The Game
Rap legend, The Game returns in 2025 with ‘The Documentary 20th Anniversary Tour’. Marking twenty years since the release of his seminal debut album, The Game will play headline shows across UK and Europe through March-April 2025. As he prepares to hit the road, The Game is currently working on new studio album, The Documentary 3 – the third album in The Documentary series, set for release in 2025.
On its release in 2005, The Documentary debuted No.1 on the Billboard 200 and went double platinum in the US. Featuring iconic tracks such as “How We Do” “Dreams” and “Hate it or Love It”, the album set the tone for The Game to emerge as a driving force in reviving the once-dominant West Coast hip hop scene. The album went Platinum in Denmark, Ireland and UK, and Gold in Germany.
The Game emerged as one of the early-2000s rawest voices on the West Coast hip-hop scene, with intense autobiographical narratives and a hungry need to assert his lyrical presence. His name was firmly established with his 2005 studio debut, The Documentary, and the rapper moved tirelessly for the next decade-and-a-half, releasing a non-stop string of mixtapes, singles, and acclaimed albums including 2008’s LAX, 2011’s The R.E.D. Album, and 2019’s Born 2 Rap.
The Game was born Jayceon Terrell Taylor in Compton in 1979. Involved in the drug trade after a rough childhood, it took being shot during a home invasion to get him away from dealing drugs and into a life in music. Inspired by N.W.A, The Chronic, Doggystyle, and classic albums from 2Pac, the Notorious B.I.G., and Jay-Z, Game began rapping in 2001. His barbed and bold freestyles caught the ear of Dr. Dre, who brought the Game on as one of the first signees to his Aftermath Records roster in 2003 and executive-produced his debut. Released in 2005, The Documentary featured contributions from Dr. Dre and 50 Cent to Nate Dogg, Kanye West, and Just Blaze, making it clear from the outset that the Game intended to rise above the then-heated geographic divides.
Over the next few years, the rapper’s output of mixtapes and freestyles was dominated by his rivalry with 50 Cent. With Dre left in the middle, he remained absent from the Game’s second album Doctor’s Advocate in 2006, and by the time LAX was released in 2008, the subject matter had largely moved on. Following a period of retirement talk, The R.E.D. Album was eventually released in 2011 and one year later, his conceptual album Jesus Piece landed with a guest list including Rick Ross, Lil Wayne, 2 Chainz, J. Cole and Chris Brown. Late in 2012, he formed the label Blood Money Entertainment with rapper Stat Quo, which saw its first release „Bigger Than Me“ two years later. The single landed on Game’s 2014 release Blood Moon: Year of the Wolf, another feature-filled album with Too $hort on board for the follow-up single, „Or Nah.“
2015 saw the Game return with The Documentary 2, a star studded effort featuring the likes of Dr. Dre, Ice Cube, Nas, Drake and Q-Tip. Following this success, the Game crossed over into TV and games with A&E’s three-part documentary series Streets of Compton in 2014, whilst his likeness starred in a mobile game, Block Wars, later that year, both with accompanying soundtrack releases. His eighth proper studio album, 1992, followed in October, and topped the Billboard independent and Top R&B/hip-hop charts, peaking at number four on the overall Top 200.
In June 2019, the Game released „West Side„, the first single off his ninth album, Born 2 Rap, which landed at number 19 on the Billboard 200. It featured guest appearances by Dom Kennedy, Ed Sheeran, 21 Savage, Anderson .Paak, and others. The rapper had previously announced that it would be his final studio album, but nonetheless returned in 2020 with the standalone single „A.I. with the Braids„, an homage to NBA star Allen Iverson featuring Lil Wayne.
August 2022 saw The Game release his highly anticipated album, DRILLMATIC. After the success of “EAZY” featuring Kanye West, the 30-track album executive produced by Hit Boy was stacked with incredible collaborations including Ye, Ice T, Big Sean, Lil Wayne, Ty Dolla $ign, 2 Chainz, Rick Ross, ASAP Rocky, Chris Brown, YG, former rival Meek Mill and more.
Hallo, ich bin Maya.
