Release Date : January 18, 2005
Label : Aftermath, G-Unit, Interscope Records
I ain't do a throwback review in a minute, so lets take a look back at Game's 2005 debut The Documentary. I first heard of Game back in 2003 on a freestyle with Fabolous and on a Clinton Sparks Get Familiar mixtape ,where he had a song on there called "Bleek Is..." dissin Memphis Bleek because of the record label called "Get Low". According to Game, JT The Bigga Figga had the label first and they claimed Bleek stole it from them. On Games older stuff he sounds exactly like Shyne did in his Bad Boy days, this was years before he linked up with G-Unit Records. Similar to 50, Game got involved in various beefs from Ja Rule to Jay-Z to Joe Budden and countless others. At the end of the day, G-Unit/Aftermath was definitely the right label for Game.
On the 50 Cent assisted Westside Story, Game reminds you that the Left Coast never fell off over Dr. Dre and Scott Storch's piano keys (Since the West coast fell off the streets been watchin/ The West coast never fell off I was sleep in Compton). Game and 50s chemistry is one of the strong points on The Documentary. How We Do gets the club rocking and Hate It Or Love It gives the underdogs inspiration to make it to the top. Game hooks up with Timbo for the high-octane Put You On the Game . The album is very well rounded, The West Coast vet gives a timeline of his sons birth on the Buckwild produced Like Father, Like Son, and Bustas hook was perfect.
The late Nate Dogg rides shotgun with Game on Where I'm From and Special. The latter is forgettable at best. Game tries too hard with the whole "I don't love you but I like you concept. The Documentary is his best album to me. You get the soulful Don't Need Your Love featuring Faith Evans and the drunken Start from Scratch with Marsha Ambrosious, he proves hes not one dimensional. The Documentary has its share of flaws though. For instance on Dreams, gets Dr. Dre's album release wrong (I woke up out that coma 2001/'bout the same time Dre dropped 2001). Dre's album 2001 was released in 99, how can you be signed to Aftermath and still fuck up the facts?
Mary J steals the show on Don't Worry. And on We Ain't he mimics Ems flow and embarrassingly admits "Em murdered me on my own shit". Other things that drag the album down is his constant name dropping, he says Nas, Dre, Snoop, 50, Pac, Big and Eazy-E about a million times to the point it makes him seem like hes obsessed with them. Also its a feature on about every song, even though most of them do a good job, I feel like a debut album shouldn't be cluttered with features. With that being said, The Documentary comes up a little short from being a classic, but Game still delivered and released one of 2005s best albums and he brung the West Coast back.
4.5/5
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