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Originally Posted by SuchFriendsAreDangerous
Game went quasi-conscious on Documentary 2, with this Streets of Compton its honestly the most straight up gangsta and ruthless record I heard outside of local hood mixtapes in ten years, possibly fifteen. I mean literally, you'd have to be in a gang to honestly get like half of it. It feels entirely like a "local" rap project with ZERO intentions of if anyone else "gets it", its some shit to bump sitting in front of the pad with the homiez drinking brewz. i love it.
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I feel you on this. I
is almost completely gangsta'd the fuck out like a golden age Death Row record, only with hotter beats. I tend to think of myself as a East Coast dude when it comes to hip-hop, and always have, as you know. I like albums like Doggystyle, Regulate... G Funk Era, and obviously a ton of the more recent Compton (Bompton?) exports... But Streets of Compton breathes something non-presumptuous and almost elegant into the tired old "west side" trope.
I mean, even when Death Row was hot, my favorite artist on the label was Pac, an NYC boy. I just have never been very inspired by the style, sound or image of LA ganstadom. But Game is a worldly rapper, and he has far reaching tastes. This record feels like Game "doing" OG gangsta, just like he did the whole religion inspired concept thing on Jesus Piece, and — yes — put on his "conscious" hat for Documentary 2. He has a lot of different influences running through him, but this feels like an homage to his roots, and I dig it.
It probably won't be the kind of album I play all year, because for me Game isn't that kind of artist, and I tend to gravitate toward a more varied and multifaceted type of hip-hop record as far as classics are concerned. But it's a nice little stop-gap release, better than I thought it would be, and the missteps of Blood Moon: Year of the Wolf feel almost forgotten.