As if his critically acclaimed Documentary 2 was not enough, The Game has given fans 18 more tracks on with Documentary 2.5. Being both his first double album and bearing the weight of his magnum opus gives this album a heavy workload to its pre-release hype. After quintessential delays and shifting release dates, we finally heard the album would be released along with even more music totaling 36 tracks. What finally came to light was a double album in the tradition of All Eyez on Me and Life After Death.
“I’m proud to announce to my fans the REASON it took so long to get this album to you … Because it’s a mothafucking double disc,” Game said in a statement. “In a world where labels punk artists to keep their albums down to 10-12 songs … I don’t give a fuck because 2 of my favorite artists 2Pac & Notorious B.I.G. put out dope double albums … I figured 10 years into an iconic career I’d give my fans the opportunity to have one from me.”
What resulted is an album with huge depth that, by all accounts, feels worthy of the deep tracklist and both volumes. Any concern over 2.5 being a companion or taking a back seat is dispelled without even pressing play. Features like Nas, Lil Wayne, Scarface and Busta Rhymes paired with production from The Alchemist, Travis Barker and DJ Mustard assure the listener that regardless of mathematical implications 2.5 equals two in this instance if you are talking production value.
Game is once again able to capitalize on what has perhaps been his strongest skill to date, beat selection. Tracks like “The Ghetto” and “From Adam” lay down high-quality easels for both Jayceon and his guests to paint upon. Where this project sets itself apart is the instrumental combinations and sonic elements it employs.Unlike the bass heavy West Coast calling cards upon which Game has built his stellar discography and list of strong release including Documentary 2, this offering is more jazz and gospel than 808s and boom bap. Soulful percussion meets a lot of soprano and alto singing and even a capella, snapping and pianos when it really goes out on a limb.
The result of this different sound direction is a newfound appreciation for Game’s production ear and more so his ability to spit over different vibes. Not only does the Compton native find a way to craft his lyricism over gospel, he also manages to include an awe-inspiring list of guests who match his tone and bravado whilst never overshadowing the main attraction.
What sets this offering apart more than anything else is how much Game is a stalwart of authenticity in an era where its importance is being debated. Over a decade into living out of poverty and being able to “cop the matching Jordans,” Game is still able to rap about the street life. This includes its glorious triumphs and heartbreaking pitfalls; almost like he is still deep in the midst of Compton and the struggle.
For the second time this quarter, Busta Rhymes jumps on the hottest track of a West Coast album where Game bears it all and talks about his family, his craft and boasts “We me it out the hood, cause my daddy hustle.” Yes, Mr. Taylor may have made it out of the hood with hard work and talent but, these 36 tracks have added to an often overlooked and at times incomparable discography filled to the brim with strong offerings. With so many artists trying and failing to capitalize on reprisals of their finest work and have the breadth of work necessary for a strong double album, this particular release and its quality deserves attention.
Album is too dope!!
this album shits on the original Documentary, more variety IMO. Game saved gangsta rap in 2015, people should respect him for that.
MMLP 2 WAS LYRICALLY FIRE DOGG EMINEM DELIVERED TOO AFTER..MUTHAFUCKIN…MATH … EVIL TWIN… LEGACY…. BRAINLESS
50 must be crying listening to this lol, Game really proving all his doubters wrong. Game a real one speaking on the Illuminati & The Rampart Division on Last Time You Seen, you don’t see alot of mainstream rappers speak on them.
it’s good enough for a purchase. Game a real one speaking on the Illuminati & The Rampart Division on Last Time You Seen, you don’t see alot of mainstream rappers speak on them.
it’s good enough for a purchase. now this is how you make a sequel to a album, 2 disks full of music. not that commercial money grab that Eminem did with MMLP2.
Yeah you are gayy
Uh oh, you done pissed off the Stans lol
Documentary 2.5 is a classic in the making
Game makes quality music. People always bring up sales, but this dude music is always fire, especially the doc 2 and 2.5. I have to say this dude is a true lyricist and rapper.
Fuck sales, fuck money, fuck 50….ha..ha…ha hip hop is about music. Good shit Game!
Fuck y’all if you doubt me
Jesus christ, two solid albums back to back. What rapper has done that since DMX?
GAME WITH ANOTHER FUCKIN CLASSIC BLOOD DISC FIRE CRIP DISC FIRE!!!!! FUCK YOU HATERS ITS FUCKIN GAME TIME!!!!!
This biter never sound Original. Listen to the track with Lil wayne, Game steals Black Rob’s flow and in the song with Nas he sounds like Nas. The Quick song sounds like some old Dogg Pound record. Again this dude is dropping names like a motha…. Album sounds not bad compared to somewackass rappers like lil wack and young wack but GODDAMNED stop biting game!
You should just stick to listening to boom bap or some shit. We’re talking about a Game album and you’re talking about lil Wayne and young thug. I get so tired of seeing people talking about them on every message board. Jesus Christ. Just keep bumping old Tupac records if you hate new music so much. No one gives a shit what you think about new artists. It’s clear that you don’t have good taste in music. I just had to keep it 8 more than 92 with my comment…
Well can I keep it 517 more than negative 417?
Game dick rides whoever he raps with. He’s like the hip hop chameleon. Fucking iguana mafucca
Sounding like BIG on half the songs and reusing a lot of classic beats…..and why put 2 albums out when he could have removed the fillers and made one album with all “bangerz”????
Yall don’t even see what’s going on double albums release separately are counted as double the sales for one album….he trying to skew the sales
Game is the best in the west homie
Disc 1 is good. Disc 2 is fire.
This is a serious contender for the best double album in hip-hop history.
That’s a stretch yo
Dope
Wow this is good sh*T
Too many features, I remember when those used to be exciting on an album in the early 2000s and before, now they’re just getting out of hand and too familiar. People who say this is competing for best double album ever are too into the hype right now WU-Tang have the best hands down. Lastly don’t know how this got a 4/5 and All Love Lost got a 3.5
NIGGA SHUT CHO BITCH ASS UP…ALL GAMES ALBUMS SHIT ON ANYTHING WU TANG EVER MADE!!!!! GAME HAS to MANY FEATURES….????? WU TANG CLAN… TO Many FEATURES….. WU TANG CLAN???? NIGGA THEY WHOLE FUCKIN GROUP IS A FEATURE and GAME WILL SLAY THEY ASS…. YOU TRYNA KICK KNOWLEDGE LOVIN ASS NIGGA THE DOCUMENTARY 2 IS CLASSIC BITCH
Fam, Game is a good artist but the fact that you’d diss the Wu says to me that you don’t know anything about hip-hop. You’re probably one of these 18 year old, skinny jean wearing, weird hair cut having young guys that wouldn’t know real hip hop if it slapped you in the face. If you knew anything about hip hop you’d know the Wu was arguably one of the most important influential groups of its time. Next time you say something be a adult, and actually present facts instead of getting emotionally charged.
??? this guy
listen to the album josh, tell your sister becky i said what up.
Perfect album
BY THE WAY BITCH ASS EDITORS HOW THE FUCK YALL GONNA GIVE THAT WEAK ASS MACK MILLER ALBUM a 4 rating if thats a 4 that weak ass shit I know GAME SHIT is a DOUBLE CLASSIC!!!!!! THE DOCUMENTARY 2 SHITS ON EVERY ALBUM THAT YALL GAVE A 4 ON THAT LIST SO YALL NEED TO RETHINK YALL RATING CRITERIA!!!!!!
LOL calm the fuck down. Miller’s album was good.
Game got a lot of haters. Real Hip Hop know what it is. Like Dre said, it’s GAME TIME
Very good album
hik
Shit Fire on Damu
the game to me is way too underrated top 5 all time in skill
All time?? Good lord….
He should definitely be in the Top 5 after the Doc 2 double album.
Ya top 5 is a huge stretch, even more a stretch when you say skill…..Andre 3k, Eminem,Rakim,Pun,Big L,Ghost,Cube,Biggie,Nas,etc
if you don’t give this at least a 4 you’re a hater straight up… or you don’t know hiphop at all
this is a great album period
2.47? lol. a lot of jealous 50 stans here.
How do you know that they are 50 Stans? Maybe they just don’t like the album as much as other people do. Think.
Or maybe, like the majority of voters on here, they haven’t listened to the album and hate Game on principal (like he said, a lot of 50 stans). Think
(AMAZING ALBUM)
Both cd 1 from track 1 to the end of cd 2 is amazing… I think it has perfect transitions track to track. With more and more stories told by Game, I feel like I know him even better then from past albums.
I’ve always been a fan of Game, even back when he was back with JT… and I feel he continues to grow bigger and bigger in his talent to “make an ablum”.
with each album and even with this being a double album I believe he wanted more tracks, but “one” album would deffinitly not cover the mentality he was in when making The Documentary 2
With that being said I love the album, keep up the great work Game.
One of the best albums of the year, solid record
The review was so rushed. Lol They didn’t even talk or evaluate any songs or quote any lyrics. The review was wrote just to be one of the first sites to give a review. Sounds like the reviewer skimmed through it quick.
fire.
2.5 isn’t as good as 2.. Most songs stayed on one topic, gang violence blah blah blah. It got pretty redundant. 2 was great though. Oh except the song with Jay Rock & Q. Shit was tough
Just listen anstfu
Another disc that u can listen to from top to bottom. Damn! Who else could do that these days? Not many, if any. Another W for real hiphop! Congrats to game. Muthafuck the haters!
I LIKE ABOUT 6 SONGS ON THIS AND ANOTHER 6 SONGS FROM THE FIRST DISC.
OVERALL THIS COULD’VE BEEN 12 TRACKS.
Yea for you. I loves the whole thing, so glad it was a double disc
Agreed
Haters gone hate anyways
2005-2015 Game Vs 50 cent. 50 is bankrupt and game is selling the sequel to his classic first album.
50 cent gone gun it dead
worth the wait!!
aint no classic though, but definitely straight west coast all the way from the bottom to the top. Im feeling strong 4 on this one
+++++ luv it
2.15? why you hate game lol
both albums are pretty decent
better then the first one
shit is crazy
“The Ghetto” reminds me of “lil ghetto boy”. Best track on the album yeaaaaaaa.
Gooood DAAAAMN both cd’s DOPE AS HELL!!!
disc 2 is perfect from the intro to the outro ! lyricaly high level !
31/36 dope tracks. That’s crazy.
Not even close, more like 12 or 13 tracks
I didnt like this HHDX review, this record is dedicated to the westcoast fans, he brought legendary producers such as DJ Quik, Battlecat and Fredwreck and westcoast favorites THX, DJ Mustard, DJ Khalil and The Futuristics and mixed it up with features from new up and comer westcoasters like Ty Dolla Sign, ScHoolboy Q, YG, Joe Moses, RG, Skeme, AD, Jay 305.
The result is amazing, you got this California feeling from the sonority and the main theme which is gang culture so to me it’s definitely one of the best record that came out this year among the Kendricks, Dres, Jay Rocks, Doms, Tylers, Earls and Vinces.
OMG niggas dont know shit about hiphop saying this is a classic. get off Game dick. Only thing Game does is sound like other rappers, steals flows, steals concepts and follows exactly what Biggie, NWA etc. for him did. I mean dude can rhyme but is nothing special. One Biggie or Nas track is better then Game’s whole catalogue. And why is Game now sucking so much TDE dick? Also this nigga is a contradicting rapper. So sad nowadays these skinny jeans kids. One moment saying Dre had the best album other moment saying Lamar has the best album of the year and now bitter Game has the best album of the year?????
Bruh u the one that knows nothing about hip hop. I can tell. U have no clue what Ur talking about
@ E Mob
I aint your bro dumbass. Read before comment. You dumb motherfucker go listen to some 80 and 90 ‘s records and you know that Game is a copy cat. probably you are some 14 year old kid with no knowledge about rap.
Death to you white boy
Man whoever say it ain’t a strong double album tripping and really recognize this a solid album stop sleeping on the real who gives a fuck bout studio gangsta or not all I want is a album that I can listen 2 without skipping thru I give this album 4.5 out of 5 stripes
I am very disappointed in hiphop dx for publishing such an amateurishly written review. DX was known for its authentic and incisive reviews but recently there has been many badly written reviews.
Funnily enough, hotnewhiphop has stepped up its reviews section and their reviews have improved exponentially. I would recommend people who are disappointed with the reviews here to check their reviews out.
I have been visiting this site regularly since ’09 and I have noticed a decline in quality recently. I hope the editors put more efforts in and improve the site again.
This site has fallen off hard. I’m not even sure why I continue to bother with this site.
Just checked hotnewhiphop and the site is much better, the review of documentary 2.5 Was top notch. I think my hiphopdx days are over. Thanks for mentioning the site ?
Thanks for pointing me to a new, better hip hop site. Their review of these two albums was worth reading.
Will.i.am laced some dope beats on Doc 2 and 2.5. A lot of people forget that he can make some pretty good hip-hop beats, but mainly know him these days for his more pop Fergie-B.E.P. beats.
People love to hate this album is well produced, the verses are hard, got that West Coast sound from the 90s that we love. Game made good work this time, straight up
Damn… this second disc is incredible. Wow. The first disc was pretty decent, but this album one of the best I’ve heard in awhile.
Not disappointed
great album overall
disc 2 is my favorite from the album
i dont like games new rap style
I think I like the first half better tho it does have less than the 90’s r&b sound to it. Nice sequel from the first but without Hi-tek and Timboland this sequel is incomplete to truly to be called a sequel.
Best album combined in many years
disc 2 is way more harder than the first
Classic Game!
Both albums is dope I don’t care what nobody tell me. Yeah he name drops a lot, but we all know thats GAME STYLE. The album is REAL HIP HOP….. I see a lot people hating on this album, but fuck it you can’t satisfy everybody.
Album of the Year!
p5!
I swear through the years, Game most hated on rapper for no reason, but this album was so hard it made half them haters shut up, and the other half are too dumb to realize they look retarded running their mouth.
This is an amazing album. Best Lil Wayne hook I’ve heard in a long time and Nas blessed us with two verses. Plus, Game held it down the whole time.
great album better than 2
This is the closest Game has ever come to a classic, considering his 1st and sophomore releases, this is arguably his best release. I CAN’T BELIEVE that HHDX gave 2.5 and 2 the same review score??? This is a classic album, and best of 2015 so far. It’s going to be hard to beat all things considered. Give 2.5 another review HHDX…
DEAR HHDX and COMMENTERS
THE RECENT SPATE OF LOW USER RATINGS IS DUE TO THE FACT THAT WHEN YOU MAKE A COMMENT YOU ALSO MAKE THE RATING. SINCE THE RE-DESIGN OF THE SIGHT THE ALGORITHM FOR VOTING SEEMS TO INCLUDE ALL THE COMMENTS THAT WERE MADE WITHOUT RATING THE WORK. THIS MEANS THAT 1 STAR ISNT THE LOWEST RATING.
THIS MEANS THAT EITHER EVERYONE HAS TO RATE WHEN THEY COMMENT OR, THAT HHDX SHOULD SPEAK TO THEIR DEVELOPER AND HAVE HIM/HER EXCLUDE THE COMMENTS WITHOUT RATINGS IN THE CALCULATION OF THE USER RATING. THE CORRECT ANSWER IS THE LATTER.
IM LAZY TO DO SO, SO IF YOU SEE THIS, REPOST IT EVERYWHERE UNTIL HHDX GETS IT DONE. THANKS.
dfh
great!
dope
!
disc 2 is better.. dissappointed with the drake and future decision to be on the album.. but all in all this a dope album.. gang bang anyways is my favorite joint.. it is not better then documentary 1 tho lets be real.. that part 2 of father like son isn’t good homie
Yeah that Future feature was bad, but the song itself was dope. Game killed both verses. Without Future, that track is gold.
Damnnn man….Documentary 2.5 has to be the best Rap album of the year! Almost every track is fire but “Moment of Violence”, “Outside” , “Crenshaw”, and “The Ghetto” are my favorites so far…although almost any track could become a favorite…
Crenshaw is the shit!!!
I used to enjoy the games music but since 09 his albums have been garbage. This just adds to the collection. He keeps adding the same features on every album and for some odd reason claims to have united L.A and is the king etc. Ifk where his ego ae from but collaborating with EVERY artist just shows you cant hold your own on your own lp. Your all stupid for saying this is a classic.
Not sure where u getting ur info from I agree that game’s music has been shaky for a while (except Jesus Piece) but his album don’t talk about uniting shit his album has references all over about the killing and conflict don’t know if u listened to the same album bro, and as far as the collabos go he always has lots, in my opinion too many but in this project they are spread out in a way that works better than his previous efforts, and the collaborators can’t tell his life experiences so not sure how he can’t hold his own on his LP.
Doc 2 is better but this is right there, Doc 2 and 2.5 are great albums man, definitely my album of the year, not sure what people are listening to.
Best album of 2012 to 2015 …die haters die and watch game buy 50 cent a Ferrari. ..standing on ferraris
I forgot to rate 10 stars cuckoo hiphopdx
I forgot to rate 10 stars
Unreal
dope
same old sh@#
DOPE.
Disc two is better, but the whole this is dope as fuck.
You guys should stop letting users rate albums. This is getting stupid. 14 year olds giving 0 ratings just ruin the whole concept and make it worthless. Metacritic is the same.
This album is DOPE. I got mine on itunes. By 1 for yourself and realize you waisted your time by not rushing to get it
Even Nas knows that this young nigga is killing this shit
Dope Game………*Classic*
fantastic screw the haters games best album in a long time
Dope!
Every track = I LOST A HOMMIE, I’LL SHOOT YA, I GOT GUNS, KILLING IS COOL, I GOT GANG FRIENDS, VIOLENCE THIS, VIOLENCE THAT.
kinda whack after 2plays
aight high bro since 2001 i like u im ur fan
Over here as well
Hello its me again
DO NOT SLEEP ON THIS SHIT!