Artist: The Game
Album: L.A.X.
Label: Geffen

The genesis of Game’s career was both a blessing and a curse. He himself raps that few legacies have started “hotter than the beginning of my career/ with 50, Dre and Em there.” However the helping hand would also bring persistent doubts, claims that Game’s success is replicable for any rhymer who has an album of Dr. Dre’s beats, 50 Cent’s hooks and a track blessed by Eminem. While Doctor’s Advocate was a step in the right direction, L.A.X. proves once and for all that The Game’s success is defined solely by his skill.

On L.A.X. Game successfully demonstrates that he is the most legitimately hardcore rapper in mainstream hip-hop today. On “L.A.X. Files” he questions even his audience’s credibility, “(expletive) think cause they watched Menace a couple of times/ Seen Cube in Boyz N the Hood and pressed rewind/ That you could survive when a real Crip run up on your car and flex the nine.” The trifecta of “State of Emergency” featuring Ice Cube, ” Bulletproof Diaries” with Raekwon and “Cali Sunshine” featuring Bilal are perhaps the three most classically “West coast” tracks that will be recorded in 2008. Game then demonstrates his versatility on laid back cuts including “Gentleman’s Affair,” “Touchdown” and “Angel,” the last of which represents G.O.O.D. music at its finest with production by Kanye West and a verse from Common.

L.A.X. also proves that The Game may be the best actor in rap today. We’ve seen this ability through his simulated inebriation on both the title track from “Doctor’s Advocate” and The Documentary’s “Start From Scratch,” and there was another allusion to this ability when Game presented an uncanny emulation of his mentor on “Lookin’ at You.” Game takes it to another level on L.A.X. He acknowledges his perfect rendition of Nas’ flow on “Let Us Live,” rapping “Voice raspy, who I sound like? Don’t ask me/ That’s my (expletive) we classy.” On “Never Can Say Goodbye,” he presents a verse each through the eyes of Tupac Shakur, Eazy-E and most jarringly, The Notorious B.I.G., who Game ebodies in both flow and lyrics. Game even takes a page out of Jay-Z’s book on “Dope Boys,” an unabashed (and inferior) interpretation of Hov’s “Roc Boys.”

There are weak points, notably “Letter to the King” on which Game’s lack of nuance and sincerity are obvious, as is Nas’ inability to “kick knowledge.” However to see the strength and depth of L.A.X., one need look no further than the tracks left on the cutting room floor, any of which (“Gangsta Party” and “Cop Killa” in particular) would be the pinnacle of many of Game’s contemporaries’ albums. Note that I didn’t even mention hit singles “My Life,” or “Game’s Pain,” no need on an album of this strength.