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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. [

There’s really no sense in trying to figure out what goes on in Jayceon Taylor’s mind. As he puts it, there’s good days and bad days. The good days consist of traveling the world and racking up positive reviews of his new album L.A.X., thanks to his current single “My Life” with Lil Wayne. The bad comes from those pesky suicidal thoughts, dealing with tragedies like Sean Bell’s murder, and figuring out how he fits in to this fickle hip-hop world.

When we spoke with Game yesterday, he seemed more outspoken and at ease than ever. In this exclusive interview with Complex, he welcomes a battle with Jay-Z (relax, there’s no diss record coming…yet), explains why Dr. Dre can’t finish Detox without him, and confesses that Young Buck is one of his best friends.

Complex: After “My Life,” what will the next single off L.A.X. be?

The Game: I don’t know. I usually let the streets pick the third single. The streets, and the radio will dictate what that’s going to be. Once the album drops, we’ll pretty much know what that is. “My Life” just came out so we’re going to give that some time to breathe. It’s doing good, getting rave reviews.

Complex: The video focuses on Sean Bell, and a while back there was another video of you getting emotional over his murder. Do you think it’s easier for rappers to show their human side now?

The Game:I really don’t know about that, man. I just know about myself, and the stuff that I do. The whole situation was really heartfelt. It was a situation gone wrong, all the way down to the police officers getting acquitted, to the loss of Sean Bell. I just wanted to jump in there head first. When I speak, people listen, so I thought I’d just take some time and shed some light on that situation.

Complex: Buck took a lot of flack for the leaked phone call of him crying. Did that surprise you?

The Game:Nah, I don’t care about that. Everybody cries—men, women, children. Whenever you’re emotional about anything in life, you’re going to shed a tear. Buck shed some tears. I already knew what 50 was up to with that, trying to show a way to expose Buck. He was emotional and I understand that. As a man, I get emotional and cry sometimes. Whenever you’re touched by something that much and it’s tearing you up inside, you’re going to shed a tear. For another man to try and expose that, that’s low and despicable.


Complex: Buck was in the “My Life” video. What’s your relationship like with him now?

The Game:Me and Young Buck, it’s always been 100. We’ve been cool the whole time. We just never spoke on our friendship or camaraderie, due to the fact that he was signed to G-Unit. I didn’t want to mess up the situation. I’ve been talking to Buck ever since I got kicked out of G-Unit, that’s my man. One of my best friends in hip-hop today and it’s going to stay that way.

Complex: Did he ever imply that he wasn’t happy in that camp?

The Game:Neither one of us were feeling what 50 was doing at the time we were in G-Unit. I was just the person who couldn’t put up with it anymore, first.

Complex: Are you doing a mixtape together?

The Game:Yeah, people are making a big deal out of that, but it’s just simple. Buck and I are going to do a mixtape, we’re going to put something out in the streets and they’re definitely going to feel it because it’s me and him, and we were the dopest artists in G-Unit anyway. We held that group together. The world feels that me and Buck were the glue—once you’re done with the glue, then the fuckin’ shit falls apart. You saw what happened with their latest release. It’s trash.

Complex: Did the lackluster sales of Terminate On Sight surprise you?

The Game:No, man—they died after “300 Bars.” I went to the funeral and everything, sat in the front row with the family.

Complex: After recent interviews and imagery on covers of magazines, people have been wondering about