Part 2.

The Game

Written by Cyrus Langhorne

Game recently talked about snagging Pharrell to executive produce his forthcoming R.E.D. Album and how their chemistry molds together in the studio.

According to Game, the duo have already knocked out seven records together.

“Pharrell is my new favorite producer,” Game said in an interview. “I got a whole new respect for Pharrell and The Neptunes but especially Pharrell and how he do his thing. The way that he coach me when we’re in the booth, it’s like a Pat Riley to a Tim Hardaway or a Pat Riley to a Magic Johnson. The way that he let me run point guard when I go inside that booth is just crazy. And The Neptunes, people don’t really understand who The Neptunes are but if you take away The Neptunes from hip-hop, you take away the color in hip-hop. You take away these new kids that are jerkin’, you take away Jay-Z’s ‘Change Clothes,’ Neptunes brought a whole new sound, a whole new aura to hip-hop and it manifested and turned into something that nobody thought would be this big, I’m just excited about being in with Pharrell man, he’s my new favorite producer and we established this friendship and bond that goes beyond the music. Me and Pharrell, we did four records yesterday and three today. We recording man and I asked Pharrell if he would executive produce the album and he said ‘H*ll yeah.’” (Dubcnn)

Game previously revealed tagging along Pharrell for an executive producer role earlier this month.

“The R.E.D. Album is gonna be classic, that’s a promise,” the rapper wrote. “Executive produced by Dr. Dre and Pharrell. The music is phenomenal.” (Game’s Twitter)

He recently discussed the album’s overall feel and initial anticipation to drop it in late December.

“It’s just Game now, I took the t-h-e off, you know what I’m saying,” Game confirmed in an interview. “I’m just coastin’ through, day-by-day, somebody got a script, I’ma read it, if it fits me, hopefully I’ll get it. I’m just day-by-day right now. I’m strictly on the color red, I ain’t going no further than that, it’s gonna be the craziest album out of all four of ‘em and it’s the most hood album…You know how we do it under the Aftermath umbrella, it be on the low, but it will be in stores December 8th and that’s how we gonna roll with it. We’re putting out two singles next week…” (Hip Hollywood)

Producers Cool & Dre originally revealed details on Game’s album and expressed their intent to produce the entire project last month.

“It’s a f*cking great experience working with The Game,” Dre said agreeing with Cool. “To know that you have someone that you consider family and the music you guys make goes, every time. Every time, it’s just a great chemistry. Like ‘Hate It Or Love It,’ it went huge. Our first number one record of our career. ‘My Life,’ Top 10. ‘Big Dreams,’ a record that didn’t get no push, f*cking charted. He’s dope, the new album is so retarded. We did some sh*t, we’re going up there this week. We did a couple new records. We’re trying to completely f*cking produce the whole thing, but you know, it’s tough. People will step up their level of sh*t for Game. So you know, it’s dope because it forces us to step it up…It’s dope because he goes in there and writes a f*cking classic record. You know what makes Game dope? He respects the art form, he loves hip-hop so much. Like he respects classic records.” (Jessie Maguire)

The R.E.D. Album is now slated to drop Tuesday, February 16th, 2010.

Game a acordat un interviu celor de la DubCnn zilele trecute in care vorbeste despre Dr. Dre si Pharell , cum ca acestia ar fi producatori executivi pentru albumul The R.E.D. Album , se mai vorbeste despre Snoop Dogg , Dj Premier si 50 Cent despre care subliniaza ca ar mai colabora pe viitor .

]]> http://toosweet4rocknroll.wordpress.com/2009/11/29/the-game-lets-ride-strip-club/ Sun, 29 Nov 2009 08:01:02 +0000 elena http://toosweet4rocknroll.wordpress.com/2009/11/29/the-game-lets-ride-strip-club/

Jayceon “The Game” Taylor, American rapper

Lupe Fiasco recently dropped a Mixtape over the Internet with Freestyles over several Beats.

I picked out the best Freestyles that Lupe killed and mixed them with the Originals to make them sound even doper.

Here’s the Tracklist:

1.All The Way Turned Up[Smu Mix] (Beat Switch) feat Ludacris

2.Angels [Smu Mix] feat Raekwon & Rick Ross

3.So Ghetto [Smu Mix] feat The Game (Prod. by DJ Premier)

4.Thank You [Smu Mix] feat Mykestro (Produced by Kanye West)

5.The One [Smu Mix] feat Slaughterhouse (Prod. by DJ Khalil)

6.Popular Demand [Smu Mix] feat The Clipse,Cam’ron & Pharrell (Prod. by Pharrell Williams)

Download: http://www.usershare.net/m1o9ih2qwou4

Make sure that you go and cop Lupe’s Album “Lasers” as soon as it drops.

Have a nice sunday and enjoy this little mix!

David Fincher is the kind of director that will always be tied to one movie. he has yet to put out a bad film, but people will always associate him with ‘Fight Club’. and i feel bad for him. ‘Fight Club’ is a great movie, but it’s ‘alternative message’ is only skin deep. the points it makes it beats you over the head with, and the jokes it makes it hits you harder with. because that has become his crowning achievement in the eyes of most film fans, his other, and notably better, work is all forgotten. he directed the stunning and fiendishly underrated ‘Alien 3′ (the assembly cut, or extended cut is far and away one of the best sci-fi films i have ever seen, and yes i know what a huge claim that is), the touching and moving ‘Curious Case of Benjamin Button’, the masterful crime-thriller ‘Zodiac’, the violent and blood-curdling ‘Se7en’, and this film, 1997’s criminally overlooked ‘The Game’.

this film is not to be watched the way ‘Fight Club’ is meant to be watched. you cant sit around with a group of people, eat pizza, laugh, and watch the film, you need to be sitting in silence. you need to be feeling a little introspective, and you need to dig deeper into the film.

if you have not seen the film (which you can find almost anywhere) i would advise reading THIS summary before the review. note that the summary is of the WHOLE film, and thus, contains spoilers and the ending.

the film plays around with ideas of loss and lack of control. Nickolas cant control the things happening to him and around him, and piece by piece he has to fight to get through it all. but if you watch the film a second time, you will notice little things throughout. you can see how he is being helped, how he is being set up to make sure he survives, how he is kept safe while being thrown into dangerous situations. there is an ever-present harness on him.

the best example of loss of control throughout the film is the climactic suicide attempt. when Nickolas jumps off the building after shooting and ‘killing’ Conrad, he is jumping just like his father did. just like he has feared he would. just like the picture stuffed int he clown’s mouth said he would. just like he himself hinted at while talking to his housekeeper/cook/maid. he had no control there. he had to jump. it wasnt even a choice. he was under the impression that he had no money, no family, and nothing to live for. so he had to jump. like father like son. and because the test was built around exhaustive testing and his brother’s own testimony, it was obvious what would happen. he didnt even chose to kill himself, it was forced on him. and he didnt even chose where to jump from. that was chosen for him as well. the film is full of visual representations of his lack of choice. he is so empty, so predictable, that he doesnt make choices anymore. he just follows the fame trajectory. and because he can not chose anything for himself, the actions are obvious to the people who create and run the game for him.

the final twenty minutes of the film is where most people attack. but it is in those twenty minutes that i think Fincher really gets to put his trademark hauntingly ambiguous tricks to work. the film twists ti give you an ending you didnt expect, and then it twists again, and finally there is what most people saw as the final twist, Conrad being alive, and the whole thing simply being a part of the game.  but the very last moments of the film, where Nicolas goes out to talk to ‘the waitress’ and he not-so-subtly hits on her, that i think is the final twist. her smile, the darting eyes, her mistaken place of birth, and then finally her offer for a drink, THAT is where Fincher plays with his audience’s head. is that offer part of the game? is that coffee that they will drink another piece of the puzzle? everyone must have known that he would ask her out once everything was safe… so IS everything safe?

Sean Penn offers up a wonderful job as Conrad, but again, Michael Douglas turns in an amazing and powerful job. Michael Douglas is quickly becoming one of my favorite living actors.

i recommend this film wholeheartedly. but, like others i have recommended, not to everyone. i know most people wont be able to get past the ‘faith factor’ of the film. many people will have a problem and say things like ‘what if he jumped off the other side of the building’, or ‘what if he had picked up another gun at a different time’, or ‘what if he hadnt seen that commercial at the restaurant’, but those people are missing the point of the film. explaining to them that he COULDNT have jumped form anywhere else, or he COULDNT have used another gun would be futile. they dont understand his lack of choice in all fields of life. so i wont bother catering to them. i will just say that for those of you who could accept that, this film is a marginalized classic, and you need to see it.

“jay-z will fuck 50 up in a battle! it would be so fast and over with. 50 is funny, but jay is witty. jay-z is not to be toyed with. if he fuckin’ responds, if he feels like you’re really pissing him off and he responds, he’s gonna’ fuck you up! he would fuck me up. i’m just glad he didn’t fuckin’ respond, so i didn’t have to go dig in my fuckin’ bag and try to fuck him up.”

O Converse Chuck Taylor, mais conhecido aqui no Brasil como All Star, faz sucesso há décadas. Não é difícil encontrar gente, por aí, usando. Adultos, crianças e coroas, todos usam.

O tênis se popularizou entre os pretos por causa da prática do basquete, nos EUA. Aqui no Brasil, ficou popular na época dos Bailes Black, nas décadas de 1970 e 1980.

Os Chuck Taylor também são os tênis preferidos dos gangstas da Costa Oeste dos EUA. Não é difícil vê-los nos pés de rappers como Snoop Dogg, The Game, Ice Cube e outros.

“In LA we wearin’ Chucks, not Ballies” -  Tupac, na música California Love.

The Game, que tem aquele símbolo da Chuck Taylor tatuado no pescoço (!), na capa do The Documentary:

Agora uma coisa meio nada a ver, mas que tenho reparado. Os Chuck dos gringos são mais “encorpados”, tem uma silhueta mais bonita e um acabamento melhor.

Peguei duas fotos pra mostrar como os Chucks gringos parecem mais bonitos que os vendidos aqui. Na primeira, Lil Wayne de calça baggy, usando um Chuck cano baixo. Na segunda, Kid Cudi de calça skinny, usando um Chuck cano alto.

(Parece que escolhí de propósito, mas foi coincidência o fato deles estarem com roupas super parecidas. Bem básicas e estaile, por sinal.)

Wasnt he supposed to retire about a year ago?

Spotted at nahright.com

DubCNN joins Game and Pharrell in the studio as they work on a track.

First let me just say Happy Thanksgiving to you all reading this blog. In the past year and a half things have grown a lot and I’m just thankful for all of you interested and supporting the cause.

Anyways, it’s about that time again… you know, for another Weekly Thursday Freebie. Continuing where we left off from last week, we got the 3rd and final free mixtape from Chops. This one has a pretty comprensive list of artists from all over the country. It’s a pretty packed release so this should help add to your music collection quite a bit.

Here’s the tracklist:

Bun B ft Lil Wayne, CHOPS – Damn Im Cold
Young Jeezy – National Anthem
Chamillionaire – We Breakin Up
Bun B – Keep It 100
Cowboy ft Young Buck, All Star – Flossin
Keak Da Sneak ft San Quinn, Bra Heff, CHOPS – I Get It In
San Quinn – Double Dose of Gangster
CHOPS & Kanye West – Live Ya Life
Chamillionaire – MM5 Intro
Kapone ft Lil Weavah, San Quinn – Here Comes Trouble
All City – Get Out My Way
Fabolous, Magno, Paul Cain – Smokin n Sippin
San Quinn ft Mistah Fab, CHOPS, Too Short – Devoted
The Game ft Ice Cube, WC, E-40, Crooked I, Paul Wall, Chingy, Lil Rob, Techniec – Lowrider
Lil Weavah ft CHOPS – My Rims
Keak Da Sneak & San Quinn ft CHOPS – The Streets Dont Lie
Sway – Stereo
Johnny Spanish – Shining
CHOPS – In Love With Your Momma
DJ Clue, Mike Jones, Paul Wall, Bun B – Grill and Woman
Keak Da Sneak & San Quinn ft CHOPS – Welcome To Scokland

Link after the jump!

Get it HERE!

How 50 Cent Self Destructed

Hip Hop albums are just not selling like they used to, as is evident by the somewhat disappointing first-week sales of 50 Cent’s latest offering Before I Self Destruct.

Curtis ‘Interscope’ Jackson’s fourth studio album, which was projected to sell only 160,000, hardly exceeded expectations moving just 161,200 units according to Nielsen Soundscan. The figure is somewhat disappointing for 50, especially considering that he predicted first week sales of a million during a 2008 MTV interview. There are a number of excuses materialising within the Hip Hop community, although perhaps it is time to take a rather more indepth, honest and substantiated look into why BISD and other promising projects have failed to reach sales targets.

Please read the full editorial HERE.

After The Game coined the term Death of Hova (D.O.H – a spoof of Jay’s D.O.A track)), the likes of 50 Cent, Beanie and more recently, Chris Brown & Q-Tip have joined in on the hating! In case you missed, Q-Tip’s diss…

… which was written as Jay threw in his favourite “Women lie, men lie, numbers don’t” line in his acceptance speech at the AMAs Sunday night. Q-Tip obviously wasn’t feelin the arrogance.

But that’s not the worst of it; Jay’s worst enemy of the moment, Beanie Sigel, just released this diss track entitled How I could kill Jigga man”. I’m assuming Sigel’s metaphorically speaking!?! Have a listen…

The Ohio State v. Michigan game was this past weekend.  Although I am from Ohio, I had no idea that the name of this rivalry was called “The Game.”   This caught me off guard because my undergraduate’s rivalry game is also coined as “The Game.”   After learning this, I did my research on Wikipedia and discovered that the OSU v. Michigan and Yale v. Harvard are the only two football games that use the moniker “The Game.”

Since I have been able to take part in the weekend celebrations for both games, I decided it’d be interesting to examine the similarities and differences between the two different rivalries. 

Harvard v Yale “The Game”

• Early morning wake-up for tailgating.  Themed tailgates.
• Not important to wear school colors.  Classic tailgate look: polo shirts, faded jeans, Ray-Ban Wayfarers and a blazer.
• Everyone attends the game whether it is home or away.
• Student ID is free admission.  Game rarely sells out.  Yale Bowl seats 70,870.
• Recently lopsided series.  Yale has won only once since the year 2000… but they hold the all time series record 65-53-8.
• Little animosity between schools.  Joint Harvard- Yale tailgates.   Students offer to “host” the away team’s fans if people are looking for weekend housing. 
• Both sides follow the scores to the other rivalry games while tailgating. 
• Alumni from all over the country return for The Game since it is the main Fall reunion. 
• Win or lose it is always a good time.

OSU v Michigan “The Game” (note: I have never experienced a home OSU v. Michigan game)

• Early morning tailgate.  Real tailgates: burgers, beer, cornhole, football.
• Traditions: Mirror Lake jump – Absolutely insane event on Friday night.  Students jump into Mirror Lake despite freezing temperatures and ridiculously high ammonia levels.
• Wear school colors: preferably jerseys – specifically a James Laurinatis jersey.
• Not as many people travel to the away games.  No student housing provided by the home team.
• Student IDs are not free admission to the game.  Games are always sold out.  Tickets actually have a resale value.
• Recently lopsided series.  Michigan has won only once since the year 2000… but they hold the all time series record 57-43-6.
• No joint tailgates.  The two schools hate each other – don’t wear Scarlet and Gray in Ann Arbor.
• People actually watch the game.  The tailgate is simply a buildup to the game.
• You better win to have a good day… or even a good year.

 This year’s result:  Yale loses, OSU wins…  I’ll take it.

Teetering and tottering, I arrived at Gate 11.  Through the dimly lit tunnel to the stadium, I saw blue-sweatered men and women jumping up and down, waving banners and pompoms, and yelling unrecognizable phrases, perhaps just a string of swears.  I pushed my way through the crowd formed at the entrance.  I could feel my head pounding, throbbing from the roars of intoxicated fans and dissatisfied coaches… or perhaps the half bottle of alcohol I consumed prior to arriving at the stadium.  Either way, my head was pounding… and so were the walls, floors, and any other concrete around me.  After avoiding drunkards staggering in the tunnel, I stood with full view of the stadium.  Was it that my eyes were blurry or could I really be seeing what I was seeing?  The stadium was packed… and a sea of blue engulfing the sporadic sprinkle of crimson red.  This was the annual Yale-Harvard football game, otherwise known as “The Game”. 

This year, The Game was held at Yale, hence blue dominating red.  And, as expected, everyone (and I mean, EVERYONE) was totally DRUNK!  Alumni ranging 35-60+ years old joked with their buddies over cups of beer.  The ones just a few years removed from college reenacted their college days by stumbling about the tailgates plastered.  And, the ones still in college… well, let’s just say, they were a jumble mess of drunken debauchery.

The whole event is fun, but if you ever go to Yale for The Game, you must do 3 things:

1. Tailgate
2. Have a burrito at the Burrito Cart
3. Go to Toad’s

What are tailgates, you ask?  One of the most exciting parts of going to an Ivy League football game.  (I mean, let’s be honest, they’re Ive-Leaguers…)  Before every game, but especially for The Game, residential colleges, frat and sorority houses, clubs and organizations from both schools gather with their U-Hauls outside of the stadium.  When held at Yale, each truck harbors half-a-dozen kegs, alcohol-infused fruits, hot cocoa mixed with Everclear, burgers, hot-dogs and other picnic goodies.  Starting at 7am, the trucks arrive with their treasures hidden from the eyes of the inspectors (of course, everyone, including the po-pos, understands that no one can keep out alky from the Yale tailgate, and thus turn a blind eye).  Once settled in their spots, the college students, frat bros and sorority sisters, club and organization reps all hang their banners high and mighty because part of this was a competition to see which U-Haul could attract the most drunken people.  Around 8am, the rest of campus plus all the alumni from the young twenty-somethings to the old sixty-somethings arrive to get the party started.  Remember, kickoff usually doesn’t start until noon.  So, for a good 4 hours, people are partying up a snowstorm outside the stadium.  By noon, everyone is drunk and ready to create a caucus at the game. 

Of course, after a whole day of drinking, everyone ends up starving.  The burgers and hot-dogs can barely contain a drunkard’s hunger.  Thus, everyone moves back to Yale campus for dinner.  You have your cheap but tasty Thai food, super cheap Chinese food, cook-as-you-order burgers, diner-type places, etc.  But no place, I mean, NO PLACE, beats the deliciously satisfying burrito from the Burrito Cart.  It is literally a cart standing outside Elm and York.  For $6, you get a large, expertly wrapped burrito full of marinated veggies, guac, sour cream, hot sauce and meat.  The taste is very distinct.  (After living in NYC for the past 3 years and getting burritos every chance I get, I still have yet to find a burrito as delectable as the burrito from the Burrito Cart!)  When I tasted the soft tortilla wrapped around the fresh and lightly marinated veggies mixed with the hot and tender carnitas, I was in food heaven!  Unfortunately, no verbal description of the burrito will do it justice.  That burrito has to be tasted and enjoyed.  Yes, it is THAT good!

Normally, after filling the stomach with food, most young alumni and college kids roll back to their dorms / hotels / crash pads, etc. for a mid-evening nap before embarking on a crazy night of fun (and skeeziness).  The skeeziness occurs at Toad’s, the only bar/night club in New Haven that regularly houses partying students. The club opens Wednesdays and Saturdays, and trust me, it is ALWAYS full.  The seniors usually go on Wednesdays, since no one goes to class anymore, and the underclassmen sneak in on Saturdays.  For this particular Saturday, the place is packed with people of all ages: college students who are barely (if at all) legal, alumni in their mid-twenties to early thirties, grad school students from both schools, and even townies.  They all gather in the dark and dirty room, looking and oftentimes succeeding in finding a hook-up for the night.  Each time you exit the premises, you immediately want to shower away all the griminess from the sleazy people in the club as well as the cups of alcohol accidentally thrown on you by drunk people.  You might think that you’ll never go back… but you always end up there.  That’s the beauty of Toad’s.

If you missed your chance this year, no worries, Yale will host it again in November 2011… so MARK YOUR CALENDARS!

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