Good Songs People Forget About: The Game, "Wouldn't Get Far"

I am by no means a fan of The Game's sophomore LP, "Doctor's Advocate". Unlike "The Documentary", which featured first-rate production from Kanye, Just Blaze, and Dre, the beats here seem cherry-picked and forgettable; witness will.goddamn.i.am's "Compton". The Game himself had morphed from hungry up-and-comer with the world in his corner to rap's self-aware black sheep, and while Dre and 50's complete abandonment of Jayceon Taylor must have been pretty stinging, that's no reason to bellyache for an entire album. Jesus, The Game sounds confused on "Doctor's Advocate"; one minute he's sneering "Finished my second LP without a Dr. Dre track/ You can take my soul but you can't take my plaques", the next he's blubbering, "Dre, I didn't mean to turn my back on you/ But I'm a man, and sometimes a man do, what he gotta do". He hates Dre! He loves Dre! He's obsessed with Dre! Basically, "Doctor's Advocate" (hell, even look at the title) is The Game trying to assert himself and prove that he doesn't need Dre to be a superstar, but he still idolizes the man and calls himself the "second coming of Dre". And all of this is over a bunch of beats that ape Dre's signature g-funk but can't touch the magic he constantly creates in the studio. There's a lot of adjectives I could give the main conceit of this album -- puzzling, uninteresting, a little perverse -- and none would be very flattering.
But I'd be lying if I said if I wasn't blown away by track #8, "Wouldn't Get Far". This is exactly the type of sun-soaked street rap that Game had scratched on "The Documentary", that Dre churned out on "Chronic", and that Kanye has been trying to capture throughout his career. Speaking of Mr. West, he produces and lends a guest spot here, and it's a shame that he didn't just stay behind the boards, because this production, which hinges on a vocal loop and a subtle bass line, is fucking dynamite, and his verse is dwarfed by The Game's two. It's not that The Game (just realized I've been capitalizing 'The', but I'll roll with it) is a better rapper than Kanye, or even that what he's saying on this track is that much more insightful. It's just that Kanye will never be a street rapper, and he sounds awkward when he's paired up with a West Coast beat, even if he DID create it.
On the other hand, "Wouldn't Get Far" finds The Game completely and utterly on his... well, you know. He sounds confident here: he WILL NOT fuck up over this beautiful beat, and when he starts spitting, you know he's gonna be okay. I don't know why, it just sounds like nobody else could handle this song as well as The Game does, and the way in which Kanye, a top-10 rapper, hobbles through his rhymes supports the argument. And yeah, Game has a few good lines -- I personally like "She was eye candy in the XXL/ Hopped off the page and on a skateboard with Pharrell" -- but it's his delivery that sells what Game is trying to peddle here (something about girls who hang around rappers too much). On "Doctor's Advocate", The Game is pressing too much on every song, for hooks that aren't there, for couplets that just don't work, for general respect. "Wouldn't Get Far" is where he releases the pressure and just lets shit roll, and he wins. If the rest of "Advocate" had The Game this relaxed and comfortable in his own skin, it would have been the most venerated rap album of a star-starved year for hip-hop. Question: why wasn't "Wouldn't Get Far" blasting from every radio station instead of "This Is Why I'm Hot"?

On a personal note, I'd like to mention that the outro of "Wouldn't Get Far", which finds The Game generally confused as to why the same girls are in every rap video, is absolutely hilarious. Any song that ends with a rapper exclaiming, "I'm watching Oprah cover Hurricane Katrina, and I see the same bitch on 'Oprah', floating away on the hood of a Camry, that was in the nigga Lil' Weezy video! I mean, DAMN!"
When 50 Cent says something half as funny as that, I'll stop supporting G-Unot.