The Great Debate: Will “The R.E.D. Album” Put Game Back on Top?

If you love hip-hop than you love debating hip-hop. Who was the greatest emcee of all time? Who won, Jay-Z or Nas? Did Nicki Minaj get booty implants? These hotly contested questions are endless - which is why I've teamed up with Andreas Hale over at TheWellVersed for a new series we're calling The Great Debate. Every week, or two, or whenever we decide, we'll pick a question and then come down on opposite sides. Got it? Good, then let's get started with today's question, "Will the 'R.E.D. Album' Put Game Back on Top?"

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Just two weeks ago it looked like this wouldn’t possibly be a debate. I’d be working with Andreas to write Game’s obituary, calling Dr. Dre for a quote about how Game’s career began so brightly, then faded so fast.
And for good reason. Things weren’t exactly going well for Jayceon Tayor. He dropped the good-not-great "LAX" and then retired, unretired, started his "Dairy of Compton" album, cancelled the album, declared he was changing labels, didn’t change labels, went silent for months then delivered "500 Bar freestyles", started high profiles beefs, insisted they weren’t “really” beefs, dropped some unforgivably terrible music (I’m looking at you "Pussy Fight") and had the release date of his "R.E.D. Album" delayed more times than a hooker’s period.

If Vegas took odds on questions like “Will Game make it back to the top of the rap game?”, and it should, all the smart money would be on No. And then, on August 23 (or earlier if you, um, didn’t officially “buy” the album, hypothetically) everything changed. Then, I heard "R.E.D."

Not only was the "R.E.D. Album "not bad, it was good. Damn good. Like “in the running for Album of the Year” good. It’s everything that Game’s career hasn’t been over the last two years – consistent, well planned, passionate, honest, dope. Whether you’re a fan of the man’s style or not, there’s no question that R.E.D. is a cohesive album, an album that I’m not sure even Game thought he was still capable of.
With "R.E.D." Game has almost instantly regained a measure of respectability and launched himself back into the “best rapper alive” conversation. (He’s on the edge of that conversation, but still.) If he can keep making music this good consistently, at least one album every two years, then suddenly he’s everything we first thought he could be way back when "The Documentary": the new king of the west coast (replacing the essentially absent rulers of the older generation like Snoop and Ice Cube).

I know what Andreas’ response is going to be and it’s a fair point: Game is balls crazy. (He may not use that exact term, but you get the point.) I mean, the man did beat Gucci Mane to famous rapper with a face tattoo status by several years. I’m fully ready to acknowledge that saying, “if Game could consistently make quality music like 'R.E.D.'” is like saying “if Greg Oden could stay healthy” or “if Kim Kardashian could stop fucking black athletes.”

I acknowledge all that, I do, but the "R.E.D. Album" is so good, and more importantly the man behind it is so good, it’s shifted the equation. If the Vegas odds of Game getting back on top were 10:1 before, they’re about 50/50 now, and frankly those are odds I’m willing to take. Thankfully, I don't even have to come up with come clever ending to this debate. I can just let the music speak for itself.

Check out the opposing point from TheWellVersed and then vote below:

Read the rebuttal from TheWellVersed