Fighter: The Game
Trainer (Gym): Cool & Dre, Stat Quo (DGC Records/Interscope Records)
Cut Men: Antwan “Amadeus” Thompson, Black Metaphor, Boi-1da, Dawaun Parker, Dr. Dre, Jake One, K. Roosevelt, Koz, The Maven Boys, S1, SAP, Yung Ladd
Weight Class: Rap Heavyweight
Notable Fire: Ali Bomaye (Feat. 2 Chainz & Rick Ross), Church (Feat. King Chip & Trey Songz), Pray (Feat. J. Cole & JMSN)
Notable Trash: I Remember (Feat. Young Jeezy And Future), Freedom (Feat. Elijah Blake)
Tale of the Tape: For some reason, it’s kind of easy to sit back and forget all that he’s accomplished in the rap game. Five albums on majors (three of which debuted at #1 on the Billboard charts, with a fourth debuting at #2), some of the most memorable rap songs heard in years, epic diss records and features, and contributing largely to the downfall to one of the biggest groups in hip-hop; all while ushering in one of rap’s most talented young stars and holding down and keeping an entire coast relevant virtually by himself for the last ten years.
Yet Game doesn’t appear to be slowing down anytime soon.
Sidebar: Is it “Game” or “The Game”? All these years late and I still don’t know.
Jesus Piece was Game’s fifth LP on a major and is considered to be his first concept album— the concept supposedly being about the eternal struggle between getting right with The Lord and the inevitable backsliding that many have to endure. As concept records go, this one was scripted fairly loosely, While there are numerous church references throughout, some songs had little to do with it at all, most notably the first two tracks. It’s hard to sell listeners on a “concept album” when you don’t even begin to touch on the “concept” until the third track, 11 minutes into the LP.
Sidebar: Game also changed the name of this album twice before settling on “Jesus Piece”. So creatively, there may have been some confusion with the direction in which he wanted to take this record from the start.
Regardless, Jesus Piece’s opening two songs set the tone for the rest of the record, from a musical standpoint anyway. Despite some lackluster bars from Game, “Scared Now” (featuring Meek Mill, ironically) will have you in a ready-for-war frame of mind. He followed that up with “Ali Bomaye”, which featured 2 Chainz and Rick Ross. Surprisingly, Tity 2 Chainz delivered one of the most enjoyable rhymes on the entire album, right at the beginning of the song, “Roll another one, cuz I’m winning/In my four door, lookin real photogenic”.
“Celebration“, the album’s lead single payed homage to Bone Thugs-N-Harmony with a very fresh sample of their classic, “1st Of Da Month“. Chuck Taylor also brings enough heat to satisfy the streets with tough records like “Name Me King”, “See No Evil” and the album’s title track.
Sidebar: Peep the “Celebration Remix”, featuring Bone Thugs-N-Harmony here.
Still, tracks one through six is where the album does its heavy-lifting, which is saying something because, top to bottom, this was a very solid effort from The Game. He collaborated with J. Cole & JMSN on “Pray“, a sympathetic, if not a captain-save-a-hoe-ish, story-tell rap that shows both men do have a heart (on some level) as they “bow their heads” and pray for two troubled women in their lives. The duplicity Game was going for is evident as this song is immediately followed by “Church”. Game, King Chip and Trey Songz speak on leaving church and hitting the strip club where they can see some ladies that are, “Thicker than a Bible…Need her for survival”.
The juxtaposition continues with the very laid back “All That“, which features Lil Wayne, Big Sean, Jeremih and eight seconds of Fabolous for some reason. With a sample from the classic song “Lady” by D’Angelo, this record reflects on the advantages of being with one woman. If Game’s intent was to make an album that appealed to the mental and spiritual conflictions that many men go through every single day, he was certainly successful.
At the same time, Game appears to be fighting his own battle beneath the surface of Jesus Piece.
Even though this album consistently featured top notch production, only one track featured a beat from Dr. Dre. As his former mentor, Dre’s approval has always meant a lot to Game. And though he received it for this project, Game’s lyrics on “Can’t Get Right” suggest that he was deeply hurt because he was essentially put on the back burner by Dre for Kendrick Lamar’s album, which he executive produced.
Sidebar: Jesus Piece was actually the first album of Game’s since The Documentary in 2005 that featured any beats from Dre, and the one song that Dre did contribute only made the iTunes Store bonus edition.
Game concludes “Can’t Get Right” with the rhyme, “Finally got the crown/this muthafucka meant for me/Funny how you do you top five’s and don’t mention me/Fuck em all”.
Well, he’s right. Most people don’t mention him in that echelon of MCs; perhaps this is why Game insists on including the over-the-top namedropping on all of his records, including Jesus Piece. On occasion, it coincides with the message behind the song, but far too often it’s a lame gimmick that serves no purpose for the listener (e.g. “Freedom”).
Sidebar: It’s almost as if the best thing to happen to Game’s career was the emergence of Kendrick. Now he has a new person’s name to yell out on every other track.
With that said (puts on therapist hat), it could be that Game is still in search for where he believes he fits into hip-hop’s hierarchy. Having Dre in his corner validates him on some level, which is why he shames himself for even having any negative thoughts about him. The namedropping demonstrates his knowledge and appreciation for the hip-hop, and could be nothing more than a plea for others to view him in that light.
Maybe.
Fight Night: Eighth Round TKO
Game also bites Meek Mill’s flow at one point on “Ali Bomaye” and sounds extra Yeezy-ish on “Hallelujah”. He also mentions on “Heaven’s Arms” that all his old Jay-Z diss records were, “Bullshit/Thibodeau”. One could conclude that after all these years, Game is still searching for his identity and his place in hip-hop, which is fine. After all, he wouldn’t be the first rapper with identity issues (Ahem! Ross. Ahem!).
Game is still maturing and evolving as an individual and a musician, which is exactly what we should want from our artists. Jesus Piece has an inordinate amount of features, which is always a red flag (no pun intended). However, most of them contributed positively to the project. It is clear that this man is a skilled MC that produces quality music more often than not. Going forward, it would be nice if Compton’s favorite son took some of Kevin Hart’s advice and applied it to his next project.
We’ll be looking out for it.