ant to be big in Hip-Hop but have no real skills? Take two important lessons from Kayslay: yell with abandon and ride the fence between squabbling rappers. It’s his loud brash persona that creates the buzz that attracts the exclusives that makes his mixtapes the hottest pieces of plastic on the bootleggers table. Best known for his belligerent attitude and grandiloquent bawling of his own name over tracks, the self titled “drama king” makes his living hyping both sides of popular Hip-Hop beefs and getting the cream of commercial Hip-Hop to freestyle over popular instrumentals.

Pitched as an actual album as opposed to his rougher mixtape style, The Pain from the Game is a compilation of exclusive tracks where Kayslay relegates himself to the role of Carny barker (although he seems to have learnt a valuable lesson since Streetsweeper Vol.1, as he has cut out most of the irritating yelling that interrupted and marred much of that release). But without the immediacy of the latest beef or the copyright flaunting nature of mixtapes, here Kayslay is forced to use the big names to draw the listeners in with an impressive cast list. But the main players rarely live up to expectations, reflecting badly on Kayslay’s track selection skills. Eminem and Obie Trice manage a ¼ strength of their usual venom over the usual samey Eminem production on “I’m Gone”, whilst the Three heavyweights, Prodigy, Raekwon and AZ, combine on “Heavyweights” to create a real letdown, with a beat as plain as their lyrics are hackneyed.

Bets on LL Cool J providing the finest moment would’ve been few and far between, but on the flute looped Swizz Beats track “The Truth” he spits some heavily personal lyrics from his unique position within Hip-Hop. Balance this against the album’s lead single—the creatively degenerate “Who Gives a Fuck Where You From?” from Three 6 Mafia. You don’t need to be a backpacker (like people ever really slot into bullshit listening constraints like that anyway) to expect an MC to step beyond the formulaic, self-fulfilling prophesising presentation of MCs as semi literate gun toting retards.

As usual space is given to the up and coming MCs, including Kayslay’s protégé Papoose (can’t see anyone shitting their pants at the thought of getting dissed by someone who chose to go under that name) who rhymes letter by letter on the dull “Alphabetical Slaughter”. Too many tracks follow the average beat, average thug bullshit pattern, weighing the rest into quick obscurity. “Through Your Head” would’ve suffered the same fate if not for the fact that it contains another great performance by Trife (from Ghostface’s Theodore Unit) and Angelous, a man who still sounds virtually identical to Jay-Z. Quick mentions should also go to the very much underrated D12 ably holding their own without Eminem (doesn’t that make them D10?) on “Census Bureau” and Cam’ron’s “Harlem” who continues to impress with every new track he and the Dipset drop.

In the end, the criticism is much the same as it was on Volume One, if Kayslay can balance less of himself shouting with a better collection of songs, then he might be as highly regarded for the quality of his major label releases as for the raw appeal of his mixtapes.