Gangsta Rap Pt. III – Verge Of Extinction

If you missed the first two parts in this 3-part series click the links below…

Part 1 

Part 2

Gangsta Rap today is almost non-existent. Quick, name 5 current *fairly well-known* gansta rap artists…

Ice Cube

Snoop Dogg

The Game… Um?

Who else? 

And don’t say G-unit because just the cover of their new album T.O.S. screams corny wanna-bees.

Don’t say Lil Wayne. The only way this guy could be more pop while still being considered hip hop is if he was P Diddy.

Wu Tang Clan is still active and of course they are legendary but I wouldn’t classify them in that genre.

Dre is a producer that raps but doesn’t write his own rhymes and Ice T plays a cop on TV… that’s that for those two.

Another one people say is Jay Z or Nas, who I originally included in one of my posts as “gangsta rappers”. After thinking about it Jay and Nas aren’t gangsta rap, they could be, but their content and choice of production excludes them. With a Kanye West produced album in his discography, (The Black Album, which happens to be a classic) there is no way Jigga should be considered gangsta rap.

So what does that come to, 3?

Three representatives in the mainstream for a whole sub-genre isn’t exactly dominant. Plus two of these named rappers are questionable. Snoop Dogg’s albums in overall have been declining, and The Game being a gangsta rapper is debatable. He is or was part of a gang but his recent bitchassnezz toward being kicked out of G-Unit constitutes a loss of respect. Also his lyrics are more bragging about “how good he is” or how much money he has than the hood where he grew up.

So Ice Cube is takes up the position of leader and poster boy for gangsta rap. 

*Keep in mind Ice Cube also makes children’s movies*

I Rest My Case.

The Game Just Misses Out On No.1 Spot In Odd Album Sales Week

We don’t normally report or talk about album sales here, but it was pretty extraordinary what happened this week involving the Game’s album sales.

Yesterday it was announced that The Game had debuted at No. 1 on the Billboard 200 albums chart beating Slipknot’s “All Hope Is Gone” by just 13 copies with 238,285 copies sold (the closest margin in Billboard history). Other reports stated that The Game had actually won by about 1,500 copies. But with such a close difference, Slipknot’s label decided to ask Nielsen Soundcan to do a recheck of the numbers (which is a first in Soundscan history). After the recheck, it was announced that Slipknot had actually beaten The Game by 1,134 copies.
So as it stands, The Game is actually at No. 2 on the charts.

I’m guessing The Game must be pissed now as this would have been his third straight album to debut at the top of the charts. Also, The Game had pushed his album back many times to try to find a week where he would get to No.1, but he still couldn’t get there. Also The Game did an interview last night with AllHipHop.com talking about how great it is to be at No. 1 in the charts again, I bet he wished he hadn’t spoken so soon.

As we’ve already brought you that news, we may as well give details of the other sales of the top 5 hip hop albums this week.

The Game – LAX – 238,832
Lil Wayne – Tha Carter III – 54,041
Ice Cube – Raw Footage – 30,337
Nas – untitled – 12,274
Plies – Definition Of Real – 10,615

The Game- LAX Review & Download

The Game’s LAX was among the most anticipated releases of this month along with Ice Cube’s Raw Footage and GZA’s Pro Tools. This is his third studio album and to tell you the truth I was expecting more.

The Game does a lot less name dropping this album which is a plus. Although his feud with 50 Cent and Many, Many, others were quite entertaining his bitching and whining about getting kicked out of G-Unit got annoying. After awhile most of us didn’t even know why it all started.

Anyway, the album’s production is great. The Game has nice beats on nearly every track and I thought the incorporation of vocal artists like Ne-yo, Raheem Devaughn, Latoya Williams, and Keisha Cole were interesting and brought some nice choruses to some tracks. 6 of the songs had singing artists featured and more contained samples of RnB artists. 

The Game also has some interesting rappers featuring on the album like Common, Ice Cube, Raekwon, Nas, Ludacris, and another who fits into neither category, Travis Barker. 

Overall though I thought this was a pretty mediocre album. There are about 4-5 good tracks on the album that are worth listening to more than once. The others could be classifiable as skips. 

The Game doesn’t really change his lyrical content at all in this albums from his previous works which is a disappointment for me. Although there is no problem with rapping about California, money, girls, cars, and how good you are, after awhile unless the wordplay and storytelling is good it gets annoying and repetitive.

And although he has some okay punchlines “I flow like oregano” from the song House Of Pain completely killed it for me.

1. This is a recycled line.

2. It sucks.

3. It makes no sense…. Since when does Oregano flow?

The standout tracks for me were Cali Sunshine, which has a nice chorus, laidback rhymes, and a cool electronic beat. Dope Boys, which is a club-banger for sure, and State Of Emergency in which The Game and Ice Cube deliver the catchy California-dedicated track of the album.

Download The Album Here

This one gets 3 mailboxes from The Mailman.

T Dub-The Mailman

New Albums

It’s a busy period in hip hop right now. And here’s the 2 newest albums to leak this week:

The Game – LAX (Clean Version)

Download LAX here

GZA – Pro Tools

Download Pro Tools here

And in case you missed it, here’s a download link for the new Ice Cube album, Raw Footage, which is out this Tuesday. Download Raw Footage here

We will post a link for the dirty version of LAX when it leaks.

Make sure you buy these albums when they come out. Support the artists!

Upcoming Albums- L.A.X. by The Game

LAX will be The Game’s third studio album, it is set to be released August 26th. The singles Games’ Pain, Dope Boys, and My Life have already been released.

Track Listing

1. Intro (featuring DMX)
2. L.A.X. Files
3. State of Emergency (featuring Ice Cube)
4. Bulletproof Diaries (featuring Raekwon)
5. My Life (featuring Lil Wayne)
6. Money
7. Cali Sunshine (featuring Bilal)
8. Ya Heard (featuring Ludacris)
9. Hard Liquor (Interlude)
10. House of Pain
11. Gentleman’s Affair (featuring Ne-Yo)
12. Let Us Live (featuring Chrisette Michele)
13. Touchdown (featuring Raheem DeVaughn)
14. Angel (featuring Common)
15. Never Can Say Goodbye (featuring Latoya Williams)
16. Dope Boys (featuring Travis Barker)
17. Game’s Pain (featuring Keyshia Cole)
18. Letter to the King (featurin Nas)
19. Outro (featuring DMX)