The Game So Far....

The Game is from the birthplace
of Gangsta' Rap, Compton, CA. But this is a new, different Westside
story, one that joins with the Eastside while paying respects to rap's
hardcore pioneers of the '80s, NWA. The Game, a former gangbanger who
turned to rap after being shot five times and left for dead, is about
peace not war. Working closely with Dr. Dre on his debut album; This
Game is for real.

The
Documentary, (Aftermath/G Unit/Interscope), the debut album from The
Game (aka Jayceon Taylor), announces the arrival of the most
significant West Coast gangsta rapper since Snoop Dogg more than a
decade earlier. With guest spots from 50 Cent, Nate Dogg and several
others, as well as producers from Dr. Dre to Kanye West to Just Blaze
and tracks such as "Like Father Like Son," "Church For Thugs,"
"Dreams," "Where I'm From" and "Westside Story," The Documentary
resurrects the truth, spirit and hope of hardcore rap.

"A lot of
rap today is bubblegum bullshit that says nothing and means nothing to
anybody living in the 'hood," says the 24-year-old with a tattoo of
NWA's Eazy-E on his right forearm. "I'm not knocking anybody's hustle
but I can't feel what's in hip-hop today. Everybody's rapping but
they're not saying anything. NWA, Biggie, 2Pac, Snoop and Jay-Z all had
something to say then Biggie, Pac and Eazy died and it was devastating.
We almost let rap die until the Great White Hype (Eminem) saved hip-hop
and 50 dropped the gangsta wake-up call. I feel like it's my turn now
and I can fill the shoes."

What all three have in common is the
guiding hand of Dr. Dre, Compton's own and one of the founding members
of NWA. "The best moment I've had in rap was walking into his studio in
2002 and Dre saying he heard a mix tape of my freestyles and wanted to
sign me," says Game. "Trying to act cool? I was frozen. I'm still
starstruck with Dre. He's been almost 20 years at the top. That I get
to soak up the game from a musical genius like him gives me a 20-year
head start on everybody else. He's like the father I never had.
Everything about a father throwing a baseball to his son in the
suburbs, that's what NWA was to me. They were the only role models I
had besides Michael Jordan. Eazy was the father of hardcore and I don't
understand why he only gets honorable mention when people talk about
rap."

Game's beloved grandmother nicknamed him Game because he
was always game for anything--basketball, running track, riding bikes,
playing in the streets. Family problems related to his father caused
him to be placed in a foster home from the third grade to the ninth
grade. "My childhood was fucked up but it wasn't really that different
from anyone else who lived in the 'hood," he says. Soon after he was
returned to his mother, one of his older brothers, Jevon, was shot and
killed. The Game then started running behind another older brother, Big
Fase 100, who had been taken in by the Cedar Block Piru Bloods, even
though they grew up in a Crip neighborhood called Santana Block on
Compton's East Side.

Fase tried to keep him away from thuggin'
but, once it became clear that Game was going to be there, his brother
was determined to teach him how to survive on the streets. Then, after
graduating high school in 1999, an older adopted brother, Charles, was
shot and killed. "People don't know what type of toll that takes on
your life," he says. "Especially being young and just fresh out in the
world." A one-time star shooting guard for Compton High School who was
offered scholarships to various colleges, the 6-foot-4 Game now started
gangbangin' hard--car thefts, drug dealing and shootings. Finding him
too much to handle, his mother kicked him out of her house.

In
2000, The Game and his brother moved into the projects in a nearby city
and took over its drug trade. Their success attracted rivals. Late on
the night of October 1, 2001, Game was alone in their apartment when
there was a knock on the door. Game became victim to a home invasion.
"That was the biggest learning experience ever in my life. This sounds
crazy but I appreciate that happening to me, because I'd probably be
dead if it didn't. Anybody who gets shot and survives feels lucky. On
the other hand I went through so much already that I felt somebody owed
me. Now I could live out my dreams."

He sent his brother to buy
new copies of all the classic rap albums, East Coast and West Coast –
Dre's The Chronic, Big's Ready To Die, Jay-Z's Reasonable Doubt, Ice
Cube's Death Certificate, Snoop's Doggystyle, 2Pac's All Eyez On Me,
every Kool G Rap record, and anything from NWA. He studied them
carefully over the next five months. In December 2001, he rapped for
the first time. "I mixed everybody's style into one. That's why some
people feel that I sound like I'm from the East Coast even though I rap
about the West Coast."

He also hopes the purpose of the graphic
nature of The Documentary doesn't get twisted. "I'm telling my story.
I'm out to please no one but myself. I'm not telling anybody to sell
drugs or pick up guns. When I sold drugs it was because it was my last
resort, because I had four sisters and an older brother and we were
eating Cheerios on Thanksgiving. When I picked up a gun it was because
my life was threatened. If you don't want to hear that; then don't
listen. I'm not glorifying the life I lived because I wouldn't wish
that on anybody. I'm just one human being raised in the 'hood who
wanted nothing more than to get out."

His sole regret is that
his grandmother--the only person who ever believed he could make it
out--passed away before she could see his success not just in rap but
in life: In summer 2003, Game became a father for the first time with
son Harlem Caron Taylor. He says the best moment he's ever experienced
was watching his son's mother give birth: "That was some next level
shit. I've never been so happy. I wanted to bring him into the world so
much that I was going, 'Come on!'"

There's more than anger in
this next generation NWA. There's pride and even optimism for the
future. "I gave all I could to this album, it's me. Enjoy it because
it's the last time I'm living it. As humans we grow and the next album
will be about how I'm living now--and I'm loving life."

The Game has only just begun.