“The Documentary 2” fails to live up to the hype

Vincent Nguyen, Reporter

“The Documentary 2,” released on Oct. 19, 2015, is the sixth studio album by Compton rapper The Game.

The Game, born Jayceon Taylor, decided to release this album 10 years after his critically acclaimed debut album, “The Documentary.” The old cliché goes, “sequels are never better than the originals,” and that certainly pertains to this situation.

Naming it “The Documentary 2” already gave the album a lot of hype, anticipation and a heavy weight on its shoulder to live up to its predecessor. Combined with features from some of rap’s biggest names: Kendrick Lamar, Drake, Future, Kanye West and Dr. Dre, “Doc 2” was set up to be another classic.

Unfortunately, it falls flat in accomplishing that. A prime example of this is the album’s lead single “100,” featuring Drake. Game’s verses are okay, but nothing spectacular.

Drake, a guy who always gives great features, sounded like he was about to fall asleep, and quite honestly, boring on the hook and his verse. A song that had so much potential, especially with a quality instrumental from Cardo and Johnny Juliano, ultimately fell flat.

Subject wise, you won’t find anything different from the usual West Coast gangster raps from Game.

“West side Compton, n***a don’t mind if I do / From Piru Street to my old street / N***a this Compton, grew up on a dead end / Got an armful of dead friends,” he raps on “On Me.”

The album features 19 songs, but there are some songs that could have been cut from the tracklist. The fourth track, “Standing Ferraris,” produced the very cringe-worthy lyrics, “Yeah, that’s why I’m standing on Ferraris, n***a /In a 64, 6’5”, too big for a Bugatti / That’s why I’m standing on Ferraris n***a.” The song ends with a very, very, unnecessary and painful outro from Diddy.

“Step Up” features lackluster features from Sha Sha and Dej Loaf. And “Circles” just sounds weird and out of place.

But there are a handful of highlights from the album. It starts to pick up momentum with “Dedicated,” which features The Game reminiscing his relationship with the mother of his children, Tiffney Cambridge (Sh*t we was Nicki and Meek a week ago / Gave you everything, the watch, the house , the cards/Tatted your passport, and now you wanna see me low).

The rest of tracklisting gives off energy and oomph the album was previously missing. “Mula” and the amazingly DJ Premier-and-Dr. Dre-produced title track are glimpses of what “Doc 2” could’ve been.

“Damn it I done did it again / Game still in / Game still in Cali eatin’ off The Documentary.”

The Compton rapper claims he’s still “eatin’” off his 2005 classic, but it’s safe to say he won’t be “eatin’” off from the 2015 version ten years from now. Many things fail to live up to the hype. “The Documentary 2”, is just a case example of this statement. Even with its big name features and very good production, it just doesn’t grab a hold of the listener, instead it ends up whiffing with a handful of air. “Doc 2” won’t be remembered as a modern day hip hop classic. It’ll be remembered just as another solid hip hop album in the year 2015.

Final Grade: 7/10

Favorite Tracks: Dedicated, Bitch You Ain’t Sh*t, Mula, The Documentary 2

Least Favorite Tracks: Step Up, Standing Ferraris, Circles

 

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