Hottest Out...

Is it just me, or has The Game been thoroughly killing it on his recent guest appearances? I know it can't just be me........ Is it??

I just copped (read: zshare.com) the new Fat Joe remix and in my mind (no SKATEBOARD PEE), Game outshone the other two rappers on the track. That reminded me of a Bussa remix I got a few weeks ago where it seemed homey did the same, or at least held his own amidst emcees that ought to've straight embarrassed lil' Compton (side note: who remembers Guerilla Black????).

Anyways, check these joints out and see if you agree:

Bussa Bus - Don't Touch Me (Remix featuring mad headz including Game)
-Game's verse starts around 1:45, until around 2:20
-"My style C-4 and I'm bout to blow"
-"LAX comin' thru JFK real soon"
-Homey went in on this joint. I remember when GAME came out and he seemed to just have that one real laid-back slow burn style. Cat was never all that lyrical to me and basically I saw him as eating bc of (1) hype (who goes back to The Documentary now and goes "yea that one deserved 5 mics/stars"???) and (2) riding on the G-Unit affiliation that was a magical Midas touch around 2003-2005.
-Looks like dude got a fire lit up under this time around though, and he been working on his flow and lyricism. I was wondering how he would keep up with the nasty FLIPMODE style that pervades this track courtesy of Sean C & LV (side note: if you ain't seen it yet, the original video is Trevor Rhymes and Spliff Star back on their classic behavior), but homey did his thing. It is good to see GAME starting to be an innovator rather than just a student of the game, as he's been reminding us constantly (and obnoxiously) since Documentary.

Fat Joe - Ain't Sayin Nothin (Remix ft. Weezy "Lollipop" Baby and Game)
-Game starts in around 1:15.
-"Put my name on ya mind, my style is New Era"
-"My dunks sittin bigger than yars"
-For a while now, dude has been a real straight-soundin emcee in his diction and how his flow works around syllables. While he got a dope voice, for too long it seems that Game's been relying on the rawness of his voice alone and not really pushing things forward in terms of delivery. This track sees Game go in after current twentysomething-and-under crowd favorite (and flavor of the Soundscan weeklies) Weezy Effing Baby (pause just for mentioning that name). After Wayne's codeine- (and possibly-way-more-....) laced vocals, Game drops in, working a new flow I haven't really heard him do before... His syllables flex and lag a little more than i'm used to hearing from Jayceon.

Basically, after hearing son body these tracks, I'm looking forward to LAX. For what might be the first time in his music career, Jayceon Taylor is really acting like an emcee, dropping verses (and not beefs) all over the place to build alliances & awareness of his upcoming release... And, the biggest thing - the thing that had me rewinding these mp3s to listen to his 16's (or however many bars he dropped) again to verify that it was GAME that dropped them - is that dude has finally stopped shouting out legendary emcees every 4 bars. For once it sounds like he is comfortable with being compared to other emcees, instead of fearing that others are doing so (and assuming that he loses out in such comparisons), and so he has to draw fewer overt or even blasphemous parallels ("Lyrically I'm Kool G Rap on these Dre beats"?!? nah, right?).
I've spent money on one or two albums this year (Wu-Tang's 8 Diagrams and the mixtape by ROCK from Heltah Skeltah, both 100% worthy to me), and plan on copping one or two more (Clipse/Re-Up definitely; even if they don't drop a new joint, i plan on copping HHNF): will LAX be one of those? With these verses, son has almost earned my $12.99 [||].