The Game’s debut album went from impressive to suspect to trade-bin fodder in a week. Dr. Dre, Scott Storch, Kanye West and others laid a bangin’ enough template to stand on its own, sure, and Game, who’s been rhymin’ for only three years, fires a few lines that could raise a brow. On one, he lazily links titles of classic albums into one rhyme: “Ready to Die without a Reasonable Doubt/ Smoke Chronic and hit it Doggystyle before I go out/Until they sign my Death Certificate, All Eyes On Me/ I’m still at it, Illmatic/ And that’s the documentary.” Along the way, he talks tough about getting shot, selling drugs and being “street.” How boring. But he does lie and steal.
Last week, a clip of his appearance on not-so-old TV show Change of Heart pops up online. There’s Game, hair dyed red, lip ring, and his dream woman choosing someone else over him. Then, a rapper who met and hung out with him in Los Angeles accuses him of stealing the aforementioned lines. Said rapper proves his allegation by posting an mp3 of the original lyric on the Internet. They’re very similar. It’s really hardcore when some guy jacks your girl on national TV and then you jack some guy’s song for your album’s title track, isn’t it? In the end, the CD is a packaged sham. And it’s topping charts now, of course.
Khary Kimani Turner writes about music for Metro Times. E-mail [email protected].
