Game Blackballed from MTV Music Awards

[Sikotic™]

Maybe because nobody gives a fuck about Game anymore. The nigga made himself irrelevant with all the bullshit he's been doin over the years.

He just sold around 100k his first week, that's hardly irrelevant.  This sounds like a hater.

Those are facts, not hate. Game is not important enough for me to hate. He's not even important enough to be at the same award show that invited a bunch of Nickelodeon and Disney rejects, so I ain't the only one who feels that way. Fact of the matter is this ain't 2000 and nobody is interested in the recycled, regurgitated gangsta shit that your beloved Game has to offer (that 100k he sold doesn't hold a candle to the majority of people who were actually at the VMAs so stop over inflating the "impact" of his sales).

Obviously you hold him in a higher regard than most by "being shocked" and "at a loss for words" by the way MTV treated Game so I'ma let you keep him up on that golden pedestal that exists in your make believe world.

[David Mack]

Fuck the MTV awards..............can't believe mahfukas still watch dat bullshit.

[Smackdog]

hip hop isnt real music so they shouldnt play it at the awards show

[Rickdeeznutz]

Just to let evryone know Pot Of Gold is doing really well on 106 n park it was at #3 today, and its doind decent on radios, But Game performing obviously  wasnt gunna happen, MTV dont cater to gangsta rap and hes not as big as artist that performed. PROPS to Tlyer tho!!!

[love33]

Just to let evryone know Pot Of Gold is doing really well on 106 n park it was at #3 today, and its doind decent on radios, But Game performing obviously  wasnt gunna happen, MTV dont cater to gangsta rap

Which proves the point they are blackballed.  When they let Daz & Kurupt on stage and Snoop performs "Murder Was The Case" at VMA, but they won't let Game perform "R.E.D. Nation" and they ban his video proves it.  I don't know how much more evidence some of these people need?!

Some people act as if Jay-Z is beyond criticism.  He's had a few average albums but he didn't have half the people in NY going "he's irrelevant," "he fell off," "he's rappin 2000 music."  An artist who fell off is like Chingy or Knoc'Turnal -- Game is not close to that.  In fact, when Jay-Z drops a weak album they beg him to come back and drop another album that's better and get behind him.  NY gets behind Jay-Z; Half of LA loves the Game, the other half hates on him.  Game has given us R.E.D. for free all year long droppin free bangers like "Purp and Patron," "Candy Coronas Mixtape," "Daytona 500," and then the final release "R.E.D." was the cherry on top.  And 50% of you thank him with negative remarks after all this free music he's giving us.  He's one of the only artists in today's rap game making good raw rap music.

[Sikotic™]

They already gave Wayne mic time. They don't need him to do hooks for a mediocre Game single.

You don't get it, do you? Game is not a commodity on MTV. I like his music and enjoyed RED Album personally, but I don't have puppy love for the nigga. I can see him for what he's worth. And in today's current music climate, it ain't about being "raw" or "grimey". It's about havin swag and coming up with a goofy dance for your shit. It ain't the way I like it either, but it is what it is. Stop complaining and accept it.

They got those corny cali swag fuckers eatin off the dougie song for fuckin years already. That's what's MTV wants. Not some name dropping cornball rapping colors like its a 1988 Sean Penn movie and jockin' every rapper's style.

[love33]

Funny because they were produced a special on Death Row after Biggie died. In 1999, the VMA's were also the stage for Dre and Snoop's first live public appearance.

Lets see....
--no video play for Warren G's "Lookin At You" off his big Universal release "Return of Regulator" album (Warren was a superstar heading into that album where he fell)
--no play for Mr. Short Khop "Dollaz, Drank, and Dank" smash video
--minimal airplay for "Who Ride Wit Us" which was huge on the 'Up In Smoke Tour' and went Gold
--"Fall Down" video by Chico and Coolwadda -- zero air play after they had a buzz from 'High Come Down' single with Nate Dogg from the first album
--Shade Shiest with Kurupt & Nate Dogg "Where I Wanna Be" (had to watch this one at 2am on BET cause MTV wouldnt play it)
--Too Short "I Luv" with Scarface, Scarface, & Daz (Video was apparently too raw for MTV they played it on BET Uncut)
--Game "One Blood" banned by MTV
--Ice Cube -- I Rep That West -- no video play; this is what happens when you diss Lil Wayne
--Knoc'Turnal -- The Way I Am with Snoop (excellent video; very minimal play, this held his career down IMO)
--Ice Cube -- Drink The Kool Aid -- No Video play for the legend
--Crooked I "Still Tha Row" video banned by MTV
--Snoop Dogg "Boom" ft. T-Pain; this one wasn't banned, but it sure wasn't given much of a chance
--213 "Groupie Luv" & WSC "Gangsta Nation" got a little sprinkle of play on MTV -- BET played the videos to be fair
--Too Short "Blow The Whistle" huge radio hit and mtv had the video on their web site but no love on tv; BET played it a little to be fair
--Snoop Dogg & Too Short -- Life of the Party (same as above)
--Game ft. Lil Wayne "R.E.D. Nation" banned by MTV
--Naughty by Nature "Mourn You Til I Join You [Tupac Tribute]" one of the greatest vids of all time; MTV was too busy playin Puffy "Missin You"

Had this trend went the other way we probably might have saw videos for tracks like: DJ Quik ft. Dr. Dre "Put It On Me," "Black Mercedes," "High Come Down" by Chico & Coolwadda, Luniz "A Piece Of Me" ft. Fat Joe, DJ Quik "50 Wayz," Hi-C "I Don't Wanna Know" ft. Nate Dogg.  A lot of artists quit doing videos because they knew they were going to get "overlooked" by MTV.

We basically lost a whole era of priceless music that should be now-classics.  And there's more I'm just too tired to keep typing this shit.  They blackballed a whole era of great music.

[Jimmy H.]

Nobody is being blackballed. Buy a clue, bro.

Some people act as if Jay-Z is beyond criticism.  He's had a few average albums but he didn't have half the people in NY going "he's irrelevant," "he fell off," "he's rappin 2000 music."

Nobody is saying Jay-Z is beyond criticism. You can call his albums "weak" or "overrated" but the fact remains he's dropped the most consecutive #1 albums in music. He beat out Elvis Presley. When was he "not relevenat"? When has he not pushed more than 400,000 copies of an album on the first week? When has he not done over a million worldwide ever? I mean, "certified", within the year. Jay's sales figures CRUSH Game's. The only mainstream artist coming close to touching him in hip-hop is Eminem.

In fact, when Jay-Z drops a weak album they beg him to come back and drop another album that's better and get behind him.

Stop exaggerating. It's not about love or hate. It's about money. Game's last three solo albums haven't broken 400,000. Jay's last eleven have all sold north of that. You could make this complaint if you had numbers to back it up but all you have blind fanboy emotion. 106 & Park is a hip-hop show which means it caters specifically to rap fans. The VMA's is a national show that is watched by like twelve times the audience of that show. Just because the venue is in Los Angeles and Game has an album out doesn't mean he gets a spot on the show. Quit being a child and get with the picture, bro.

[Jimmy H.]

You have to be one of the dillusional people around, brother. Let's see.

--no video play for Warren G's "Lookin At You" off his big Universal release "Return of Regulator" album (Warren was a superstar heading into that album where he fell)

No video for Sticky Fingaz either. He was on Universal at the same time and had basically the same budget. And Warren was a superstar heading in, huh? His last two albums before that went "gold". He hadn't a platinum album or a hit radio single in six years.

--Ice Cube -- I Rep That West -- no video play; this is what happens when you diss Lil Wayne

MTV and VH1 are both owned by the same company. If the plan was to BLACKBALL Cube, why did they dedicate a brand-new "Behind The Music" video special to him, which included clips and discussion of the new album.

--Crooked I "Still Tha Row" video banned by MTV

Eminem and 50 Cent have had videos BANNED too. Are they being blackballed?

--Naughty by Nature "Mourn You Til I Join You [Tupac Tribute]" one of the greatest vids of all time; MTV was too busy playin Puffy "Missin You"

Puffy was a bigger-selling artist than Naughty By Nature at the time. This one is just the icing on the stupid cake as far as you're concerned. They're blackballing the West by not playing music from a group from Jersey. I know the agrument you're trying to make is that they are trying to "blackball" Pac or something but please, use your head. They played the shit out of "Changes" a year later and distributed the fucking "Resurrection" film.

You keep bringing up this "minimum play" thing and I'll ask you this. If they played enough times for you to see it, shouldn't logical wisdom suggest that if the results of said airplay resulted in more requests and views that they would have played it MORE? You don't blackball something by allowing it to be shown a little bit, you outright cut it off the knees from the start. That's how it works.

[bouli77]

The only mainstream artist coming close to touching him in hip-hop is Eminem.

i agree with you about jay-z but I think Em has sold more albums to date than Jay-Z. estimations say jay-z has sold 50 mil albums worldwide while Em is said to have sold more than 85 mil albums.

[PhunkyDoob]

Nobody is being blackballed. Buy a clue, bro.

Some people act as if Jay-Z is beyond criticism.  He's had a few average albums but he didn't have half the people in NY going "he's irrelevant," "he fell off," "he's rappin 2000 music."

Nobody is saying Jay-Z is beyond criticism. You can call his albums "weak" or "overrated" but the fact remains he's dropped the most consecutive #1 albums in music. He beat out Elvis Presley. When was he "not relevenat"? When has he not pushed more than 400,000 copies of an album on the first week? When has he not done over a million worldwide ever? I mean, "certified", within the year. Jay's sales figures CRUSH Game's. The only mainstream artist coming close to touching him in hip-hop is Eminem.

In fact, when Jay-Z drops a weak album they beg him to come back and drop another album that's better and get behind him.

Stop exaggerating. It's not about love or hate. It's about money. Game's last three solo albums haven't broken 400,000. Jay's last eleven have all sold north of that. You could make this complaint if you had numbers to back it up but all you have blind fanboy emotion. 106 & Park is a hip-hop show which means it caters specifically to rap fans. The VMA's is a national show that is watched by like twelve times the audience of that show. Just because the venue is in Los Angeles and Game has an album out doesn't mean he gets a spot on the show. Quit being a child and get with the picture, bro.

LOL at the amount of bs and wrong facts in this post.

[Dre-Day]

Nobody is being blackballed. Buy a clue, bro.

Some people act as if Jay-Z is beyond criticism.  He's had a few average albums but he didn't have half the people in NY going "he's irrelevant," "he fell off," "he's rappin 2000 music."

Nobody is saying Jay-Z is beyond criticism. You can call his albums "weak" or "overrated" but the fact remains he's dropped the most consecutive #1 albums in music. He beat out Elvis Presley. When was he "not relevenat"? When has he not pushed more than 400,000 copies of an album on the first week? When has he not done over a million worldwide ever? I mean, "certified", within the year. Jay's sales figures CRUSH Game's. The only mainstream artist coming close to touching him in hip-hop is Eminem.

In fact, when Jay-Z drops a weak album they beg him to come back and drop another album that's better and get behind him.

Stop exaggerating. It's not about love or hate. It's about money. Game's last three solo albums haven't broken 400,000. Jay's last eleven have all sold north of that. You could make this complaint if you had numbers to back it up but all you have blind fanboy emotion. 106 & Park is a hip-hop show which means it caters specifically to rap fans. The VMA's is a national show that is watched by like twelve times the audience of that show. Just because the venue is in Los Angeles and Game has an album out doesn't mean he gets a spot on the show. Quit being a child and get with the picture, bro.

LOL at the amount of bs and wrong facts in this post.

such as?

[DeeezNuuuts83]

--no video play for Warren G's "Lookin At You" off his big Universal release "Return of Regulator" album (Warren was a superstar heading into that album where he fell)
Superstar? No he wasn't. Maybe after Regulate... G Funk Era, but Take a Look Over Your Shoulder was wack as fuck, but MTV still played I Shot the Sheriff. I Want It All wasn't that dope either. It's not a surprise that he didn't get much rotation after that.
--minimal airplay for "Who Ride Wit Us" which was huge on the 'Up In Smoke Tour' and went Gold
The video wasn't good at all... complete mismatch for such a dope song.
--Shade Shiest with Kurupt & Nate Dogg "Where I Wanna Be" (had to watch this one at 2am on BET cause MTV wouldnt play it)
The song had hardly any buzz in the mainstream outside of California.
--Game "One Blood" banned by MTV
MTV doesn't want to participate in the obvious display of gang affiliation. HOWEVER, they did have Game perform One Blood on TRL, though he was just saying "One" instead of "Blood."
--Crooked I "Still Tha Row" video banned by MTV
That song wasn't gonna blow, plus outside of the West Coast, very few people gave a fuck about Crooked I.
--Game ft. Lil Wayne "R.E.D. Nation" banned by MTV
...for the same reason as One Blood
--Naughty by Nature "Mourn You Til I Join You [Tupac Tribute]" one of the greatest vids of all time; MTV was too busy playin Puffy "Missin You"
Naturally a Puffy song is going to get more attention, especially since that was an '80s sample-happy period. His single alone did 2 or 3 million. What did NBN do? They're not even West Coast anyway, so I don't know why they came up. Sure, it's a Pac tribute, but still not West Coast.

Had this trend went the other way we probably might have saw videos for tracks like: DJ Quik ft. Dr. Dre "Put It On Me," "Black Mercedes," "High Come Down" by Chico & Coolwadda, Luniz "A Piece Of Me" ft. Fat Joe, DJ Quik "50 Wayz," Hi-C "I Don't Wanna Know" ft. Nate Dogg.  A lot of artists quit doing videos because they knew they were going to get "overlooked" by MTV.
Not that those songs were bad, but they just weren't trendy. MTV's not about playing stuff that appeals to a very small audience that doesn't even watch MTV anyway, but BET. So it makes sense.

We basically lost a whole era of priceless music that should be now-classics.  And there's more I'm just too tired to keep typing this shit.  They blackballed a whole era of great music.
How does MTV not giving heavy rotation to West Coats songs mean that we "lost a whole era of priceless music"? We got the music, it just didn't get played on ONE channel.

In addition, I bet you could find two or three times as many East Coast rappers and their songs that got looked over by MTV as well. Same thing with other regions. Bone Thugs got heavy rotation before, but not after The Art of War. Why? Because their buzz was dying down, and their new stuff wasn't as good. Same thing with the Game as of recent. HOWEVER, they did still play Wouldn't Get Far, so you can't hate on them.

Also, MTV banned Hit 'Em Up for reasons that I understand. Does that mean that they blackballed Pac back in the day? No. His other videos got heavy rotation, and later videos like I Ain't Mad at Cha and To Live & Die in L.A. got HEAVY rotation.

[DeeezNuuuts83]

And on top of that, I read that Lil Wayne held a release party for Tha Carter IV in LA. I looked through some of the pictures, and I didn't see Game there either. I saw Rick Ross, DJ Khaled, Drake, etc.

[Quadruple OG]

The threadstarter doesn't know the difference between the word "blackballed" and the phrase "currently irrelevant".