THE GAME “DRILLMATIC HEART VS. MIND” ALBUM REVIEW

Hip-hop is a genre where retirement is rarely permanent, and The Game is the most recent example of a rapper who just couldn’t quit making music. The Game triumphantly emerged from a brief retirement to release his eleventh studio album, DRILLMATIC Heart v. Mind, two years and eight and a half months after his tenth and “final” studio album Born 2 Rap.

Post-retirement return albums—from Jay-Z’s Kingdom Come to Logic’s Bobby Tarantino III mixtape—often garner conflicting reactions. But if DRILLMATIC demonstrates anything, it’s that The Game never should have retired in the first place.

The expansive 29-track album is the experienced West Coast artist and former G-Unit member’s most recognizable work. In typical Jayceon fashion, DRILLMATIC features a whopping number of guest artists that would rival a DJ Khaled album.

These artists include Ice-T, Fivio Foreign, BOA OG, YG, Osbe Chill, The Mass, Ty Dolla $ign, Roddy Rich, Pusha T, 2 Chainz, Lil Wayne, G Herbo, Dreezy, Chiller, Twista, Candice Pillay, French Montana, Tory Lanez, Meek Mill, Moneybagg Yo, Blxst, A$AP Rocky, Cam’ron, Big Sean, Blueface, Chris Brown, Chlöe, Cassie, a spoken cameo from Drake, and multiple appearances from Jeremih and Kanye West

Additionally, Game continues to use his signature name-dropping approach in nearly every song on the album, demonstrating that he hasn’t lost his hold on popular culture. An album that feels like a time capsule of 2022 so far features that recurring motif along with timely lyrics about current events, such as Brittney Griner’s nine-year prison sentence in Russia, Beyoncé’s “HEATED” lyric controversy, the YSL RICO indictment, and the mass shootings in Buffalo, New York, and Uvalde, Texas.

The Game is still deftly capturing Hip-Hop, popular culture, and the state of the world nearly two decades after the release of his major-label debut.

With Hit-Boy and Kanye West serving as co-executive producers, The Game’s most recent work is admirably accomplished. In addition to the previously heard, Ye-assisted banger “Eazy,”

DRILLMATIC is loaded with hard-hitting tracks that pay homage to Hip-Hop legends, including the Ice-T-sampling album opener “One Time,” the Jay-Z-sampling “Change The Game,” in which Ty Dolla $ign recreates the late Static Major’s hook, and the Lil Wayne and G Herbo-assisted “Chrome Slugs & Harmony” that features a sped-up chop of Bone Thugs-N-Harmony’s “Thuggish Ruggish Bone.”

The DRILLMATIC tunes “Talk To Me Nice” and “Money Cash Clothes” particularly make the most of their legendary samples, even though many of the band’s other songs follow a similar strategy of drawing musical inspiration from the past. Meek Mill, Blxst, and MoneyBagg Yo are featured on the former, which is expertly produced by DONTMINDIFIDUKE and Skywalker OG. It features a significant sample of Tela’s 1996 song “Sho’Nuff.”

The latter features a thrilling, A$AP Rocky-assisted homage to the late DMX that has thunderous Swizz Beats and Mike Zombie production. Beyond the pleasant doses of nostalgia, The Game does a great job of counterbalancing DRILLMATIC with a ton of solo tracks, including a good number of smooth, R&B- and Afrobeat-related songs as well as a nice selection of quiet, pensive pieces. Even most of the featured performers delivered accurate performances and standout contributions.

Specifically, the performances by Dreezy, 2 Chainz, BOA QG, Twista, MoneyBagg Yo, and Rick Ross stand out. One could counter that DRILLMATIC provides listeners with way too much material despite having all the necessary components for a truly excellent album.

The Game’s most recent album was supposed to have 31 songs on it, but nearly a week after it dropped, two of its most anticipated songs, “O.P.P.” with YoungBoy Never Broke Again and “World Tours” with Nipsey Hussle, are still not on streaming sites. According to reports, the latter’s absence was caused by a breakdown in communication between The Game’s staff and Nipsey’s estate. Budgetary constraints were the cause of the loss of the NBA YoungBoy collaboration, claims Wack 100.

However, that still leaves DRILLMATIC with a sizable total of 29 tracks and an absurd runtime of almost two hours. Even by the standards of the modern music industry, The Game’s most recent project is a true behemoth. Even in its condensed form, The Last Slimeto is still 30 minutes longer than some of the longest hip-hop albums of the year, including Mr. Morale & The Big Steppers by Kendrick Lamar and The Last Slimeto by YoungBoy.

While DRILLMATIC’s largest and most unavoidable shortcoming is certainly its length, the album isn’t crammed full of fluff or downright awful songs. The album’s lengthy tracklist just cannot support its length because it contains far too many subpar songs. All things considered, even though it is a little over the top, DRILLMATIC Heart vs. Mind is an amazing comeback album from the most notorious documentarian of the West Coast.

The Game’s eleventh studio album stands head and shoulders above the other Hip-Hop albums produced in 2022, despite the fact that its fat most surely works against it. DRILLMATIC has an advantage over many of its rivals thanks to its high-quality bars, captivating production, and numerous amusing moments.

The Game offered rap fans an audio refuge of sorts during a year in which the top names in the hip-hop community have been far more experimental than normal.