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Hip Hop's Man of the Year for 2006: The Game
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:
-Arrested on weapons charges
-Stuck up for Oprah
-Jumped Ras Kass at a club
-Tattooed his name on a girl on MTV's TRL
-Got into an altercation with a U.K. TV crew
-Leaked his own album onto the internet
-Worked as a guest photographer for Playboy Magazine
-Arrested after he "claimed to be an undercover policeman and requested the driver to race through several traffic lights down Lexington Avenue."
-Just days after that, one of The Game's associates was charged with laundering money for New Jersey's 9 Tre Gangsters, a group of Bloods.
For making my job as a blogger a whole lot easier, The Game has earned his title as "Man Of The Year" for 2006.
A couple of tracks from the man of honor:
Game - Face of LA
Game, Kanye and Jay-Z - Wouldn't Get Far (Mick Boogie Blend
See y'all in 2007....
12/29/2006 8:34:26 AM posted by Fresh