The Game Doesn’t Care About Success, He Just Wants Everyone to Care About Him

[LongBeachsFinest]

The Game’s reckless, bizarre, whiny tendencies make him a wholly unique hip-hop character. Though the Compton native is among the handful of rap stars who still have platinum potential, he’s no gangsta superhero like collaborator-turned-foe 50 Cent, and he’s no drug-addled weirdo savant like Lil Wayne. His flow is much better than theirs, for starters, and he wears his heart more obviously on his sleeve. He’s the kind of guy who’s dumb enough to get locked up for pulling out a gun during a pick-up basketball game, but emotional enough to cry about it in an interview (as he did a few months ago when talking to XXL).

In a recent phone interview, he insists his new album, L.A.X. (out Aug. 26), will be his last one, and he sounds like he’s fishing for praise when he explains why:

    “‘Cause, see, you guys don’t need me anymore; you got all these other whack rappers that you love so much.”

He adds that he wants to produce and spend more time with his kids, but one gets the feeling that if enough influential people show him love, he’ll keep making records. It’s not just the praise of journalists The Game requires, after all; his need for acceptance by other rappers is unparalleled. It’s on display again on L.A.X., in which he shouts-out just about every MC you can think of, from Beanie Sigel to Will Smith to Fat Joe to . . . 50 Cent. In fact, while hosting a recent block of videos on MTV Hits, instead of playing his own songs, he played nothing but 50 Cent and G Unit videos. It was a slightly aggressive yet sincere homage to his former crew—hilarious and brash and a very strange way to go about promoting his new album.

Meanwhile, The Game remains hell-bent on reuniting with his former beat-maker, Dr. Dre., who executive-produced his first album, The Documentary. Despite Dre’s absence from The Game’s sophomore effort, he called it Doctor’s Advocate anyway and even planned to call his latest The D.O.C. until it became clear Dre probably wouldn’t participate on that one, either. Yet The Game insists his relationship with Dre remains intact, despite appearances to the contrary.

    “We’ve always been 100 percent good,” he says. “People always make up stories or say what they want, but me and Dre gonna be good.”

As to Dre’s on-again, off-again role as collaborator, he refuses to speculate.

    “You’ll probably have to interview Dre and ask him that,” he says.

With or without Dre, L.A.X. is poised to be a monster and may end up as the second-biggest hip-hop album of the year, after Lil Wayne’s Tha Carter III. (Wayne, in fact, sings the hook on the anthemic L.A.X. track “My Life.”) The Game reportedly recorded more than 220 tracks for the album, including “Big Dreams,” a soaring ballad released as a street single that looks like it won’t even make the album’s final cut. Highlights that should be on the disc include the breezy throwback “Game’s Pain” and crossover single “Dope Boys,” which features Blink-182’s Travis Barker and contains a sample of “Eleanor Rigby.”

But despite making critically respected, commercially viable music, The Game insists he’s going to hang up his mic soon.

    “Hip-hop’s not fulfilling for me, and it really never has been,” he says. “I’ve been fighting since the early stage of my career and haven’t really had time to enjoy my existence in hip-hop. So bowing out after three classic albums is big to me.”

The Game hints at the abuse heaped on him by rappers such as 50 Cent and Joe Budden, as well as by those who accuse him of working as a male stripper before he became famous as a rapper.

    “I’ve been called everything,” he says when asked about it. “Who gives a fuck, man? Even if I were a stripper, all that means is that I was dancing for money from bitches. That would have been great, too. ‘Cause I can dance a little bit. So, for bitches to throw money at me, hey, I would love it. [It never happened,] but if it did, it wouldn’t be something I was ashamed of.”

It appears that though the game has worn The Game down, it has nonetheless inspired another raw, emotional album from him. To succeed in mainstream rap, one needs giant hooks, a smooth flow and a sense of the dramatic. The Game has all three—and a rare, fourth element to boot: In his cloying need to be loved, he boasts a humanity few other rappers can touch.

[Lunatic]

LAX is not his last solo cd

[LongBeachsFinest]

LAX is not his last solo cd

i dont know . . ive been a game fan for years, and i dont see him in the situation where he's gonna say "this is my fourth album" just like that, if he accomplishs alot with b.w.s then i dont see him wanting to do a fourth album because he will be able to put music out and still get paid via that route, either way he's not going to have another album soon because he's got to work on the b.w.s album, clydes, scipios and juice's . .so only time will tell

[AnybodyKilla]

LAX is not his last solo cd

i dont know . . ive been a game fan for years, and i dont see him in the situation where he's gonna say "this is my fourth album" just like that, if he accomplishs alot with b.w.s then i dont see him wanting to do a fourth album because he will be able to put music out and still get paid via that route, either way he's not going to have another album soon because he's got to work on the b.w.s album, clydes, scipios and juice's . .so only time will tell

[Sir Petey]

he may have learned something from his daddy (fif) and learns not to make promises about retiring he aint ready to keep.

what a corn flake ass nigga...I like game as a rapper but as a person hes a fuckin weirdo.

[the ghost]

he’s no gangsta superhero like collaborator-turned-foe 50 Cent   

[GangstaBoogy]

I just Game wouldn't have name dropped on this album so the haters can really shut the fuck up.

[Kool Beenz]

games a good rapper just got fuckin problems

[LongBeachsFinest]

games a good rapper just got fuckin problems

like every other human in the world, only difference is he lets you witness his private life

[la.shine]

That was the gayest interview i have ever read, i wish i never clicked and read it..

and LBF, Fuck you, YOui make My Computer Lag with that homo BIg ass Pics and Avies,..

[Kool Beenz]

games a good rapper just got fuckin problems

like every other human in the world, only difference is he lets you witness his private life

he still a fuckin cry baby

[Sir Petey]

some of yall seriously need to check with your pediatritian and see if your balls have dropped yet because it seems like this niggas your father figure or some shit.

I bet yall draw pictures of game riding unicorns with his name next to yours on your trapper keepers and shit.

[LongBeachsFinest]

That was the gayest interview i have ever read, i wish i never clicked and read it..

and LBF, Fuck you, YOui make My Computer Lag with that homo BIg ass Pics and Avies,..

then stop being so fucking broke and go getter a better p.c you fucking retard, . .

[RHustle]

some of yall seriously need to check with your pediatritian and see if your balls have dropped yet because it seems like this niggas your father figure or some shit.

I bet yall draw pictures of game riding unicorns with his name next to yours on your trapper keepers and shit.

LMAO .... trapper keeper hahaha havent heard that word in years!

[Black Gloves]

games a good rapper just got fuckin problems

like every other human in the world, only difference is he lets you witness his private life

exaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaactly my nigga!

thats what i been sayin.

game is one of them cats that show all that shit together with maybe pac, eminem and a 1 or 2 others thats why!

btw, for your information petey...games balls tastes like extra salty meat balls u know with that red sause on it and shit. mm mmm!