Album Review: Game- Red

Average Rating: 9/10
Overall Rating: 9.3/10

          1. Dr. Dre Intro

          2. The City Ft. Kendrick Lamar (10/10)

          3. Drug Test Ft. Dr.Dre, Snoop Dogg & Sly (9.5/10)

          4. Martians Vs. Goblins Ft. Tyler, The Creator & Lil Wayne (10/10)

          5. Red Nation Ft. Lil Wayne (10/10)

          6. Dr. Dre Skit

          7. Good Girls Go Bad Ft. Drake (9/10)

          8. Ricky (10/10)

          9. The Good, The Bad, The Ugly (10/10)

          10. Heavy Artillery Ft. Rick Ross & Beanie Sigel (8/10)

          11. Paramedics Ft. Young Jeezy (8/10)

          12. Speakers on Blast Ft. E-40 & Big Boi (9/10)

          13. Hello Ft. Lloyd (6/10)

          14.  All The Way Gone Ft. Mario & Wale (6.5/10)

          15. Pot of Gold Ft.  Chris Brown (10/10)

          16. Dr. Dre Skit

          17. All I Know Ft. Lu Breeze (9.5/10)

          18. Born in the Trap (9/10)

          19. Mama Knows Ft. Nelly Furtado (10/10)

          20. California Dream (10/10)

          21. Dr. Dre Outro

        The Red Album, one of the few albums that have been through development hell, and finally saw the light of being released. Red has been through a lot of history, it’s been announced at first in 2009, and was planned to be released on the same year, but then it was delayed to mid-2010, due to Game re-signing to Aftermath. A few months later, it was delayed yet again to a few months later because he wanted to feature some Dr. Dre production. After that it was delayed to December 2010 so he can mix the tracks and pick the right ones for the album, and then, finally it’s out now, on August 23 2011, but was it worth all of those delays?

      RED has gone through many stages in its production and theme. At first it was announced to be somewhat a sequel to LAX in music style and production. After signing to Aftermath, Game said the album would go back to the strongly influenced gangster rap style seen in The Documentary. A while after that, the album’s theme was changed to a more emotional theme, that stayed for a while, and seemed to really work, until it was announced that the album would have more of a ‘cinematic theme’. With this cinematic feeling, It was said that the Red album would have everything, from gangster to emotional tracks. It was also announced to have a story to go with the cinematic feeling, it was said that the album would be Game’s life story, and in a way narrated by Dr. Dre. So given that the album has a cinematic feeling and will be played out as a story, can Game pull the cinematic theme off with what could be his best album?

     Red truly brought out and showed Game’s life story in a very unique style and order. He went through every detail of his life. Red started off with him talking about the place where he was born, in the song “The City” which was an extremely good track. The City was about Compton, Game and Kendrick Lamar both rap with aggression on a really quiet and calm beat, and at some point at the end of the song Kendrick starts to rap a really fast and well balanced accapella, the song was really strong, and the accapella made it a lot stronger and more powerful than how the song was before Kendrick’s accapella.

   In Red, Game talked about his struggles in his life before fame. One of the most notable tracks that went around that idea was “The Good, The Bad, The Ugly” which was basically a story by itself, where Game tells a story that was about him being caught by the police and they are basically asking him questions, confronting him, and generally just wanting to know information about some shootout that Game was talking about in the song, then at one point at the end of the song, Game has a flashback, which opens to another track “Heavy Artillery”, which was basically another story, a prequel to “The Good, The Bad, The Ugly”, the song was about a shootout,  it’s basically a story on what Game saw in the shootout, how he was involved in it, and generally it was a great idea to put it as a flashback after “The Good, The Bad, The Ugly” because that gives both tracks, “The Good, The Bad, The Ugly” and “Heavy Artillery” a bigger and a better feeling of suspense and mystery.

    Another track where Game opens up about his struggles in his early life was “Born in The Trap” which basically talked about the tough part of his life in Compton and the harder side of his rise to rap. “Born In The Trap” was really deep and honest, but honestly it’s result it wasn’t exactly described a banger, but at the same time it felt like a 90s NAS track, something that whether being a banger or not, people have to love. Another great that talked about his struggles before fame was “Mama Knows Best”, a track where Game talks about how would his life be if he listened to his mom in the first place, basically he was saying if he listend to his mom then he wouldn't have gone through all those problems he has had before he was famous and he wouldn't have all the problems he has now, the song basically was really just an apology letter to his mom and a lesson to a lot of people that their mothers always know what’s best for their child.

    Game also opened up about his issues after fame. One of the most memorable songs with that concept was “Ricky”, which talked about a general tough life as being targeted by so many people, getting stressed because of the pressure of fame, and how life can really be tougher once your known everywhere in the world, especially comparing that to where he came from. Another track like that was “Pot Of Gold”, which was a much more sensitive take on Game’s life after fame, with a great hook from Chris Brown, Game rapped about his best friends dying every time he releases an album, and how he shouldn’t have “chased the pot of gold” to get to a level of fame, the song was basically more or less one big regret, where Game regretted getting famous, and how fame was really different than how he expected it to be.

    Red also talked about what practically raised Game before he was famous, and before he even rapped, he was practically raised by the gang he was involved in. In the track “Red Nation”, which was the first single, Game talked about his former gang, the Bloods, and how they are all united and the fact that growing up with them made him know more of what ‘gang loyalty’ is. As a result, Red Nation was a really strong track and something that hip-hop was honestly missing in a way, I mean, there are a lot of clubbing tracks, some emotional tracks, some meaningful tracks, but not much gang affiliated tracks, and I just think Game showed us here that those kind of tracks where really missing in the genre of hip-hop. Another gang related track was “Martians Vs. Goblins” but this one was much less direct, and more metaphoric, the song title, “Martians Vs. Gobins” basically desribed way Game and Tyler battle it out and see who can come up with the more offensive rhymes, Game took shots at Harry Potter and Rihanna, and Tyler took shots at Bruno Mars and a lot of other people, the song was in a way a metaphor on how gangs fights, on how they keep competing and that eventually the fights end, just like how the song ended. A third gang affiliated track on the album was “Speakers on Blast”, which isn’t exactly gang affiliated, but it does talk about breaking the law and is basically a ‘fuck the police’ type of song, and as we all know ‘fuck the police’ was, and still is a rule gangs go by, and that one rule was shown clearly on that song.

   Red even talked about how fame affected him. In the song “All I Know” Game talked about how fame affected his altitude and his general work ether towards the music he makes and what he could have done if he didn’t rap. All I Know also mentioned that at the point where he is at right now, he’s stuck with fame and the road he is in, and how he can’t turn back or turn around at this point of that road.

     Game had one track here which basically explained the result of his whole life and his whole career. In the Documentary we heard “Like Father Like Son” which was about his song and how his son changed his life. Now, a ‘sequel’ in a way, “California Dream” is out, and it was about his daughter, her birth, how thankful he is to have her, and how his life changed again because of having her, and as a result it was a really touching and emotional song, one of the very best on the album.

   Game also had his take on domestic violence in the song “Good Girls Go Bad” a song on which he talked about a lot of things considering domestic violence. He talked about domestic violence through celebrity couples, between couples he knew, and he even opened up on how domestic violence between his parents affected him, and how him, and his mother is better off without his father. Drake made a cameo in the song, he had one verse which talks about a girl he loved and how he was wrong to love her because if he went on with her he might have gone through a violent relationship with her. As a result, “Good Girls Go Bad” was a really good track, but it’s clearly no “Love The Way You Lie”.

     Game did have some fun on some tracks though. “Drug Test” was a great party track, it had a really strong beat, a great verse by Dre, Snoop had his best feature in a while, and Game flowed so well with the song, only issue with the song was that I think that it was a little short given the guests who were on the track. “Hello” and “All About You” where more laid back tracks about sex, and generally getting in the mood of sex, they were both passable tracks, but honestly slow songs about girls and sex aren’t Game’s style, and that shows on these tracks, they were enjoyable songs, but at the same song they were really easy to skip, I think they were the worst tracks on the album, that they were just there for filler.

    Red does have some really downers though. The tracklist organization on the album was pretty good, but if it was slightly different then the feeling of the album would have been better. The lack of Dre beats also was something not right for this album, out of all the 21 tracks on the album you’d think that there was at least 5 or 6 tracks produced by Dre, instead Dre just had one beat in the whole album, also the album had far too many guests, which was okay, but considering thee many guests there where far too little of the guests who were promised to be on the album, the album was supposed to feature Yelawolf, Lupe Fiasco, Timbaland and a lot more, instead the album featured Young Jeezy, Rick Ross and Wale, but thankfully, at the same time the album did have some of its promised guests, such as Nelly Furtado, Tyler, The Creator and Big Boi. I’m not saying that the many not promised and not preferred features are a big issue, but I think that the announced features sounded really promising, and could have done a bang-up job for the music on this album.

      Red was overall a great cinematic album experience. The album had everything from anger to love to hate, to pity, it had pretty every emotion. Red talked about Game’s life story and brought the listener deep into the story, making him or her hearing everything that was going on in Game’s life, it gave every detail straining with where he’s from, moving to how he lived, after that moving on to how he lives now, and how he feels about his life, So generally, Red was just a really great album, which it wasn’t fully what it could have been, still though, Red was overall a really interesting experience and an excellent album. While not every music fan will enjoy this album, the album eyed out people who love cinematic albums, themed albums and hip-hop albums, if you are a fan of any of those three genres or subgners of music then believe me, you will not just like, but you will really love this album. If this album had to be described in one sentence I would describe it as a soundtrack to Game’s life, plain and simple, it’s a soundtrack to Game’s life, and it really shows with the music.