The Game is setting the bar high for his forthcoming Drillmatic album, and not just because it derives its name from Nas’ 1994 masterpiece.
Since beginning work on it at start of the year, the Compton rapper has been continually hyping up his next project while locking in with an array of A-list artists including Kanye West, A$AP Rocky, Pusha T, Diddy and Quavo.
However, there’s one name who lies at the heart of the project, a Grammy-winning producer looking to leverage his recent hot streak to help give The Game’s career a new lease of life. That, of course, is Hit-Boy.
According to The Game, Drillmatic will solidify him and Hit-Boy as rap’s next great rapper-producer pairing, on par with legendary tag-teams such as Nas and DJ Premier, JAY-Z and Just Blaze, and DMX and Swizz Beatz.
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“Nas & Premo, Swizz & X, Hov & Just Blaze, Game & Hit…….. after this album. #DRILLMATIC,” he declared on Instagram on Saturday (January 29) while sharing photos of him and the HS87 hitmaker hard at work in the studio.
Of course, The Game isn’t the only rapper who can lay claim to forming a formidable duo with Hit-Boy. In the last two years, Nas has released three collaborative projects with the West Coast beat wizard: King’s Disease, King’s Disease II and MAGIC.
2020’s King’s Disease earned the Queensbridge rap legend his first ever Grammy Award when it won Best Rap Album last year, while the sequel, which arrived in August 2021, is nominated in the same category at this year’s Grammy Awards.
The DJ Premier and A$AP Rocky-assisted MAGIC arrived by surprise in December, serving as a precursor to an upcoming third King’s Disease installment from the bicoastal duo.
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The Game isn’t the only one ramping up expectations for Drillmatic. Chicago native G Herbo hailed it as the “hardest album” of 2022 after being treated to an early listen, while Jay Electronica called the album’s first single — the Kanye West-featuring “EAZY” — “one of the greatest records of all time.”
Drillmatic is already shaping up to be The Game’s biggest record in years, with “EAZY” earning him his highest-charting single in almost 15 years. The Eazy-E-sampling track debuted at No. 49 on the Billboard Hot 100 last week, marking the former G-Unit rapper’s best effort since 2008’s “My Life” collaboration with Lil Wayne.
Whether the album delivers on The Game’s bold claim, however, remains to be seen. There’s currently no word on a release date.
