Defsounds

In less than ten years this artist has managed to captivate the hearts and minds of fans all over the world. He has done this with his lyrics, his pain, his toils, and his victories. We have seen the rise, fall and resurrection of an artist that truly wears his heart on his sleeve.

The Game over the course of his career has gone through a lot. Put another rapper in his shoes and we may have a different story to tell right now. He's been signed, shelved, added to G-Unit, dropped, beefed with numerous rappers, and even openly spoken about his own suicidal thoughts. Through it all, he seems to pick him self up and continue to make music. So for now what seems to be the final chapter of his rap career comes into clear view, he is dealt the task of offering what may be his final album when honestly he probably has not even hit his prime yet.

With so much potential and with so much more music to make, L.A.X may be the grand finale of this Compton rapper who has showed every side of himself to us. So the only question to be asked at this moment is, at the point of his departure, will this album make us miss him or will it be a declaration to the fans that there is not much left in the tank and subsequently the game is truly over.

Lyrics- 7.5

Game has long since established himself as a rapper that wont blow you away with crazy wordplay and a complex rhyme scheme, but in this process he has never been considered a horrible lyricist or disgusted a listener with down right simplistic rhymes. What you get with The Game is a lot of name drops and similies scattered all around the song, and of course a metaphor or two. What raises him above average is his emotion. Game pours his soul into every track and you can feel the dedication, emotion and time that is taken for every song on the album, which believe it or not can at times enhance the lyrical experience as it adds to the delivery.

On L.A.X., Game offers decent lyrics, but nothing out of the blue, just consistent to his style. Without the raw skills or crazy subliminals of other rappers, Game raises the bar with his lyrics by having hard hitting lyrics, laced with more truth and relevance than skill. His repetitive nature takes away from the lyrics, but no rapper is perfect, not even the best.

Production-7.5

Like his lyrics his production has nothing so overly complex that it will just blow you away, there are no beats that offer a multi audio attack to the eardrums that will leave you captivated or gushing to press the rewind button. It does all work with a nice mixture of up tempo, mellow and hardcore beats. Game offers to the listeners a variety of different moods. With production done by DJ Toomp, Cool and Dre, Scott Storch, and many others. The production overall is pretty upbeat with a couple of tracks that have a gloomy feel to it. To say that some of the production does not match the songs would be an outright lie, but some beats will bore you while others will have the listener hanging on every word, or every piano and drum chord pulsing through their respective speakers. Nothing overly complex but definitely a significant amount of head nodders, enough to keep the listener from throwing their CD out of the window from sheer boredom or frustration.

Songs/Content-7.5

Game as stated earlier is a rapper that is known to wear his heart on his sleeve. Although he carries the same bragadocious swagger that many rappers have in this day and age, but he also offers a side to him that can make some listeners grow a level of respect, while making others question his credibility as a real gangster. This simply means that Game is not afraid to talk about the way he feels, or openly show comradery towards another human being. While many rappers now make an attempt to add a track or two into their albums that show they are human too, it tends to sound insencere and a bit forced. For the Game this is not an issue, he seems honest and open with his feelings resembling at times a child rehashing on the days when life was a bit easier. Although he gets flack for his constant name drops of other artist, he does it in a way that is not annoying, as it goes with the song and nine out of ten time fits in to what he is actually speaking about.

What hurts Game's content is his repetitive nature, he shows maturity and growth but not in all fields, while listening to his album. You can clearly tell he is not the same man that we met when his first album came out, but the content has stayed the same for the past three albums. The formula remains the same, Compton, Gang banging, name dropping, idle threats, his feelings. There is nothing wrong with sticking to that formula, but as many artist learn, if you are going to stick with the same formula for every single album, you should be sure that however you say it has changed or feels fresh so that the listener does not feel like he has heard it all before.

This album is sincere and it is good but it can also be very boring when you know everything he's going to talk about and how hes going to talk about it. You don't have to be a conscious rapper to mix it up a little bit.

Conclusion-7.5

If this truly is Game's final album than good luck and God speed. For three albums he would have supplied fans from all over with the best music he felt he had available, and for three years we would have readily accepted it. So as the final song fades out and the outro fades in understand that even the greatest of rappers have flaws. The difference between Game and many other rappers who have been in it for a while is time and experience. With his third album out and him looking to retire, we are left with the feeling that we may not have gotten everything that Game has to offer, but we did get everything that he wanted to give. What he gave us was a decent album, above average but not mindblowing, inciteful but slightly repetetive, open but not embarasssing, all in all he gave us what he could and we as listeners must decide as individuals if it was what we wanted. Game gets and 10 for effort but a 7.5 for overall quality. If this was his last offering, I cant help but wish he gave a little bit more.