Every brand claims to be on top of the mountain, whether it’s Roc-A-Fella, Cash Money, or Bad Boy Entertainment. However it’s no secret that Interscope Records has been sitting pretty for quite sometime now. Their family tree consists the one and only Dr. Dre, the blonde bomber better known as Eminem, and of course G-Unit. Who can ever forget about them? The three amigos; 50 Cent, Lloyd Banks, and Tony Yayo. Their newest effort T.O.S. (Terminate On Sight) might be one that’s quickly swept under the rug due its lackluster performance on the charts, but Interscope is in line to right the wrongs of that disaster with The Game’s third album L.A.X. (Life And Times).

You do recall him right? The person who was on the verge of being employee of the month, and then reincarnated himself into the most recognized disgruntle employee in the history of Hip-Hop. Since selling over five million copies of his debut album The Documentary, his numbers dwindled down dramatically and a Dr. Dre/50 Cent-less Doctor’s Advocate barely scraped it’s way to over a million in sales. Stating that L.A.X. (Life And Times) will be his last project, the man who many think are responsible for raising the West Coast out of the ashes pulled out all the stops for his last hoorah—as he (supposedly) bows out of a game (no pun intended) that’s handed him his high’s and most definitely his low’s.

The star-studded affair gets underway with the troubled DMX saying a prayer for The Game in the intro (when someone should be praying for him instead). One of the few songs few songs he performs with no assistance is ‘LAX Files’ produced by Britney Spears’ former BFF, J.R. Rotem. The song is basically a play-by-play of his past leading up to his present, as he paints a picture of his tough upbringing, “Come to my ‘hood-‘hood/look at my block-block/that’s that project building, yeah that’s where I got shot-shot/cause I was more ‘hood than Suge, and had more rocks than Jay/more scars on my face than the original Scarface/or the homeboy Scarface.”

On Ice Cube’s new album Raw Footage, The Game lent his young blood touch on a song called ‘Get Use To It,’ and Cube returns the favor by adding some wisdom on ‘State Of Emergency’ (also produced by J. R. Rotem). The Game reaches all the way to the slums of Shaolin and recruits Raekwon for ‘Bulletproof Diary.’ This time veteran producer Jelly Roll is up to bat, and he doesn’t disappoint allowing Raekwon to get reacquainted with a beat, "I’m a New York dinosaur, Staten Island artifact/Hip-Hop’s never dead, the Cuban gave it heart attacks.

The Game gets Lil’ Wayne to take care of the hook on ‘My Life’ and Weezy does his best Roger Troutman/T-Pain impression by bringing the overused synthetic vocal tone into play; while The Game grabs Cool & Dre to provide the sounds. The Miami duo double-up as they’re also responsible for ‘Money.’ They use a Betty Wright voice sample of her echoing the word money throughout the song, and The Game drops clever punch lines like, “I used to only sell 8’s like that Laker n*gga/now I’m moving 24’s, like I play at the Staple Center.” But right before the song ends, he still manages to get in a quick jab directed at his former boss, “I was through flippin’ quarters when I made my first meal/I’m about a dollar, 50 Cent ain’t real.”

Continuing on his Southern journey, Ludacris jumps on ‘Ya Heard.’ Outfitted with an old school sample of Newcleus’ ‘Jam On It,’ Luda uses his clever wit, and comes up with lines like, “Only that Cali Kush, smokin’ like a muffler/so many red flags, I could’ve swear I was in Russia.” Ne-Yo tries make ‘Gentlemen’s Affair’ sound tasteful by utilizing his crooning expertise, but with lines like, “Get ya ass up, and f*ck me then/I know you brought ya girls, girl f*ck ya friends/matter of fact I wanna f*ck ya friends” the chivalry goes right out the window.

Scott Storch is probably throwing a fire sale to sell his beats in order to get out of his financial bind, and The Game catches on bargain on ‘Let Us Live’ featuring Chrisette Michelle. The production doesn’t sound like what you’re used to hearing from one of Hip-Hop’s coolest white boys, but it’s still solid and The Game rides it into the ground while Ms. Michelle continues to be everyone’s favorite songstress for chorus purposes.

Kanye West gets in touch with his West Coast side, and conjures up ‘Angel’ featuring Common. Like Scott Storch before him, this particular track is nothing you would expect to hear from the Roc’s top breadwinner, but like everything else in life you must evolve, and Kanye experiments with other sounds that aren’t the soulful blend people are accustomed to hearing. Tatted-up rocker Travis Barker grabs his drumsticks and hammers away on ‘Dope Boys’ while DJ Quik makes sure things are a lot smoother on the technical side of things.

Once again, Dr. Dre is nowhere to be found on this album, but he sends a peace offering in Hi-Tek. The beatsmith from the ‘Natti does The Game a solid and creates ‘Letter To The King’ featuring Nas. The mood of the track is a very somber one, and so are the lyrics of the two MC’s who are well known for rapping with their heart on their sleeve.

There’s really not a quote-un-quote ‘bad’ song on L.A.X. (Life And Times), but it does raise the question of why have so many features? Was 50 Cent right when he said that The Game needed help on his first album? And did the lack of his and Dr. Dre’s presents on the second album lead to such an instantaneous drop in sales? Some might say he’s getting out of music and calling this his last album because it’s getting more and more difficult for him to carry a CD from front to back by his lonesome. With 12 guest appearances, the notion of him of needing people to hold his hand through an entire project doesn’t escape the mind. But in the end, only man that went from having a butterfly on his face, to the LA Dodgers logo, only to mix it in with a huge star knows the answer that.