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Game Talks 'R.E.D. Album' Delays

11:33 a.m. · January 27, 2011 · by Andrew Winistorfer

Now that his Purp & Patron mixtape is out, inquiring minds have turned back to the Game's long-delayed R.E.D. Album, very likely his last shot at major label superstardom. The album was supposed to come out last spring, then last summer, and now it's been shelved indefinitely. Here's what Game told Complex in an interview:

“I think ‘The KIll’ is the only song [off Purp & Patron] with enough potential to make it on The R.E.D. Album. The R.E.D. Album is pretty much 95 percent done. Until I find a record that is just so amazing to me, and it’s next level and doesn’t sound like anything that’s out, and makes me feel comfortable with it being played on the radio and shooting a video to it, I won’t give R.E.D. Album a date. At this point it’s pretty much in my hands. I had a meeting with Jimmy Iovine and the label heads about a week ago and they gave me the green light to kind of pick a date when I want. The album is so classy, that I can’t sell it short with any single man. I wanna come with the right song, and make sure it’s a song that’s classic and iconic, and then we’ll know. I’m recording every day for no reason. Pharrell is executive producer and it ain’t gone change. I got Dre producing on the album, I got Premier. Like all the people I’ve wanted on one album, are on this album."

It's rare that a rapper takes the pressure for a hit single solely on himself. It seems like he's blowing smoke--Jimmy Iovine, after all, has a history of shelving rap albums until he hears a "hit" single--but maybe he really is holding up his own album. We'll probably never know. [Real Talk]