Over the years, Time magazine has included such unsavory characters as Hitler and Stalin in its list of Men of the Year, so this is by no means an endorsement of The Game on my part. It is, rather, an acknowledgment that, from January to December, no one else dominated the headlines like The Game did this year (though if I hadn't already used the idea on yesterday's post, "You" would have made a strong case for the title as well). For providing us with so much entertainment, from the record label drama to a summer filled with soap opera beefs to the release of one of the best albums of the year, The Game is hip hop's Man Of The Year.
The Music:
I didn't want to like The Game's music, and I was surprised that there was anything worth listening to on The Doctor's Advocate. His posturing as some sort of Blood hardbody on the mic is often so over-the-top that it crosses over into the realm of pure fantasy and his gimmick of constantly beefing with other rappers played itself out a long time ago. On top of all that, he's not a particularly good lyricist. What he is good at, though, is selecting dope beats and being just good enough at rapping to not distract from the production. And that is why The Doctor's Advocate worked so well: the production was as good from start to finish as any album that was released this year and The Game managed to keep pace the whole way through. He even managed to surprise me a few times, particularly on his RWI (rapping while intoxicated) performance during the title track of the album.
The album itself was loaded with radio-friendly singles. Wouldn't Get Far, Let's Ride and One Blood all managed to be as good as anything else that got overexposed on Hot 97 and MTV this year. No, they're not songs I would normally bump in my headphones, but as songs to blast out of the whip, you couldn't find much better in 2006. On top of that, The Game was also involved with two of the best mixtapes of the year: Face of LA and The Dope Game 2.
The Other Stuff:
Having said that, none of the music that The Game released this year could actually be labeled "The Best" of anything. What really won the "Man of The Year" award for him was his ability to stay in the headlines throughout 2006. There were too many incidents to go through all of them, so I'm just going to list some of the highlights:
I've had a lot of sites leech of off my files, but this is the first time anyone actually bothered to steal my entire post.
I'll be back later to respond to the other comments...haven't checked out that gerard vs bear post yet...
12/29/2006 12:19:11 PM posted by fresh
And shout out to rizoh and everyone from The Rap Up who came by today to check out this post.
12/29/2006 12:21:04 PM posted by fresh
>His thug posturing is so ridiculous and over the top that I can't see how anyone could believe in it.
You should see the boatload of angry emails I got when I suggested Jim Jones might not really be a Blood. There are a surprising amount of people who buy into the gangster image wholeheartedly.
And though I agree with you that he's typically at his best with the introspection/emo-thuggery, there's no way Geffen (or whatever label he's signed to these days...) would green light a Game album without gangsta talk on it.
That Gerard vs Bear post was pretty funny. "Game talk shoe more than woman!"
12/29/2006 3:06:38 PM posted by fresh
Checked out that other site that jacked your comments. No response at all, but a bunch of malware is on that site.
12/30/2006 4:46:34 PM posted by infohma
^Really? The one time I visited it, I used firefox so I didn't get any warnings or anything. When I get a chance I'm going to swap out that picture that they're linking to, so it at least shows my url. Unless I come up with something more imaginative.
12/30/2006 6:29:27 PM posted by fresh
^Are you the tone capone, the dude that was down with the Geto Boys?
Anyway, that remix was kind of dope. For everyone else, here's a clickable link to it:
^With the current state of hip hop, that's often the best you can hope for.
1/2/2007 11:36:51 AM posted by fresh
To reduce Spam on this site, I'm testing out Disqus.
You'll need JavaScript turned on to see comments (if you're using NoScript, add 33jones.com to your list of trusted sites).
Let me know if you like it/dislike it.
