The Game

Compton native the Game fuses gritty personal storytelling, an unyielding drive to prove his mic skills, and a habit of weaving in hip-hop history that validates his very moniker. Breaking out early in the 2000s as one of the most unfiltered talents on the West Coast, he announced his arrival with the chart-topping debut The Documentary (2005). He has sustained that momentum through the follow-up number-one sets Doctor's Advocate (2006) and The R.E.D. Album (2011), along with further high-ranking concept works such as 1992 (2016) and the double-length DRILLMATIC Heart vs. Mind (2022).

Jayceon Terrell Taylor entered the world in Compton in 1979. After a difficult upbringing drew him into the drug trade, a shooting during a home invasion finally steered him toward music instead. Drawing inspiration from N.W.A, The Chronic, Doggystyle, and landmark recordings by 2Pac, the Notorious B.I.G., and Jay-Z, he began rapping in 2001 and never stopped. His sharp, aggressive freestyles reached Dr. Dre, who signed him in 2003 as one of the first artists on Aftermath Records and served as executive producer of his debut. Multiple postponements pushed the project back, yet The Documentary ultimately arrived in January 2005. Contributions from Dre, 50 Cent, Nate Dogg, Kanye West, and Just Blaze underscored that the heated regional rivalries of the moment held no interest for the newcomer.

Friction soon erupted between Game and 50 Cent after the former refused to target every G-Unit adversary. A torrent of freestyles and mixtapes poured from both camps, with any apparent cease-fire collapsing at the eleventh hour. Dr. Dre found himself caught between them and, though he never openly criticized Game, declined to participate in the rapper’s next album. Even without Dre’s involvement, the 2006 sophomore effort kept its intended title, Doctor’s Advocate. Two years later LAX appeared, an inconsistent project that referenced both Dre and 50 Cent far less as Game attempted to move past those earlier fixations. After floating retirement rumors, he reversed course and started work on The R.E.D. Album, the acronym standing for “rededicated.” Following repeated delays and a string of promotional singles, the record finally surfaced in August 2011.

Jesus Piece arrived a year later, boasting an extensive roster of guests that included Rick Ross, Lil Wayne, 2 Chainz, and Chris Brown. The thematic set probed the tension between spirituality and street life, reflecting the rapper’s own routine of moving between church pews and strip clubs. Late in 2012 he revealed a new partnership with Stat Quo under the banner Blood Money Entertainment; the label’s first output came two years later with the single “Bigger Than Me.” That track landed on the 2014 album Blood Moon: Year of the Wolf, another star-studded affair whose next single, “Or Nah,” featured Too $hort. Dr. Dre, Ice Cube, Nas, and Q-Tip headed the lengthy guest list on the 2015 release The Documentary 2, which was previewed by the Drake-assisted single “100.” In 2016 the A&E network broadcast the three-part documentary Streets of Compton, and eOne issued its accompanying soundtrack. Later the same year Game’s image appeared in the mobile game Block Wars, which also spawned a commercial soundtrack. His eighth studio album, 1992, followed in October, led by the Scott Storch-produced “All Eyez” featuring Jeremih. The project topped Billboard’s independent and Top R&B/hip-hop charts while reaching number four on the Billboard 200.

June 2019 brought the single “West Side,” the first offering from ninth album Born 2 Rap, which appeared later that year and peaked at number 19 on the Billboard 200 with guest spots from Dom Kennedy, Ed Sheeran, 21 Savage, Anderson .Paak, and others. Although Game had declared the set his final studio album, he kept recording and released the non-album single “A.I. with the Braids” in 2020, a tribute to Allen Iverson that included Lil Wayne.

Two years afterward he returned with the ambitious double album DRILLMATIC Heart vs. Mind. Across its two-hour span he impersonated numerous MCs, most notably Eminem on the ten-minute diss track “The Black Slim Shady,” while enlisting an unusually broad cast of producers and collaborators. The Eazy-E-referencing single “Eazy” alone united him with Kanye West, DJ Premier, Mike Dean, Hit-Boy, Big Duke, and Cash Jones. The album reached number 12 on the Billboard 200. A mixtape titled Time surfaced in June 2024, featuring Woodboy Gee, C Stunna, Stunna 4 Vegas, and CHLLER.