Yahoo! Music Album Review

Released on 13/11/06
Label: Geffen

Few have made more of the sales potential of the rap beef in recent years than Jaceyon "The Game" Taylor. After his five million-selling debut, "The Documentary", established the Compton native as a formidable commercial presence, his headline-hogging has been couched almost entirely in terms of his serial beefs, but principally his long-running feud with former label mate, and "Documentary" executive producer, 50 Cent.

A series of mix-tape disses and a pointedly silly DVD, "Stop Snitchin' Stop Lyin'", have elevated the pair's feud to the level of hip hop myth. But with victory in his grasp and his audience's interest levels beyond saturation point, how can Taylor sell this pivotally important second LP? Unsurprisingly, this consummate professional has a plan. Whether Game has manufactured a disagreement with his mentor, former NWA producer Andre "Dr Dre" Young, is not immediately clear.

Yet, in creating a buzz around a record named after the super-producer which gradually revealed that Young was not involved in it, Game has created a soap opera around his music that rivals anything even Dre's most successful protégée, Eminem, has yet managed. The coup de theatre is an astonishing title track, in which Game pens an emotive open letter to Dre, tearfully apologising for his "betrayal". On a record stuffed with reverential references to Young (14 of these 17 tracks mention Dre by name), the potency of the backstory is merely amplified.

All of which wouldn't mean a hoot if the record itself didn't work, but Game is nobody's fool, and "Doctor's Advocate" cannily builds on its predecessor's strengths without sacrificing anything significant. He continues to hymn gangsta rap's heritage and history - "Compton", produced by will.i.am, himself once signed to Eazy-E's Ruthless label as a member of his pre-Black Eyed Peas outfit, Atban Klann, is the most overt of many homages to the music's story - and sketch himself into the saga.

"Remedy" revisits Public Enemy's "Black Steel In The Hour Of Chaos" to spectacular effect; "It's Okay (One Blood)" puts a Junior Reid hook into gangbanger service; and the Scott Storch-produced "Let's Ride" doesn't so much nod at Fiddy's "In Da Club" as run off cackling with its blueprint. A smidgeon or two of introspection (the autobiographical "Ol' English"; "One Night", which berates an unnamed sell-out confederate) and that jaw-dropping title track apart, there's nothing particularly new or different here: but Game has found a way of appearing to take risks while ensuring he leaves nothing to chance.

The result is an album that will satisfy everyone who enjoyed his debut.

    by Angus Batey