Originally published in the May edition of The Fly
It’s a bold gambit to open with a stripped-back cover of ‘My Life’, where rapper The Game questions mortality, suicide and overdosing on cocaine. Doing so seems to imply that they’ve widened their perspective, stepping away from the syrupy sweet solipsism and recreational highs of ‘n° 2’. However, much like the album’s artwork – drips of blood on bright white snow – it’s a red herring of the fishiest order. ‘jj n° 3’ is flabby, repetitive and tackily-adorned, which, despite its opening track, abandons their crunk ingenuity to focus on shoehorning in as many cheap, glitzy samples and washed out lyrics about the beach as possible. Only ‘Golden Virginia’ breaks the mold, galloping at a tribal gait and forgoing the acrid sweetness that permeates the rest of the album.
2/5
