The Game – L.A.X.

Geffen 2008

Rating: 6/10

The Game’s third and latest album, his first without producer Dr. Dre and post G-Unit feuds, is a typical West Coast rap album by a rapper who has always tried too hard to be the next Tupac. Leaving Dre behind has left the Game able to focus on things and other artists, namely guests like Common, drummer Travis Barker, and the omnipresent Lil Wayne. His lyrics are unsurprisingly at times hardcore and at others touching and affected (well, at least as touching as a gangbanger can be), and his husky voice is as threatening as ever.

The best songs are those that stay away from the vanilla tales of violence and the kill-or-be-killed life on the streets and those that either discuss issues that are somewhat socially relevant (the Martin Luther King/civil rights tribute “Letter To The King” featuring an excellent Nas) or those that are profane for no good reason and succeed mostly on the Game’s undeniable charisma and the slick production (the nearly psychedelic “Angel” with Common and the silly “House of Pain,” with an awesome line about eating chili-cheese Fritos, are two of the latter).

With an album that runs 19 tracks long, however, there’s bound to be more than a few duds, and while there’s a lot to like about the Game, there’s also a good amount that falls flat. “My Life” jumps on the Auto-Tune vocoder bandwagon and comes off as a second-rate T-Pain gangsta imitation, although the opening is appropriately thug. The unavoidable intros/outros/interludes etc. are obvious filler, and the massive wealth of guest stars tends to drag the limelight away from the Game, such as the scene-stealing Ice Cube on “State of Emergency.” Overall, while L.A.X. suffers from an advanced case of bloat and a lack of focus, it contains enough West Coast gems to recommend it to any genre fan.