If there’s one thing Jayceon Taylor succeeds at, it’s not caring about what anyone else thinks. However, it took his Purp & Patron
mixtape for him to finally drive that point home musically. This offering from Game is perhaps his riskiest-albeit-brilliant work to date. While Game occasionally tinkered with manipulations of samples (i.e. “One Blood” with Junior Reid), this time around his focus is more direct, the collaborations are well played and his lyrics are succinct.
Tracks like “The Kill”, where Cool & Dre flip La Roux’s haunting vocal sample, show how Game acclimates himself lyrically to the tone of his production. The RZA-produced “Heart Breaker” (now pulled due to publishing reasons) shows Game flipping syllables like a champ. If Brake Lights was Game’s pure Hip Hop delivery mixtape, then Purp & Patron is his experimental one. That’s not to say Game shies away from traditional Rap. He even pays homage to it on “History” with a legendary line up of Doug E. Fresh, Big Daddy Kane, and KRS-One with the poignant hook, “KRS One spits like / Doug Fresh beatbox like / And you know that Kane spit like / And that’s the reason Game spits like.” “Ferrari Lifestyle” with Fabolous and “Taylor Made” with Wiz Khalifa show Game’s dexterity in the midst of other skillful rappers.
While the double-disc Purp & Patron is the length of two LPs, it’s still not his long-awaited fourth album. If Game is giving music like this away for free, imagine what R.E.D. will sound like?
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DX Consensus: “Free Album” (the highest possible praise for a mixtape).
Listen to Game Purp & Patron Disc One (hosted by Funkmaster Flex) and Purp & Patron Disc Two (hosted by DJ Skee)
