The Game is the Kobe Bryant of rap music

I know I’ve been killing y’all with these rap music to pro sports comparisons, but I finally got one that you will all have to co-sign so hear me out. The Game was the best rapper in 2006. When I say best rapper I mean, the most talented and true to the spirit of Hip-Hop. Look how much The Game improved his spit from his first album. The Doctor’s Advocate was supposed to fall like brick after The Game was forsaken by Doctor Dre. Instead D.A. was one of the best albums of 2006.

Rap music and pro basketball cross paths constantly whether it’s a wayward rap album from mercurial point guard Allen Iverson or an even more nutty offering from Queensbridge housing projects second best rapper, Ron Artest. Let’s never forget all of the albums released by Kobe’s former teammate, Shaquille O’Neal. How many of you find it amazing that Shaq and GZA have released the same number of albums? With the NBA’s All Star Weekend coming up on Sunday I thought I could pitch my final rap music comparison for the year (prah’lee not).

The Game and Kobe are both L.A. to the core. The Game had a problem holding weed for Fisty Scent the same way that Kobe Bryant grew tired of holding Shaq’s sacks. Everyone gave the most attention to Shaquille for Kobe’s successes, as if Kobe wouldn’t have found his greatness on his own. Fisty Scent took all the credit for the triumph of The Game’s first album by saying that he wrote all the best verses and basically his input made the album a success. The Game and Kobe both have oversized egos which doesn’t allow them to admit their own mistakes. The Game and Kobe are both into anal sex (extra nullus to that last sentence).

At first it didn’t look like Kobe would ever get his shit back on top after Shaq and Phil Jackson stopped fucking with him. Plus, his sponsors were cutting him off left and right. It was like dude was going to be sentenced to the NBA’s publicity purgatory. Other dudes like Carmelo and LeBron were coming up in the game and getting maximum ESPN highlight shine. Kobe started to get the rep of being a petulant, selfish crybaby. For a minute there, nobody wanted to fuck with Kobe Bryant. Just like Kobe, The Game went through a difficult transition during the breakup with Fisty.

The Game found himself getting arrested for nonsensical shit like wearing a mask in public and assaulting a police officer. All the while he kept recording music and working on his flow and getting better. The one thing that you couldn’t deny was that The Game had heart. No matter what was happening to him in the business sense of rap music he kept improving his own flow and style. The Game understands one of the most important aspects of todays’ rap game – marketing. The Game made sure that his name stayed on mixtapes and in the mouths of rap fans.

Fisty Scent found his own success after splitting with The Game just like Shaquille has in Miami, but I think we all can agree in both cases who is more charismatic and interesting as a personality. The Game is one of the closest characters to the oft-referenced Tupac Shakur because he wears his heart on his sleeve. Listen to The Doctor’s Advocate and imagine how many times he must have cried while he was in the recording booth. A rapper that gets mad and has emotion for his craft sounds better to me than someone who acts like he’s tired of the whole game. The Game’s attitude resonated with rap fans as well and despite prolific downloads his album still achieved platinum status without Geffen Records buying over half a million copies. That’s saying something in today’s fickle fan base that Hip-Hop occupies. The Game and Kobe Bryant are only going to get better from this point forward so Fisty Scent and Shaquille O’Neal had better get used to hearing their names a lot.