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?
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Idolator
While discussing his upcoming album with Carson Daly, The Game suggested that his label should release the album a week earlier so he wouldn't have to go head-to-head with Miley Cyrus' golden showers for the top spot on July 22. Ironically, his album was allegedly pushed back so that it wouldn't have to debut alongside Nas' Officially Untitled Album, which drops July 15. The Game's previous album, Doctor's Advocate, did sell slightly more in its first week than Nas' Hip-Hop Is Dead, but Nas' album-title drama has provided him with considerably more hype than the Game, who is still pushing his "More Songs About Rappers And Shoes" shtick. Will he succeed in getting Jimmy Iovine to push up the date and provide us with a weak-ass sequel to the 50/Kanye battle? [The Rap-Up]
The Game has issued a heartfelt "my bad" for the 
The one-man self-promotion company known as The Game got what he wanted this week—a No. 1 debut on the Billboard 200. The West Coast MC's second full-length, Doctor's Advocate, sold 358,000 copies last week, and it nabbed the No. 1 spot on the Top Hip-Hop Albums chart as well.
