Don't Worry" might as well be a Mary J. Blige track that features The game because for the 1st minute and 15 seconds of the song the only thing that you hear are Mary's vocals. However, the Dr. Dre track makes you forget that as The Game still has nice verses on the song.

Overall, "The Documentary" gets 2005 off to a nice start as far as new releases are concerned. You will get tired of The Game droppin' verses using Dr. Dre, 50 Cent, Mase, Eazy E, Lloyd Banks, Young Buck, Snoop and other artists' names in the middle of verses but his skills will override all the negative opinions of the CD. As he says on the title track, this is his "Straight Outta Compton". After you listening to "The Documentary" then you will understand why. If The Game can stay out of trouble and concentrate on rapping and working to get even better, The Game will be around for a long time.

James' Top 5

1) Hate It Or Love It w/50 Cent
2) No More Fun And Games
3) Dreams
4) Runnin' w/Tony Yayo
5) Where I'm From w/Nate Dogg

OK, let's get this straight. If you rated this CD 1 star, you don't own it. You just hate aftermath, hate rap, and have no lives. If you don't have the CD, why bother reviewing it? Don't you have something better to waste your time on? Anyways, as we all know, the Game's Documentary was the most anticipated hip-hop debut album since Snoop Doggy Dogg. Raised in Compton, the birthplace of gangsta rap, The Game lives up the hype. After subpar 2004 releases for Shady/Aftermath/G-Unit including the good but not great Encore and Beg For Mercy, Aftermath starts 2005 out with a bang with hardcore, west-coast rap sure to revive the gangta era's glory days. The Documentary flawlessly seams slick production and powerful lyrics, and in turn ascends to the throne along with the Slim Shady LP as the most controversial, and greatest debut albums Aftermath and hip-hop have ever put out. And if you think this album is great, you haven't seen nothing yet. With a bright future, the Game has just begun.

1. Intro: Great way to build up momentum to Westside Story
2. Westside Story: A dramatic beat combines with Game's story about his rise to the top. 50 Cent delivers a good chorus, and Game really shines in his verses. Hard to believe this guy just learned to rap. A classic, trademark Aftermath album opener. (5/5)
3. Dreams: Kanye West is one of rap's great producers, without a doubt. However, this is not his best work and some random background noises get annoying. Game also does not say enough to save the track as the lyrics are also subpar. This is easily the worst song on the album, even though it is listenable. (3/5)
4. Hate it or Love it: One of the best tracks on the album; an instant classic. Game and 50 Cent both deliver killer hooks. Awesome beat,catchy chorus, and even better lyrics. (5/5)
5. Higher: The best track on the album. Another classic to document the rise of the west. Great beat, great lyrics. Good track to represent the second wind of gangsta rap. (5/5)
6. How We Do: The Game's first single, a classic with the likes of
Indaclub. Easily the catchiest track on the album. (5/5)
7. Don't Need Your Love: Slows down the fast-paced starting tempo of the album but the results are the same. The lyrics are sharp and the beat decent. (4/5)
8. Church for Thugs: The beat is just sick, the flow incredible, and the words even iller. (5/5)
9. Put You on the Game: A catchy headbanger produced by Timbaland. Not the best track on the album, but a good track nonetheless. (4.5/5)
10. Start From Scratch: Beat has a certain feeling to it with a good chorus from Marsha of Floetry. Once again, Game delivers powerful lyrics to accompany a great beat. (5/5)
11. The Documentary: The pleasure just keeps coming with another one of the best tracks on its namesake album. Drops several disses between a sick, piercing beat with beyond sick lyrics. (5/5)
12. Runnin: Laid back Beat is average, with Yayo droppin in to help Game out. Game delivers good lyrics and provides for another good song. Nothing spectacular however, and one of the weaker tracks on the album. (3.5/5)
13. No More Fun and Games: Features NWA samples and upbeat production. Flow is good and the track is catchy. (4/5)
14. We Ain't: Dark track featuring the rap mastermind Eminem. Incredibly catchy and fun to listen to. Lyrics aren't Eminem's or Game's best, but it's still a sick track. (5/5)
15. Where I'm From: Nate Dogg is truly one of hip-hops best vocalists and shines on this track. Another classic. (5/5)
16. Special: One of the weaker tracks. Listenable, but nothing Special (3/5)
17. Don't Worry: Good beat and good performance by Mary J. Blige. May be too slow for fans of hardcore, but otherwise, an excellent track (4/5)
18: Like Father Like Son: Game raps about his son with Busta Rhymes dropping in to deliver an enjoyable listening experience. Touching song. Classic with the likes of Mockingbird, though not quite as good. (5/5)

Lyrics: 5/5
Production: 5/5
Top 5: Higher, Westside Story, Hate it or Love It, The Documentary, Tie: How We Do/We Ain't
Mediocre: Dreams, Special

the game's delivery is half-decent and dre's beats are hot, but overall, the game doesnt come close to his hype. the cat is little more than a studio gangster: he's never killed anyone (note: not that this is a bad thing!), but still fronts with a tear-drop tattoo to try and rack up the street cred. i mean, come on, he was on the tv show "change of heart" a few years ago (seriously)!!! how hard can he be? plus, all he talks about is how he got shot. do you know what he was shot over? TWO POUNDS OF WEED! HAHA!!! who the heck shoots someone over weed???? IT IS ALL AN ACT!

overall, you can tell he lacks skills simply because he is the biggest name-dropper i have ever heard. every other word on this cd is either "dre" or "50". simply pathetic.

The Game's debut album is worth having, if for nothing else than the murderers' row of producers on it. If you are a fan of current mainstream producers, this album should be everything you would hope for. Excellent work by Dre, Kanye, Hi-Tek, and Timbaland make this probably one of the most costly albums ever made. That is not even taking into account guest spots by 50 cent (3), Nate Dogg (2), Eminem, Mary J. Blije, and Faith Evans. In my opinion the real star of this album is Just Blaze. His two tracks (Church For Thugs, and No More Fun and Games) are the albums high points, with Hi-Tek's Runnin close behind. Even the Eminem-produced We Aint is aiight. Top to bottom, this album *sounds* good both in the car and in a normal stereo.

While Game has shown his talents on several mix tapes and guest spots, The Documentary is too repetitive and unambitious. It is nice to recognize those who came before you and paved the way. However, Game's constantly repeated references to Dre (35 times), 50-Cent (17), G-Unit (10), and popular older rappers (Tupac, B.I.G., Jay-Z) are tiresome (not to mention the way he disengenuously claims a Jay-Z diss is meant for Ja Rule). At times, the Documentary seems like one long G-Unit infomercial, with rappers, sneakers and other products plugged accordingly. The downside of being able to afford top-tier guest rappers (he shares billing on 12 of the 17 tracks) is that more often then not Game is outshined by them, with the obvious exception of Tony Yayo. Game does have some clever punchlines, but he seems at times to be a caricature - you can almost picture Dre in the lab thinking, "I'll take Banks' wit, Buck's gangsta attitude, combine them and presto!" I do not mean to not give him credit: Game does have an excellent flow, rides a beat well, and can be fairly clever at times. It just seems that is album is too cynically exploitive and self-conscious (for instance the SE cover that is a rip-off of Ready to Die with a NWA chain).

In the end I give the Documentary 3.5 stars: worth listening to, but not as impressive a debut as I expected based on his earlier stuff.

This cat has no credentials. He's only been rapping three years. What?!?! Not making records for three years but RAPPING for three years.Does getting shot give you a chance at making records? This dude has no style and no flow. I grew up in the era of Kane, Rakim, NWA etc. These dudes new what puttin it down on the mic was about. Today's rappers are str8 up rediculous. No thought in the rhymes, just talking about meaningless b.s.and the sad part is people are eating it up like it's the greatest thing. Learn your history. Seriously, if your under 25, go back and check for the classics. The kind if stuff that the rappers of today are copying that the "new" fans of hip-hop have no clue about. Do you realize that no rapper from the LA area , besides Ice T, has "made it" without going through Dr. Dre in some form or fashion. The Game is a poor reflection on his judgement of talent. I could go on and on but I'll stop. THE DOCUMENTARY IS WACK!!! Str8 up!

It seems like these days Dr. Dre and Eminem can pick out any wannabe rapper with a few gunshot wounds and pretend the guy is a mafia boss and A+ rapper. 14 year olds might still be buying into that story, but more hip-hop conscious buyers are starting to realize that this game is getting old. I don't care how many holes you have in you. If you can't rap, you can't rap.

The Game's flow is so weak that if it weren't for his association with Dre and 50, it's unlikely that anyone would have ever taken any notice of this guy. Forget comparing him to the likes of an Eminem or 50 cent. This guy isn't even up there with a T.I., Fabolous, Ja Rule, or to let you know how really bad this is, a Benzino. His flow really is that weak and even though reviewers keep handing out the stars, they actually give very few reasons for WHY this CD earns those stars. When you go through a review and they tell you a dozen things wrong with the CD, and one thing right with it (That it's a Dre project), then you can bet it's a review that's about as reliable as a review from The Source these days.

Does Game have any interesting stories to tell? Of course he does. Unfortunately they've all been told before three to four dozen times, and they were told better the first time around. And realizing that his flow was weak, they made sure to throw in all kinds of guest appearances to pad this release. The end result is that Game gets outflowed on almost every song, the themes by the end becomes almost headache-inducing, and we learn a very important lesson:

It's very easy to trick teenagers out of their money, cause this album isn't even worth the matches it would take to set it on fire. I rolled over it with my car 10 times and the thing still wouldn't shut up.

I'm not exactly in a geriatric home (in fact I'm only twenty-six) but I'm old enough and more importantly know enough about hip hop to recognize that there was a time when a true emcee talent could spit verses skillfully over any beat, whether that beat was simply his friend's beatboxing, a primitive, tape-recorded drumloop coming out of a ghettoblaster, or professionally-mixed beats custom made in a studio. Rakim had it, Del had it, KRS-1 had it, Kool Moe Dee had it, on and on and on.

Having said all that, G-Unit's "The Game" name-drops even more shamelessly than I just did. Unfortunately, as a rapper, he's probably as good as I am, which is the same as saying he sucks, because although I listen to hip hop, I am a wack, WACK emcee. In fact I'm so bad I save the world and my friends from telling me so by leaving my game at home in the firsts place.

"The Game" doesn't have to go to such lengths, because even though he's a wack emcee (and by wack, I mean DAMN wack), he has the saving grace of good producers and good media hype to camouflague his glaring weaknesses as a rhymer. "The Documentary" is not a bad album, in fact I think it is a rather good album, reflective of the times and trends in which it was relased. However, I don't think it's a classic album that will be looked upon as a GOOD milestone thirty years from now, in the "Fear of a Black Planet" vein. I think of "The Documentary" of 2005 -- in fact much of G-Unit's music, along with lots of today's hip hop in general -- as being in the same artistic league as Vanilla Ice's "To the Extreme" of 1991, where years later you'll hear "Ice, Ice Baby" on the radio, or "How We Do" on the radio, and think "Yeah, that was the jam, back in the day," but you'll realize that beyond the hit(s) that artist sucks. Not like other artists who also released only few hits but get respect as being groundbreaking or having genuine street cred (Paperboy, GangStar, House of Pain, Pharcyde, etc.).

There are positive and negative things about this album, in my opinion, and these opinions are listed below:

The Good:

- The Game has a listenable voice that carries well
- Dr. Dre produces much of the album and the beats are very good
- The album features some A-list rap contemporaries as guests
- The album features multiple hit singles that are catchy and
enjoyable (How We Do, Hate it or Love it, Westside Story, We
Ain't)
- The album's CD format allows users to quickly skip the stupider
songs with a push of a button
- The album's singles cater to current pop-40 tastes

The Bad

- The Game's listenable voice is unfortunately not mated with listenable lyrics. Just listen to The Game's weak rhymes on most of the songs and you'll probably be almost tempted to challenge him to a battle, which you would probably even win, except he's probably carrying more guns that you so he'd get revenge somehow

- Dr. Dre's beats are wasted by The Game's rhymes, which never vary from rhymes of infantile complexity about guns, the street, drugs, women (or "b****es" as he refers to them, which as a woman I feel especially offended by) and how he got shot.
- The album's A-list guests either suck (50 cent, despite his "charisma") or outshine The Game and expose his many limitations (just listen to Eminem, who doesn't even pour a tenth of his talent into the song "We Ain't," literally make The Game look like a moron on the mic, and Busta's nice chorus on "Like Father, Like Son," which in my opinion is the only good part of that song)

- The album's hit singles are pseudo-gangster pop-rap that, although entertaining and catchy on a "let's just have fun" level, reflect the sad decline in the quality of talent of the most popular artists compared to the 80s or the first half of the 1990s, reminding listeners worldwide to stick to the underground scene
- The album's CD format also includes a liner-booklet that contains laughable photographs of The Game trying to look like a hard a$$ gangster (yeah, whatever man) in compton, and photos of him sporting an NWA tattoo that will have people thinking, "Oh for God's sake, do you want some kneepads already?")

- People's pop 40 taste is for the most part stupid.


So, I say, don't buy this album if you can burn it, since you're not supporting real hip hop. Everyone has their guilty pleasures (I like some Jessica Simpson songs) but believe me, The Game is not hip hop, G-Unit is NOT a true gang (can you imagine the Italian mafia printing T-shirts with a corporate logo on it?), and someday people will wake up and realize how highschoolish all this hip pop is.

Don't buy this album. Don't buy this album. Don't buy this album. I said it three times because please, I don't want you to waste your money. Buy a present for your girlfriend instead, and don't be like The Game and call her a "b***h.*

<3

Jenny

This guy was hand picked by Dre to be the next big thing from the West? The saviour of West Coast rap? What a bunch of bull.

Don't get me wrong, I'm not a hater of gangsta rap or a hater of G-Unit/Aftermath/Shady (they are running things in the game when it comes to record sales). However, when it comes to quality of music or even quality of good gangsta rap toons they are not runnin' things. This Game guys rhymes are weak, topics are weak & he's downright the biggest tryhard since Ja Rule. (Ja wanted to be pac, Game thinks he is the long lost member of NWA)

The Game is a fake, who couldn't rap if his life depended on it. So many lame metaphors based around celebrities, references to the bloods & crips, shout outs to his idols & his buddies & his ever-present references to Nike Airs & his Air Force Ones. People may not admit it, but that is all the formula for a piece of crap album (Trust me not even the beats can save these 10ish year old lyrics). On 1 song he refers to himself as Cube, Dre, Ice T & Eazy E mixed in one, which I think is an insult to all these founders of gangsta rap. On the song with Eminem he admits he was killed by Em on the track & then even uses a punchline as pathetic as saying he rides his own ****.

The Game wastes the good beats as well. (Can you imagine what a Royce Da 5' 9" or Black Thought could do with these beats?) Start from Scratch is the prime example with an incredible beat & sample from Dr Dre & the Game wasted it. The song with Mary J Blige sounded great until about a minute into the song when the game started to rap. He couldn't even get the song titled Like Father, Like Son out the right way because he used lame metaphors trying to relate his son to his shoes.

If you've heard the verse The Game does on When The Chips Are Down (Lloyd Banks - Hunger For More) & were impressed, don't buy the album. That verse is tighter than anything on this album & he only use double compound rhymes on a few songs on this album.

The album is so bad that after me & my brother heard it the first time, he even admitted that he'd rather listen to Chingy than than Game - at least Chingy aint a gang banger he said.

Aight, let me summarize all the lyrics of this album for you in a couple of sentences.
1. I am from Compton.
2. I love NWA, Nas, Jay-z, Pac, BIG...(the list goes on). That is why I have to drop their names in every song.
3. Dr.Dre and 50 are my friends, so, as follows, I will also call their names out on every bar.
4. I ride Impalas and like Nike Air Ones.
That's it!!!!!! I ain't kidding! Nothing original, no jaw-dropping rhymes to spit, no flava or style! He gets outshined by the beat on every track (hence the 2 stars - for the beats). I regret so much that I bought this crap. I mean, I liked him on Westside story, but that is the only track where he doesn't only rap about the 4 things described above.
My only wish is that somewhere there is a cat with an ill lyrical talent and skills like those of Biggie, Nas or Big L, who will blow all these whack cats away from the rap scene for good.

2.5 Generously given stars.

The Game has come to return the hip hop crown to the westcoast. How does he plan to do this? By having an all star production team (Dre, Timbaland, Eminem, etc.) By rapping about rappers that were good (Tupac is dead. That's sad. let him rest.). By having an original awe-inspiring name (Game! It'll take whitey years to figure out that one!). By having ground breaking album art (Rims!). By rapping about new boundary-shattering, genre-twisting, whole-'nother-level concepts (Rims!, Hustlin', Realness!, and...The Game!) Wow. Should've been a winning combination. I just can't see where it went wrong.

This album is sadly formulaic and uninspired. It's the same retread of the same stuff we've all been hearing for the last 15 years. Alright we get it! You have money. You really like money. Women really like you. You drive a variety of cars and get respect from your peers. Except a few, but they'll be handled. And...you're the best rapper ever. Well, aside from you heroes. That's sweet.

On the other hand if you're not expecting something new or mind blowing, I suppose under the influence of certain soft drugs I would say this album is decent. Few of the tracks completely suck. There are without a doubt some fine beats and 'Hate it or Love it" is exceptional.

Pass.