Top Ten Dre Songs, #8 – Game, “How We Do”

The #8 song of my Top 10 Countdown of The Greatest Dr. Dre Songs of All Time comes from “the 2nd dopest nigga from compton you’ll ever hear / the first one only puts out albums every 7 years” (amazing quote.) Yes, it’s Game feat. fellow former G-Unit member, 50 Cent, from Game’s debut album from 2004, “The Documentary”, with the song “How We Do”, heard on youtube here.
 If you haven’t heard that album, I strongly suggest checking it out. The number of props that Game hands out on that album to NWA and the West Coast scene in general is off the charts, especially on the “The Documentary” song from the album.

This song is quintessential Dre, featuring all of his hallmarks: foreboding strings, toned down (in a very specific sense) drums, just sick production all around. If you know me at all, you know that this song stays in heavy rotation on my ipod. If not, well you, you know now.

This song beats out “Don’t Get Carried Away” and more surprisingly “Still D.R.E.” because Game and 50 both lay it down in each of their 2 respective verses. Furthermore, the production is a little deeper, and remains intriguing and interesting even after multiple listens. There are more musical ideas in the beat that come and go a little more frequently, giving it a musical depth that “Still D.R.E.” doesn’t have, while I believe that song might have a better central beat. “Don’t Get Carried Away”, meanwhile, while having an amazing verse from Nas, is bookended by 2 so-so verses from Busta.

Enjoy! If you liked this post and the song, check out the more in-depth analysis I did of it here, where I discuss how to listen to rap music (Say whaaa?)

Come back tomorrow for #7!

Martin Connor is a music teacher & writer from Philadelphia, PA, with a music degree of high distinction from Duke University who is currently studying for a master’s degree at Brandeis University in Boston, MA, while focusing his research on the vocal melodies of the rap genre. He has contributed freelance articles to HipHopDX, Complex, and Pigeons and Planes, and had multiple articles from his website, www.RapAnalysis.com go viral on BET, The Source, XXL, and MTV. He teaches rap lessons online through the music school LessonFace, and has a book, The Artistry Of Rap Music, forthcoming from the McFarland Publishing House, scheduled for release in late 2017, as a follow-up to his 2014 contribution to their anthology "Eminem & Rap, Poetry, Race." He welcomes all comments, compliments, insults, and restaurant suggestions at [email protected].

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *