The 25 Best Game Songs

Image via Complex Original

Album: Jesus Piece
Producer: Cool & Dre

Nearly half of the work on “All That (Lady)” is done by its swelling D’Angelo sample, which turns the neo soul crooner’s vocals into a soulful bed of roses upon which the Game, Wayne, Sean, and Fabolous wax romantic about their lady friends. The group shares the rest of the burden with singer Jeremih, whose hook blends seamlessly with the “Lady” loop and tethers the rappers’ verses together. “All That” allows some of rap’s best punchers a chance to trade bars on a specific subject (women) in a confined space, and though they sometimes miss the mark (Big Sean: “My girl’s sweet (suite) like my hotel floor”), this is still a jabbing exhibition.

Album: Doctor's Advocate
Producer: Scott Storch

Scott Storch was never better at pretending to be Dr. Dre than in the mid-2000s, and after leaving Aftermath/G-Unit in ’06, no one needed a Dre proxy more than the Game. Thus, a couple of tracks from the Game’s sophomore album, Doctor’s Advocate (named as such because, well, you get it), were produced by Storch; the chief among them being its second single, “Let’s Ride,” which is G-funk pitched from the perspective of a guy who used to be in the Roots. Its slow-rolling groove simulates a ride in a ’64 Impala while the Game raps about being in one.

Album: Purp & Patron: The Hangover
Producer: Just Blaze

The Game has always had a rapport with Busta Rhymes (more on that later), but they’ve never been closer than on “Undefeated,” where Busta literally finishes the Game’s sentences. The Game recounts joining Aftermath, a label the two rappers shared at the time, with the slow-moving exposition that’s become a hallmark of his. Marsha Ambrosius shines, belting out the hook in her full, measured tone, but Just Blaze carries the bulk of the load with simple yet drilling production that even forces Bussa Bus to alter his cadence. It’s a hard-thumping Game extra.

Album: Jesus Piece
Producer: Kozmeniuk, the Maven Boys

The Game enlisted help from Common and Kanye West (who returns the hook duty favor owed for Late Registration’s “Crack Music”) for the title track of his fifth studio album, which tries to turn a string and piano medley into a semi-religious exploration of rap culture. The points converge at the Jesus piece, which represents both a spiritual symbol and a materialistic one. Common steps up onto the pulpit with his preacher voice to give us the “conscious” angle a record like this deserves with real references to the New Testament and all that.

Album: LAX
Producer: Hi-Tek

Hi-Tek takes a Jaggerz sample and expertly repackages its sorrow for “Letter to the King,” a somber cut that is a tribute to Martin Luther King Jr. The Game confronts his past lack of appreciation for the good doctor, and he poses some hypotheticals (“If Dr. King marched today would Bill Gates march/I know Obama would, but would Hillary take part?”). Crammed in between is a Nas verse penned as an actual letter with dense, knotty lyricism and poignant bars like, “I would say your dream speech jokingly/’Til your world awoke in me.”

Album: The Documentary

Producer: Buckwild

The Game shares one of the most emotional moments of his career, a tribute to his son, with Busta Rhymes on “Like Father, Like Son,” the paternal opus that peaks with the lyric “I seen hell staring down the barrel of a Smith and Wesson/My son’s ultrasound the closest I ever been to heaven.” Busta handles hook duty, serenading the newborn, hoping the kid follows in his dad’s footsteps. The Game does some of his most personal and impassioned writing and rapping. It’s a touching and humanizing moment for a rapper who often comes across as distant.

Album: The Documentary
Producer: Hi-Tek

Hi-Tek has a handful of noteworthy entries in the Game’s discography, and on “Runnin’” the New York producer does his best impression of West Coast funk. It’s enough to overcome a verse chock full of Tony Yayo’s most potent struggle bars. There are a few hilariously dated concepts (“Dre told me there’s no coming back from Gold”), but more often than not the Game wears his gangland persona well with chest-pounding lyrics like, “Niggas threatening my life like it’s hard to find me/See me shining in the hood like some new Lexanis.”

Album: Westside Story
Producer: N/A

Eazy-E is one of the forefathers of Compton rap, and the Game has always been one of his biggest admirers. On “Still Cruisin’,” a cut from his Westside Story mixtape, which samples Eazy’s classic “Boyz-n-the-Hood” verse, the Compton rappers got the opportunity to rap together (kinda). It’s tough to pull off the feature-from-beyond-the-grave schtick, but Game’s enthusiasm really helps to sell it. (Bonus points for featuring Eazy’s son Eric Wright Jr., who is alive, on the same mixtape.)

Album: The Documentary
Producer: Timbaland

The Timbaland-produced “Put You on the Game” was the last of an eclectic bunch of singles from the Game’s debut album, The Documentary, and it’s the rapper at his name-dropping best cramming references to N.W.A, The Chronic, Public Enemy, Flava Flav, Notorious B.I.G., and Makaveli into a single verse. He’s bold enough to proclaim himself “The Next Hova” and stunts comfortably over the yelping vocal chop. “How We Do” and “Hate It or Love It” were already huge commercial successes, and all of that confidence came to a head here.

Album: The R.E.D. Album/Purp & Patron
Producer: 1500 or Nothin'

The looping “I’m the King” is less a coronation song and more a party anthem. The Purp & Patron mixtape highlight, which made its way onto a deluxe version of The R.E.D. Album that same year, isn’t a fully formed concept record; it’s a mindless banger about having a good time. The Game raps in circles and cliches over a slapping kick drum and bass combo. There’s a higher commitment to smoking than kingmaking, but that makes more sense for Game.

Album: Jesus Piece
Producer: Black Metaphor

On “Ali Bomaye,” Black Metaphor stretches a Florence + the Machine sample into a plaster mold of a rap banger formed in the image of other songstress-favoring vocal chops (think Imogen Heap, Ellie Goulding, and La Roux). The song’s title comes from a chant used during Muhammad Ali’s knockout of George Foreman at the Rumble in the Jungle, meaning “Ali, kill him,” and in that vein, many of the raps are punches. The Game delivers a few haymakers, but 2 Chainz steals the show with most, if not all, of the real quotables (“In my four door looking real photogenic”).

Album: Doctor's Advocate

Producer: Just Blaze

The closer to Doctor’s Advocate, “Why You Hate the Game,” is another entry in both the Game-Nas and Game-Marsha Ambrosius collaborative canons, and it’s a highlight of each. The Game rumbles through Just Blaze’s shimmering and soulful production with a snarl, rattling off lyrics like “Shyne locked in a manhole/And Cam got shot inside his Lambo, it’s ample/Life is a gamble, 15 years old, red rag around my head/My sisters used to laugh and call me Rambo.” Nas, as he so often does, adds a little street knowledge from the concrete jungle.

Album: LAX

Producer: Cool & Dre

“My Life” takes a casually rapped Lil Wayne hook from a Birdman song almost no one has heard (“So Tired”) and repurposes it into an impassioned plea to a higher power. This isn’t Peak Auto-Tune Wayne, but it’s close, and trite Kurt Cobain reference aside, this is the Game nearing his apex too. The Game has never been a hypertechnical or super interesting rapper; his strength lies mostly in his distinctively gruff voice and how he uses it to maneuver in and out of beats, and on “My Life” he saunters carefully through the Cool & Dre production, matching its tone.

Album: The Documentary 2
Producer: Johnny Juliano, Cardo

The most recent single to make the list is the second single from The Documentary 2, “100,” which boasts a feature from current it-guy Drake and wailing production from Johnny Juliano and Cardo (both formerly in-house producers for Wiz Khalifa). The song turns the 100 emoji into several flame emojis, due mostly to its pitched soul sample. The Game raps at Drake about how he’ll protect him from harm and Drake basically ignores him, opting instead to rap about his woes (no, not those woes) and send not-so-subliminal barbs at Kendrick Lamar. Speaking of Kendrick….

Album: The R.E.D. Album
Producer: Cool & Dre

“The City” was something of a coming out party for Kendrick Lamar on a mainstream scale. He’d just released his well-received independent album, Section.80, a month prior, but was still relatively unknown. In the months that followed the song’s release, he secured a deal with Interscope Records and Aftermath Entertainment—the labels that initially made the Game a megastar—putting him on the path to his universally acclaimed debut. No disrespect to the Game, who puts up a valiant effort here, but this stands as a breakout moment for Kendrick.

Album: Doctor's Advocate
Producer: J.R. Rotem

The Game seems to call on Busta Rhymes to help him convey tough thoughts, and on the title track from Doctor’s Advocate he again enlists his assistance as he attempts to explain why he left Aftermath to Dr. Dre (on record). Busta lobbies on his behalf as well (“Most of the time I let ’em know, I don’t agree with what he do/But he a hardhead Dre, that’s why I’m talkin’ to you), and together the two make an earnest case for something resembling forgiveness, if not simply solace. The Game has never been afraid to confront the things plaguing him in public head on, and this is probably the best example of that, with self-aware, searingly critical raps.

Album: Doctor's Advocate
Producer: Kanye West

It’s fitting that Kanye produced “Wouldn’t Get Far” because it’s basically just “Gold Digger” 2.0; both have old-timey R&B samples (the former, Creative Source’s “I’d Find You Anywhere”; the latter, Ray Charles’ “I Got a Woman”), and both share similar themes, but the former—in true Game fashion—takes it a step further, going on a full name-dropping rampage. “Wouldn’t Get Far” isn’t quite the soaring anthem “Gold Digger” is, mostly because it lacks the consistent humor and lighthearted tone, but it functions as a basic, TMZ-esque read of celebrity relationships.

Album: N/A
Producer: N/A

On “300 Bars & Runnin’,” the Game basically conspired to defeat 50 Cent in battle by simply rapping for a ridiculous amount of time. There’s tons of filler, and obviously every bar isn’t packed with a brilliant quotable, but this is a hallmark of the Game’s catalog with plenty of gems waiting to be unearthed: “You sell records, but a G you not/Acting big on the radio, to me you not/You can ask Mister Cee who hot/Tony Yayo I bet 10 Gs you flop/Run up on that new 300 C you got.” Opening with three kids dissing G-Unit members is a strong touch.

Album: The Documentary
Producer: Dr. Dre, Scott Storch

The Documentary's lead single, “Westside Story,” was the Game’s coming out party, dedicating its time to his mission statement of restoring West Coast rap, which had been stagnant commercially. The Game rides around in his six trey Impala on gold Ds and chrome hydraulics with 50 Cent and the entire weight of the Aftermath conglomerate at his back. “The West Coast never fell off; I was asleep in Compton,” he raps, defiantly staking his claim as heir apparent to Dr. Dre. It helped establish his signature sound, sneaking in striking raps like “I might be, Spike Lee, of this gun clappin’/Prior to rappin’, I was drug traffickin’/In the dope spot playing John Madden.”

Album: The Documentary
Producer: Just Blaze

The Just Blaze-produced “Church for Thugs” is one of the hardest-hitting records on the rapper's classic debut with explosive production that houses a heavy, hydraulic bounce. Spitting like the “Ghost of Eric Wright,” the Game talks being a trafficker and dares those making threats on his life to test him at their own peril. He manages to match the high-energy output of the song’s jumping horns. The Game isn’t always the most intuitive rapper around, but on “Church for Thugs” he’s prescient: “Deal with it, I’ma be here for 10 years,” he shouts, and he was right.

Album: Doctor's Advocate
Producer: Reefa, D-Roc

“It’s Okay (One Blood)” may forever be linked to that one ridiculously long 12-minute megamix that featured every popular rapper of the time (and some not so popular ones), but the original was its zenith. The Game barrels through pounding drum progressions with ferocious raps (“I made room for Jeezy, but the rest of you niggas better be glad you’re breathing/All I need is one reason/I’m the king, and Dre said it: The West Coast need me”), and Junior Reid ads the accents. There’s a reason so many rappers were itching for a crack at the thumping track.

Album: The Documentary
Producer: Kanye West

Over sobering Kanye West production, the Game eyes his ambitions through the lens of classic West Coast figureheads in “Dreams,” one of the clear standouts from his catalog. It doesn’t sound like anything else on his debut. “Dreams” was the first Game single with personality—all we’d learned about him from many of the previous singles is that he knew Dr. Dre and 50 Cent—and he talks through awaking from a shooting-induced coma and lusting after singer Mya. The song boasts some of the Game’s most memorable lines (“Anything is possible if 50 fucked Vivica”) and some of his most colorful images (“Compton had jheri curl dripping on Ronald Reagan’s shoes”).

Album: The Documentary
Producer: Dr. Dre, Mike Elizondo, Scott Storch

The Game’s biggest club hit was “How We Do,” which had all the makings of a big-budget success from the jump: a sub-friendly Dre beat and a 50 Cent nearing the peak of his powers. By label design, three of the first four Game singles had 50 Cent features, and while “How We Do” wasn’t the most commercially successful or the best, it is a stunner in its own right. Curtis nearly gets the better of him here just on sheer charisma, but the Game holds his own. The track is highlighted by the effortless execution of its final call-and-response verse.

Album: Doctor's Advocate
Producer: Hi-Tek

The Game does some of his most honest and personal rapping on “Ol’ English,” a booze-fueled deep cut that’s intoxicating in its candor with real cut scenes from his dark past in Compton. He raps about being a kid and watching his Uncle Greg chop up crack, and how Greg served as his role model, until he was stabbed to death by a fiend. It’s a chilling tale about how people are molded by their environments, and how ganglands breeds gangstas. Over swallowing Hi-Tek production, the Game spits hard truths: “It’s blood in, blood out, and ain’t no turning back.”

Album: The Documentary

Producer: Cool & Dre, Dr. Dre

“Hate It or Love It” is an underdog story, a pivot for two rappers whose lyrics are often fueled by hubris. The biggest single of the Game’s career, the song also happens to be his best, with its moving sample of Philadelphia soul band the Trammps and its heavily introspective writing. Both rappers reminisce about what led them to street life—for 50, it was an absentee father and the draw of nice things; for the Game, it was the death of a close childhood friend. There’s a real sincerity to the rags-to-riches storytelling. Lined by sharp observations (“No school books, they use that wood to build coffins”), “Hate It or Love It” is one of the greatest artifacts of a bygone rap era.