Idolator

The Game's upcoming album Lax—sorry, L.A.X.—has been pushed back two weeks from its original street date of July 8. His latest single, "Game's Pain," is actually his first top ten track on the Rap Singles chart since 2005's legendarily awful "Dreams" (not to be confused with Big Dreams"), but it has barely dented the Hot 100. Maybe a Keyshia Cole hook isn't enough to get listeners interested in the Game yet again filling a song entirely with references to other, more successful rappers. In this track we get direct references to Biggie, Will Smith, Nas, Luke, LL Cool J, Public Enemy, NWA, Ice Cube, New Edition, Naughty By Nature, Tony! Toni! Tone!, Wu-Tang Clan, Black Rob, DJ Kool Herc, DJ Red Alert, Jay-Z, and Big Daddy Kane. Cole even ends the song by shouting out to her blatant idol, Mary J. Blige. But how would the verse to "Game's Pain" read if you took out all the offending couplets? More »