Sep 30, 2026 · Album review · 8 min read

The Game “The Documentary III” Review: Tracklist, Features & Verdict

Twenty-one years after the original, The Game drops the third chapter of his signature series by surprise: 24 songs, Drake, Kanye, Lil Wayne and a whole city of guests. Big, ambitious and a little too long.

Twenty-one years after The Documentary put Compton back at the center of rap, The Game has closed the loop. The Documentary III arrived as a surprise on August 21, 2026, announced only the night before, through his own Numinati and FTS Global Management. It is his eleventh studio album and, at 24 tracks and almost 88 minutes, the biggest chapter of the series so far.

The guest list is a who’s who of the last two decades: Drake, Kanye West, Lil Wayne, Snoop Dogg, Black Thought, PARTYNEXTDOOR, Leon Thomas, YG, E-40, Tyga, Larry June, Marsha Ambrosius and the late Drakeo the Ruler, plus a crew of new Los Angeles names.

Why “The Documentary” still matters

The original The Documentary (2005) was the Aftermath / G-Unit debut that made The Game a star, with Dr. Dre, 50 Cent, Kanye West, Just Blaze and Timbaland behind the boards and “Hate It or Love It” as its anthem. Ten years later he returned with the double release The Documentary 2 and The Documentary 2.5 (2015).

Part III is the first one released fully on his own terms, without a major label. And the nods to the past are clear from the start: track two is called “Love It or Hate It”, a flipped title of his biggest hit, with Snoop Dogg and the Miami duo Cool & Dre, who produced the original “Hate It or Love It”.

Even the cover, shot by legendary hip hop photographer Jonathan Mannion, is pure West Coast: Game crouched on the asphalt while a lowrider hits a three-wheel motion behind him.

No Brakes: the Drake single

The lead single “No Brakes” with Drake was premiered by DJ Akademiks on August 20, the day before the album dropped. Because of Game’s long friendship with Drake and bars about “picking a side”, many listeners read it as a position in the Drake vs. Kendrick Lamar war.

Game denied dissing his fellow Compton rapper. He later explained that the song went through several versions, that some less diplomatic lines were removed and that Drake’s verse was pulled, leaving Drake on the hook. His reason: he preferred to deliver an album full of music with no beefs, and to protect the West Coast as a whole.

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The Game & Drake – No Brakes (Official Audio)

The sound: one co-producer, many worlds

The production credit you see almost everywhere is TBHits, who co-produces most of the album and acts as the glue between very different styles. Around him there is a long list of big names:

• London on da Track on the opener “Geezus”.
• Bangladesh on “Steppers” with Lil Wayne, a reunion of the “A Milli” producer and Weezy.
• Ye himself, with The Legendary Traxster, on “40 Nights”, one of the most praised tracks for its vintage Kanye sound.
• Conductor Williams (“Meet The Parents”) and Statik Selektah (“The Pen”), bringing East Coast boom bap into Game’s world.
• Cool & Dre and Cubeatz on “I Won’t Be Afraid”, built on Sade’s “Cherish the Day”, with a verse from Black Thought.
• Sndtrak and Beat Butcha on the soulful “The Cookout” with Larry June.

“LA Monster”, the second song with Kanye, plays with memories of Kanye and Lil Pump’s “I Love It” and Baby and Clipse’s “What Happened to That Boy”. It is exactly the kind of reference game that runs through the whole record.

From a producer’s point of view, it is a lesson in how a co-producer can keep an album coherent even with thirty-plus beatmakers. It is also a warning: a great sound palette doesn’t fix sequencing. Twenty-four songs is a lot of music to hold together.

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The Game – The Life (Official Music Video)

Themes: respect, family and legacy

The Game has always rapped like someone keeping score, and here he is asking for his flowers. Across the album he talks about abandonment, death, family, gang life, love and above all legacy: what it means to still be here more than twenty years after his debut, when many of his peers are gone or retired.

Los Angeles is everywhere too. Tracks like “Scary Times”, “The Part” and “HELLA” are posse cuts packed with young LA rappers such as RJMrLA, Lefty Gunplay and Mike & Keys, next to veterans like YG and E-40. It feels like Game passing the mic around the city.

Highlights

• “40 Nights” (feat. Kanye West): classic Ye production and two artists saying exactly what they think.
• “Run It Up” (feat. Leon Thomas): polished and soulful, with one of the best hooks on the album.
• “Do You Love Me” (feat. Cool & Dre): dramatic, cinematic and a good showcase of Game’s range.
• “I Won’t Be Afraid” (feat. Black Thought): the Sade sample and a Black Thought verse, need we say more.
• “The Cookout” (feat. Larry June): a smooth West Coast moment, and a preview of Larry’s own album, Who Coppin.

The Documentary III tracklist

Listen to The Documentary III

Spotify

Apple Music

What the critics say

Reviews were mixed. Most critics agree that Game still raps at a high level and that the production is varied and expensive-sounding, but the length and a few forced moments hold it back.

• Ratings Game Music (C): praises the versatile production and Game’s performances, with “Run It Up”, “Do You Love Me” and “40 Nights” as highlights, but calls out some gimmicky moments.
• Shatter the Standards (2.5/5): mixed, with strong tracks next to others that don’t land.
• Stanisland (2.5/5): competitive, but lacking.

Verdict

The Documentary III is ambitious in the best and worst ways. It has great beats, big names and some of Game’s sharpest verses in years, but at almost an hour and a half it asks a lot from the listener. Cut it to fourteen songs and it would be one of the best West Coast albums of the year.

Still, there is something respectable about a veteran who, more than two decades after his debut, releases an album this big, independently and by surprise. Start with “40 Nights”, “Run It Up”, “I Won’t Be Afraid” and “The Cookout”, and build your own version from there.