Give Game credit. Over the last 12 months, he's released a great album. The problem is that you have to put it together yourself.

Released in union with longtime collaborator DJ Skee, "Purp & Patron" is the erstwhile Jayceon Taylor's third mixtape in the last nine months. Combined and scattered amid all the compulsive name-drops, '93 West Coast posturing and abhorrent Kardashian family drops, is something very good. Maybe not as excellent as his steroid-era classic, "The Documentary," or the jilted lunacy of "Doctor's Advocate," but rock solid nonetheless. Far from revolutionary, but a nice addition to a deceptively estimable catalog.

When I interviewed Game in early June for a forthcoming story in the print edition, he assured me that he would make the July release date for "The R.E.D. Album." That month has come and gone and Jayceon Taylor still lacks a concrete time line for the roll-out of his much-delayed fourth studio record.

In the interim, he's continued to record at his typically breakneck pace -- issuing the "Brake Lights" mixtape in conjunction with his longtime partner DJ Skee. Like the pair's recent "The Red Room" mixtape, Game has wrangled a star-studded cast, including Busta Rhymes, Nas, Akon, Rick Ross, T.I., Robin Thicke and Snoop Dogg.

In typical Game fashion, the subject matter stays bent toward classic West Coast gangsta themes: gang-banging, fast cars and faster women. Of course, it also concerns his favorite topic: the Game himself. 

For those nostalgic for the summers of old when Dr. Dre and Snoop Dogg owned the dial, this is one of the better substitutes around. A nice complement to Freddie Gibbs' recent "Str8 Killa No Filla" mixtape and proof that even if his album's delays could drive a sane person to repeat "red rum," the Game's still on.

Download: (via XXL)

ZIP: The Game -- "Brake Lights" mixtape (left click)

-- Jeff Weiss

No genre evolves faster than hip-hop. One summer auto-tune is ubiquitous -- by Halloween it’s a punch line faster than you can say Ron Browz. Understandably, there’s something refreshingly anachronistic about The Game. No matter what trend or topic tyrannizes the terrestrial airwaves, Compton-raised Jayceon Taylor keeps paying homage to vintage West Coast gangsta rap, thematically laser-focused on women, weed, guns and gangs, and dropping more names than a Page Six column.

Released Monday, his latest mixtape, “The Red Room,” finds Game being Game, with self-explanatory tracks including “Revolver or the Semi,” “Real Gangstas,” “Lowrider” and “Slangin Rocks.” Pairing with his longtime collaborator DJ Skee, Taylor flexes his formidable if not familiar rhyme style, joined by bold-faced names such as Busta Rhymes, Diddy, Lil Wayne, Pharrell, Fabolous, Jadakiss, Jim Jones and Bizzy Bone. Never one for moderation, the mixtape commences with the 20-minute freestyle, “400 Bars (The Skeemix)” on which Game flows over everything from old classics, such as Ice Cube’s “It Was a Good Day" and Chef Raekwon’s “Ice Cream," to his peer's Clipse’s “Popular Demand (Popeyes)” and Kanye West’s “Can’t Tell Me Nothing.”