''The Documentary 2.5'' is the eighth studio album by American

rapper Rapping (also rhyming, spitting, emceeing or MCing) is a musical form of vocal delivery that incorporates "rhyme, rhythmic speech, and street vernacular". It is performed or chanted, usually over a backing beat or musical accompaniment. The ...

the Game. It was released on October 16, 2015, by

Blood Money Entertainment Jayceon Terrell Taylor (born November 29, 1979), better known by his stage name the Game or simply Game, is an American rapper. Born in Compton, California, he initially released a series of mixtapes under the wing of fellow West Coast rapper ...

and

eOne Music MNRK Music Group (pronounced "monarch", formerly known as Koch Records and eOne Music) is a New York City-based independent record label and music management company. It was formed in 2009 from the music assets of Koch Entertainment, which had ...

. The album is the second half for the two-piece project that was divided from the first half of his seventh album ''

The Documentary 2 ''The Documentary 2'' is the seventh studio album by American rapper the Game. It was released on October 9, 2015, by Blood Money Entertainment and eOne Music. The album serves as a sequel to his debut album. The project is first half of a two ...

'' (2015), which was released a week earlier. The album features

guest appearance In show business, a guest appearance is the participation of an outsider performer (such as a musician or actor) in an event such as a music record or concert, show, etc., when the performer does not belong to the regular band, cast, or other ...

s from

will.i.am William James Adams Jr. (born March 15, 1975), known professionally as will.i.am (pronounced "Will-I-am"), is an American rapper, singer, songwriter and record producer. He is the founding and lead member of the musical group Black Eyed Peas. ...

Schoolboy Q Quincy Matthew Hanley (born October 26, 1986), better known by his stage name Schoolboy Q (stylized as ScHoolboy Q), is an American rapper. In 2009, Hanley signed to Carson-based independent record label Top Dawg Entertainment (TDE) and in late ...

Jay Rock Johnny Reed McKinzie Jr. (born March 31, 1983), better known by his stage name Jay Rock, is an American rapper, singer and songwriter from Los Angeles. He signed to indie label Top Dawg Entertainment (TDE), in 2005. Under TDE, Rock secured a rec ...

Nas Nas (born 1973) is the stage name of American rapper Nasir Jones. Nas, NaS, or NAS may also refer to: Aviation * Nasair, a low-cost airline carrier and subsidiary based in Eritrea * National Air Services, an airline in Saudi Arabia ** Nas Air ( ...

DJ Quik David Marvin Blake (born January 18, 1970), better known by his stage names DJ Quik or Da Quiksta, is an American rapper and producer, known for his production in the G-funk style of West Coast hip-hop. Blake has collaborated with Snoop Dogg, ...

, Busta Rhymes and Problem, among others. The album was supported by the

single Single may refer to: Arts, entertainment, and media * Single (music), a song release Songs * "Single" (Natasha Bedingfield song), 2004 * "Single" (New Kids on the Block and Ne-Yo song), 2008 * "Single" (William Wei song), 2016 * "Single", by ...

: "

El Chapo EL, El or el may refer to: Religion * El (deity), a Semitic word for "God" People * EL (rapper) (born 1983), stage name of Elorm Adablah, a Ghanaian rapper and sound engineer * El DeBarge, music artist * El Franco Lee (1949–2016), American po ...

" with

Skrillex Sonny John Moore (born January 15, 1988), known professionally as Skrillex, is an American DJ and music producer. Growing up in Northeast Los Angeles and Northern California, he joined the post-hardcore band From First to Last as the lead si ...

Singles

The lead

from ''The Documentary 2.5'', "

" was released on October 9, 2015. The song features a duet and additional vocals from

disc jockey A disc jockey, more commonly abbreviated as DJ, is a person who plays recorded music for an audience. Types of DJs include radio DJs (who host programs on music radio stations), club DJs (who work at a nightclub or music festival), mobile ...

, who also produced this track, alongside Mr. Bangladesh and Nastradomas.

Critical reception

''The Documentary 2.5'' received widespread acclaim from contemporary

music critics Music journalism (or music criticism) is media criticism and reporting about music topics, including popular music, classical music, and traditional music. Journalists began writing about music in the eighteenth century, providing commentary on w ...

. At

Metacritic Metacritic is a website that aggregates reviews of films, TV shows, music albums, video games and formerly, books. For each product, the scores from each review are averaged (a weighted average). Metacritic was created by Jason Dietz, Marc ...

, which assigns a normalized rating out of 100 to reviews from mainstream critics, the album received an

average In ordinary language, an average is a single number taken as representative of a list of numbers, usually the sum of the numbers divided by how many numbers are in the list (the arithmetic mean). For example, the average of the numbers 2, 3, 4, 7 ...

score of 79, which indicates "generally favorable reviews", based on 6 reviews.

Commercial performance

''The Documentary 2.5'' debuted at number six on the US ''Billboard'' 200 with 48,000

album-equivalent unit The album-equivalent unit, or album equivalent, is a measurement unit in music industry to define the consumption of music that equals the purchase of one album copy. This consumption includes streaming and song downloads in addition to traditio ...

s, which included 42,000 pure album sales. It serves as the Game's eighth top-ten album in the United States. The album dropped to the number 29 in its second week, earning an additional 15,000 album-equivalent units. As of November 2015, ''The Documentary 2.5'' had accumulated 63,000 album-equivalent units in the United States, with 54,000 being pure sales.

Track listing

;Notes * "Moment of Violence" contains uncredited vocals performed by

Elijah Blake Sean Fenton (born June 4, 1992), better known by the stage name Elijah Blake, is a Dominican-American singer, songwriter and record producer. He wrote songs for Keyshia Cole, Rick Ross, Rihanna, and co-wrote Usher's number-one R&B hit, " Climax ...

. * "Like Father, Like Son 2" contains additional vocals performed by Harlem Caron Taylor and King Justice Taylor. * Adam Turchin — saxophone's * Koofreh Umoren — trumpet ;Sample credits *"Magnus Carlsen" contains samples of "Rocket Love" performed by Stevie Wonder. *"Crenshaw / 80s and Cocaine" contains samples of "Power of Soul" performed by Idris Muhammed, and "Blow Your Head" performed by

Fred Wesley Fred Wesley (born July 4, 1943) is an American trombonist who worked with James Brown in the 1960s and 1970s and Parliament-Funkadelic in the second half of the 1970s. Biography Wesley was born the son of a high school teacher and big band lead ...

and

the J.B.s The J.B.'s (sometimes punctuated The JB's or The J.B.s) was the name of James Brown's band from 1970 through the early 1980s. On records the band was sometimes billed under alternate names such as Fred Wesley and the JBs, The James Brown Soul T ...

. *"The Ghetto" contains samples of "Tower Of Power" performed by Sparkling in the Sand. *"From Adam" contains samples of "Who Made You Go" performed by

Faith, Hope & Charity Faith Hope and Charity was the name of a vocal group from Tampa, Florida. They are best known for their 1975 hit, " To Each His Own". They were also an in-demand group of session singers in New York studios during the 1970s. Career The foundi ...

. *"Up on the Wall" contains samples of "

Get Down on It "Get Down on It" is a 1981 song by American band Kool & the Gang. It was originally released on their '' Something Special'' album in 1981. The single was certified Gold by the RIAA. Track listing Charts The song hit the top 10 of the US P ...

", written by James "J.T." Taylor, Ronald Bell, performed by

Kool & the Gang Kool & the Gang is an American R&B/soul/funk band formed in Jersey City, New Jersey, in 1964 by brothers Robert "Kool" Bell and Ronald Bell, with Dennis "Dee Tee" Thomas, Robert "Spike" Mickens, Charles Smith, George Brown, and Ricky West. ...

. *"Like Father, Like Son 2" contains samples of "Like Father, Like Son" performed by the Game. *"Life" contains samples of "You Give Good Love" performed by

Whitney Houston Whitney Elizabeth Houston (August 9, 1963 – February 11, 2012) was an American singer and actress. Nicknamed " The Voice", she is one of the bestselling music artists of all time, with sales of over 200 million records worldwide. Houston i ...

, and an interpolation of "Some How Some Way" performed by Jay Z. *"El Chapo" contains samples of "Granada" performed by Frank Sinatra.

Charts

Weekly charts

Year-end charts

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Documentary 2.5, The 2015 albums Albums produced by DJ Quik Albums produced by the Alchemist (musician) Albums produced by DJ Khalil Albums produced by Cool & Dre Albums produced by Fredwreck Albums produced by Battlecat (producer) The Game (rapper) albums Sequel albums