Hate him or love him, admit

Hate him or love him, admit – a phony rapper by any other name is still...
The first time I heard The Game was on an underground track and he flowed for nine straight minutes over Dre's "Deep Cover." I thought, this dude is the next movement. Since then his releases have chipped away at my enthusiasm, seeming to only name-drop and talk tough about the same people, same incidents song after song, yet never captivating me the same way. Then came that whole art-imitating-life charade he put on with 50, and now this news that he can't even rock a live show with just a DJ, a mic, and a rowdy crowd. I hate to hate, but hip-hop has a way of finding imposters and your man Game is fast becoming the black Vanilla Ice. "When trying to get "Start From Scratch"... off the ground, Game stumbled and stopped the song. He tried again, forgot the words and again shut the song down." Read this review of The Game's live show in Toronto by writer Andrew Gorham, first published in The Globe and Mail 3.21.05, republished here 3.24.05 in Langfield Entertainment's newsletter "On Stage, Rapper Not At Top Of His Game".