Game is back on the music scene with his 4^th album entitled, “The R.E.D. Album.” It has been 3 years since his last album, but Game does not show any signs of rust on his current venture back into rap. He gets most things right on this album, but there were several missteps.

The main strengths of this album were the lyrics, the beats, and the cohesion of the whole album. Since I first heard Game in 2005 on “The Documentary,” his first album, I knew his rap style and unique gritty hardcore tone of voice, when he rapped, would set him apart from other rappers. On this album, he has matured as a lyricist and a lot more thoughtful with his punch lines and metaphors. As usual, Game has to mention and diss several people, such as Erykah Badu, Rihanna, Lebron James, Ken Griffey Jr., and even Marvel Comic, to make his album complete. The only thing I did not like was how he repeats certain phrases or reference, such as mentioning Malcolm X three times and the movie Boyz in the Hood twice on the whole album. He is a talented rapper and could have varied his lyrics to prevent it. He is at his best on this album when he is storytelling, such as on the songs entitled “The good, the bad the Ugly” and “California Dream.”

The beats and instrumentals on the whole album are crazy and so well varied. I would not think otherwise because a majority of the songs are produced by both Dr. Dre and Pharell, of the Neptunes, the two best beat makers in the industry. This album has everything from west coast rap to dirty south bounce beats to east coast mafia beats to jazz. My favorite beats were on “Red Nation,” “Heavy Artillery,” and “The City.” I couldn’t help but dance or groove to the beats as I listened to the whole album.

Lastly, I liked how they figured out how to make the whole album come together or seem like one entity. Dr. Dre did the intro, outro, and several interludes throughout the album and it really provided a lot of cohesion to the album. This album felt like Game’s biography and Dr. Dre was the narrator that made sense of it all. I also noticed that they grouped together songs that had similarities. The album was divided into west coast songs, Lil Wayne featured songs, jazz inspired songs, east coast mafia songs, dirty south songs, R&B songs, and songs about his family and personal life. The song order flowed smoothly and was thoughtfully figured out to go with the theme of the album.

The missteps on the album included having too many guests and Game trying too hard to change up his style. This album had everyone featured on it such as Lil Wayne (on two songs), Lloyd, Young Jeezy, Wale, E-40, Rick Ross, Snoop Dogg, Drake, and Beanie Sigal to name a few. The problem was Game was outshined by his guest on most of the songs. It took away from his spotlight and made this seem more like a Game and friends album instead. Also, Game tried too hard to mix things up with his style, but ended up failing miserably. The worst were the R&B love songs, because it did not mix very well with his hardcore rapping style and his voice. I appreciate his effort to expand, but I wanted to hear a hardcore rap album and Game should stick to what he is good at.

For the most part, this is a good album, but if he would have stuck to rap and focused on his strengths, I would have liked the album a lot more and given it a higher score. The variety on the beats were great, but the variety in his style fell flat. Lastly, I would have liked to have heard more from the Game on his own album and less from his guest. For those reasons, I am giving this album a ‘B+.”