First Listen: Staff Reactions To The Game’s “El Chapo”

Those who believed The Game was more focused on his many reality television show ventures have been pleasantly surprised this year. This means dropping incredible lead singles from The Documentary 2 in the Drake assisted “100” along with “Dedicated” featuring Future and Sha Sha. Nearly a week before he’s slated to drop the sequel to his 2005 Interscope/G-Unit debut The Documentary, he drops the Skrillex featured track “El Chapo.” With hype around the track at an all time high, Features Editor Andre Grant and Senior Features Writer Ural Garrett give our reactions to The Game’s most explosive single.

Is This The Single We’ve All Been Waiting For From The Game?

Andre: The Game hasn’t had a hot song, for me, since “Ali Bomaye” off his 2012 effort Jesus Piece. Rightfully so. Most of the time, the former G-Unit associate has been a mess of sub-par bars completely wasting booming, stadium suited production from some of Hip Hop’s best. The guy just has a tendency to mail it in sometimes, and so listening to an album you’ll often get a series of Games becoming clear and disappearing like apparitions in a woozy L.A sun. Who is the Game? Perhaps even the Game himself does not know. And so sometimes he sounds content to simply sound like others. At times, he will even sound like different people within the same verse. Then there was his penchant early on to name drop incessantly like a junior high kid who just made varsity. It’s as maddening as it sounds. Then there is the other side of Game. The guy with four legitimately great albums. Three if you are one of those who don’t count The Documentary as greatness. There is The Game of “300 Bars & Runnin’.” The Game that gave us one of the best posse cuts of all time in the “One Blood (Remix).” And, of course, there’s the Game that gave us The Doctor’s Advocate. His best work does none of the frustrating things that he’s known for, even avoiding his tendency to have a million features on each album.

“El Chapo” comes with a Skrillex co-sign, booming bass lines and triumphant horns, and, if that wasn’t enough, features the current fascination with the drug lord El Chapo. No, literally. Google him and the little box to the right lists him as a drug lord. Best LinkedIn job title maybe ever. Drug lords are back in the zeitgeist with Narco burning a hole in everyone’s irises, and the general spectacle of the synthetic devil-churns coming out Florida these days. Game takes advantage of this to create a rap song whose cup overfloweth with swagger. It’s one of those mixed bags that is both much too much and just enough. The difference between the two feelings is the buy in. Which Game do you consider him? The mimicking, often lazy rhymer who got caught repeating the same freestyles for years, or the man of many talents who has the ability to both rap his ass off and ferociously entertain? For my money, on “El Chapo,” he’s the latter. Let’s hope the rest of the album is like this so we can just forget Blood Moon: Year Of The Wolf ever happened.

Ural: Mixtape wise, I haven’t enjoyed anything from The Game since 2013’s OKE: Operation Kill Everything. It did a really great job at displaying some interesting directions he was willing to go as West Coast Hip Hop’s most notorious anti-hero. When it comes to albums, The Red Album is probably his last great cohesive project as Jesus Piece and the Blood Moon: Year Of The Wolf compilation were sorely lacking. From the looks of things, it’s as his time on reality television shows ranging from Marrying The Game to She Got Game were taking precedence over his musical output. Announcing he would make his next album The Documentary 2 meant some heavy expectations. Then “100” with Drake drops and later “Dedicated” featuring Future and Sha Sha only adds to that level of anticipation. Of course, his breakneck verse on Compton track “Just Another Day” only added significantly to his great run so far in 2015. And, here we are today with “El Chapo.”

America’s favorite on the run Mexican drug lord has inspired a few rhymes here and there but, leave it to The Game for finding direct inspiration. “El Chapo” features everything that makes a track from Mr. Jayceon Taylor so magnifying. Slick wordplay “throwing up blood like an IV,” almost autonomous name dropping “I can get Guadalupe to knock Donald Trump out his toupee,” and Grade A shit talking are presented in spades. Then there are some crafty delivery touches including rapping  triplet bars in Spanish. Between The Game and Kendrick Lamar, West Coast Hip Hop may own the rapping in and out of Spanish trick. Guess that’s inevitable for clear South Of The Border reasons. Regardless, The Game utilizes the track’s nearly four minute timespan to spaz the fuck out on a collaboration with current EDM mainstay Skrillex in his best Hip Hop related union since A$AP Rocky’s “Wild For The Night.” If The Documentary 2 features bangers on the level of this, he may have another classic on his hands. Also, we definitely know who The Game isn’t voting for in the 2016 United States Presidential election. Sorry Trump.

Andre Grant is an NYC native turned L.A. transplant that has contributed to a few different properties on the web and is now the Features Editor for HipHopDX. He’s also trying to live it to the limit and love it a lot. Follow him on Twitter @drejones.

Ural Garrett is a Los Angeles-based journalist and HipHopDX’s Senior Features Writer. When not covering music, video games, films and the community at large, he’s in the kitchen baking like Anita. Follow him on Twitter @Uralg.