Here are some talking points from the Game's new album, Doctor's Advocate -- the Game is a rapper from Compton, the hardest on the West coast. He has lots of promiscuous sex with women whenever he's not smoking a lot of marijuana -- or while he is -- the Game ain't picky. Oh, and he really, really likes Dr. Dre.

And, well, that's about it.

Doctor's Advocate is a tiresome album, big on ego but bereft of an original idea from the star of the show. I always get a kick out of people who think all rap is the same, nothing but shallow boasting over a beat. But if this was the first album I ever heard, I wouldn't have bothered with a second. Instead, I've got an album so repetitive I would have felt comfortable reviewing it after the first two tracks.

The album is an interesting study of a rapper trying to hype himself up through nothing but blunt force. Whereas a normal rapper, wishing to express their love of "chronic" -- which, on a cursory listen, I believe is mentioned about 80 times -- might come up with a clever bit of wordplay, the Game merely states it.

"Walkin down the street, smokin chronic," "smoke chronic 'til I pass out" and "I was 12, smoking chronic, in '92." To be fair, though, "Ol' English" is a brave step forward, with lyrics that discuss smoking while also drinking a forty.

OK, the Game, we get it. You're from California (Song titles: "Compton" and "California Vacation"). But you can't just say it over and over again, lazily name-checking the same West coast rappers (I almost thought this was a lost Tupac album from how often he's mentioned) instead of adding something new to the canon.

It's as if just by mentioning Dr. Dre in every song the Game will elevate himself to that status. Dre refused to have anything to do with this album. Not that you could tell from the beats, which sound like watered-down Dre, no matter who's producing.

Dre's absence does provide one of the album's only interesting moments, though. On the title track, the Game talks about missing Dre, and actually gets an emotion other than cocky into his voice when he says "And I still got the chain that you wore on the cover o' the Source/Remember when we got drunk to do 'Start From Scratch'?/I told you you was like a father to me, I meant that!"

This song, of course, is followed by the aforementioned "Ol' English."Not surprisingly, the album highlights are moments when the Game breaks away from ego stroking. But these are few and far between. "Doctor's Advocate" is a sincere moment, and "Wouldn't Get Far" is a pretty funny diss on the girls in rap videos.

But mostly it's a slow trudge through the same stale ideas. The lyrics are uninspired, and what little personality the Game has, he keeps hidden. But hey, what do I know? It hit number one, so I guess at this point even dumb, catchy music is too much to ask for. Just dumb is enough. Grade: D+