December 11, 2006 @ 3:13 pm

The Game: How The West Was One

Peter Relic

Things just ain’t the same for gangstas. The game has changed. People’s attention has gone other places. There was an era when the West Coast reigned supreme, and—love it or hate it—it was a damn good run. The ridin’ high years began in 1989 with the release of Straight Outta Compton (Ruthless), ran up into the sticky salad days of The Chronic and Doggystyle (both Death Row), but sustained losses after Ice Cube clipped his curl and Eazy-E died of complications related to AIDS. Although a full decade passed between Eazy’s demise and the much ballyhooed 2005 release of the Game’s double-platinum debut, The Documentary (Aftermath/Interscope), the Compton-born MC insisted from jump that the West Coast never fell off. With Dr. Dre’s unmistakable beats and 50 Cent’s timeless, tuneless croon on the hooks, Documentary cast Game as the prodigious progeny of all the heavy hitters who had come before him. “I’m like Dre, Eazy, Cube, King Tee, and Ren rolled in one,” he boasted on “No More Fun and Games.” The sense of destiny newly manifest was exciting. The game craved the Game, and for one synergistic moment, the two were synonymous. But the center didn’t hold very long. “Times is changin’ / Young niggas is agin’ / Becomin’ OGs in the game and changin’ / To make way for / These new names and faces,” Dre himself rapped on Chronic 2001’s “The Watcher.” And so it goes: The Game himself, once an eager rookie, already seems more aging OG than new face. His violent rupture with 50 Cent is dragging on toward the two-year mark, and Dre didn’t contribute a single beat to his protégé’s sophomore album. On Game’s new Doctor’s Advocate, the music and the marquee guests don’t matter as much as what the Game is saying. While the album is full of lyrical true confessions, ’hood stories, rag-waving brags, and outré name-calling, it isn’t really gangsta rap. You don’t imagine Game getting a letter from the FBI for anything he’s saying here, the way N.W.A did after the release of 1989’s “F _ _ _ tha Police.” There is nothing to be scared of. And maybe it’ll be that fact, what might be considered a point of weakness in a man’s-man’s world where appearances and stance count for so much, that redeems the Game. To Read The Rest of This Story, Get This Issue At Your Local Newsstand Now! Do you want VIBE delivered to your home or office? CLICK HERE. Also in VIBE's September 2006 issue:

• Next: Blakjak, Elisabeth Withers, One Chance, and Consequence.

• Smoothed Out (On The R&B Tip) - In 1993, Jodeci, Toni Braxton, Mary J. Blige, SWV, and Tevin Campbell were all tussling for chart space, radio play, and the hearts and souls of music lovers everywhere. A look back a that phenomenal time-the last, best year of rhythm and blues.

• '06: Vibe Remembers The Moments of 2006, '60 Songs of '06, Things That Made Vibe Go hmmm, and more.

• Revolutions: Nas, Bobby Valentino, Ghostface Killah, Akon, Black Sheep, Big Tuck, Ciara, UGK, Brian McKnight, Z-Ro, Johnta Austin, Patti Labelle, Tyrese, Project Pat, Killer Mike, Kevin Federline, and more.