The Game names the best album he ever made: “I didn’t have no money”
The Game is probably known best for his first album, The Documentary, which catapulted him to fame in 2005, bagged him a couple of Grammy nominations, and, eventually, acquired double platinum certification. But, as Game himself sees it, The Documentary isn’t even his finest work.
While he was on the promo trail for The Documentary 2, his debut’s sequel released in 2015, Game gave an interview to HipHopDX, during which he reflected on his career in general. He spoke with particular enthusiasm about his second album, 2006’s The Doctor’s Advocate, which he declared to be his greatest ever work.
Not only referring to The Doctor’s Advocate as “my best album,” Game also characterised it as his “most West Coast” work, which, seeing as how it featured contributions from so many East Coast artists, such as Jim Jones, Nas and Busta Rhymes, is somewhat surprising. But it did, indeed, have a West Coast sound.
The Game recalled the pressure he felt while making The Doctor’s Advocate, in light of its predecessor’s massive success and the fact that one of its key contributors, Dr Dre, had decided not to work on it. On top of everything else, he had fallen out with G-Unit leader 50 Cent, who had put out The Documentary, so The Doctor’s Advocate was a statement from The Game. He wanted to prove that he could still make good music without Dre or 50 backing him up.
“When you complete an album with no help,” Game said, “not knowing if the label’s gonna put it out or nothing, it’s all odds against you.”
But, with the help of New York-based peers, he managed to pull things together. “I spent three months in New York working on The Doctor’s Advocate,” he said. “I got a lot of support from Nas and Busta Rhymes and [Fabolous]. I got a lot of love from New York MCs, so I felt inclined to complete the album.”
Even though the album was released on Geffen Records, Game insists that he worked on it independently. “The whole album I got done on favors,” he claimed. “I didn’t have no money.”
The eventual success of The Doctor’s Advocate clearly means a lot to The Game, who happily brought up the claim that it “ended up selling five million.” He had set out to prove himself as an artist that could do it without his famous former partners, and he managed to do so.
The Doctor’s Advocate went to number one in America, just as The Documentary had done before it. Whether or not it was as good as his debut is up for debate, but, for what it’s worth, he certainly seems to think that it was.