Artist: GameTitle: West Coast ResurrectionRating: 3 StarsReviewed by: Paine
JT The Bigga Figga has been making albums for over ten years and is one of the Bay Area’s biggest and most accessible stars. But somehow, he made his biggest dent recently releasing Untold Story, an album of pre-Aftermath material from The Game. The album spent considerable time on the charts. “Compton Compton” became an unofficial single for Game in his road to success. Just when you thought there was enough capitalism in Hip-Hop, JT The Bigga Figga dropped another installment of holdover Game material with West Coast Resurrection (Get Low)
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Only two songs, “Promised Land” and “Troublesome,” are solo efforts. JT, AllHipHop Breeding Ground Alum – Blu Chip, and Get Low fill up the other spaces. This trait makes one wonder the integrity of these songs. Not to say that some of the posse cuts don’t work. “Gutta Boyz” with Sean T has great chemistry that not only feels authentic, but shines Sean’s lyrical merits. “Work Hard” reveals that Game’s name-dropping similes are nothing new since the song is chock full of them. Game keeps it moving, but like Mos Def in the UTD album, Game only occupies about a third of the actual time on the mic. One must be a hungry fan to justify this flaw.
Although the lyrical side dwindled, this effort buries Untold Story for its production. Rather than thumped out slow beats or cheap Dre mimicry, JT enlisted some cutting edge production. G Man Stan plays guitar right through “The Streetz of Compton,” giving Game a sound comparable to M.O.P.’s recent stuff. For the many who were impressed with “Dreams,” “Promised Land” not only puts Game alongside smooth soul sampling, but it gives him one of his lone chances to drop some content on the album. JT definitely saw the response to The Documentary‘s sound, and tried his best to match it.
West Coast Resurrection sounds new but it’s unavoidable flaw is the lack of Game actually on the album. However, this is an artistic improvement on the last unofficial album. But as Game grows, this album still is an item strictly for fanatics and DJ’s in search of mock-exclusives.