The Game’s R.E.D. Album has had it’s release date shuffled around like a well-worn deck of cards with no clear reason why. The L.A. rapper’s fourth album now looks to have it’s clearest push to release yet with the unveiling of “Ain’t No Doubt About It”, a single and video that features Pharrell Williams and Justin Timberlake.
The video is pretty much the stereotypical hot chicks on a yacht scenario, with a fair amount of product placement. Pretty much par for the course for hip-hop videos…circa 2006. And that’s the thing that gets me here. Both the song and video seem like they were lifted from a time when Game (and Pharrell, for that matter) were both a lot more relevant than they are now. Game, thankfully, has stopped his excessive lyrical name-dropping, but what you’re left with is pretty boring. The track sounds like just about every other Neptunes track made during the past decade. The song’s only bright spot, really, is Justin Timberlake. His reunion with Pharrell (who was contractually banned from working on Futuresex/Lovesounds) after half a decade (and change) leads to a pretty solid performance. If and when JT returns to the studio, let’s hope he jettisons Timbaland and brings Skateboard P back into the fold. As ?uestlove said on Twitter this past weekend, Justin/Neptunes > Justin/Timbaland.
http://youtu.be/qhQOF433324