stringer bell
New member
Complex: We had actually heard a version of the album and we did a write-up on it. Is that the same version of the album or are you gonna start re-arranging the tracks?
Game: If you heard any version of my album, then it can’t be nowhere near the same tracklist or even songs, it keeps changing. The more time they give me to record, the crazier I’m gonna make it and the better the songs are gonna fit with the other songs. Yeah, man, it’s definitely not the way you heard it. If you haven’t heard it yesterday, it’s definitely not the way you heard it.
Complex: A story that popped up not too long ago is Desperado Entertainment claiming that they were gonna sue Aftermath because they weren’t paid for your publishing. I didn’t understand the situation completely; can you break it down?
Game: I can’t ’cause I don’t know what that’s about. They said they’re gonna sue Aftermath. I’m not Aftermath, I’m Game. So I don’t know about what’s going on with Aftermath lawsuits.
Complex: Basically, they were saying that they owned your publishing from before you signed with Dre, and that they were owed a lot of money for your albums that they never got.
Game: Well, fuck it, man, I own fucking Buddy Holly’s publishing. Who do I sue?
Complex: [Laughs.] Right. So no one has brought that to you like “Yo, you know this happened?” You’re not worried about that at all?
Game: Man, people threaten to sue and do shit all day. You trip over a rock and somebody wanna sue you for tripping over a rock in front of their baby. I don’t fucking know, man, people always suing, that’s the cool thing to do.
Complex: Recently when you were talking with MTV, you said your album won’t have any disses on it. Is that still true?
Game: My album won’t have no disses on it, man. I’m 30 now, and I’m far past that. But if anybody fucks with me in the future, I’ll definitely put their fire out. I mean, let’s still recognize who I am and my capabilities. But at this point in my life, I just wanna make music and feed my kids and that’s it.
Complex: Why did you decide to move away from dissing people?
Game: You don’t move away, you just get older. Boxers retire, fighters retire. Everybody that does shit where they’re going up against somebody or there’s some type of competition; that shit gets old. Mike Tyson’s not boxing anymore, neither is Lennox Lewis, neither is Muhammad Ali. But they were great when they were doing it, everybody respects them for that. So I’m not gonna lose no respect for not dissing nobody, everybody knows what I did and if they don’t recognize or understand it yet, then when I’m gone—when I’m five years out of hip-hop—people will look back and see what I did.
Complex: When your last album was coming out there was a lot of talk saying that you would retire and that it would be your last album. Obviously it wasn’t. Do you think you’re gonna retire and go away after this album?
Game: Who knows, man? I’m just gonna make music ’til I get tired of making music.
Complex: This is your first album back on Aftermath. How do you feel the situation is compared with your last record when you were saying that the label put it out with no buzz?
Game: I got a chance to be in the studio with Dre for two months, letting him oversee my project and really make it better. And Dre, his contribution to this album was a lot more than it was to The Documentary, which is the reason why I think this is such a great album. The things that changed from from the last album to this are simply the things that changed. Back with Aftermath, Pharrell producing. I’ve re-found my grind, my lyrical content is up to par.
Complex: Did you and Dre ever get a chance to talk about all the stuff that went down before with the Doctor’s Advocate album or even the song “Doctor’s Advocate?”
Game: Yeah. But anything that me and Dre talk about personally, what goes down between us, it kind of stays between us. And I think that’s what keeps our relationship golden. I don’t really talk about Dr. Dre except other than giving him props for taking me from between a rock and a hard spot and giving me the chance to be a millionaire, and feed my family.
Complex: Speaking of your family, recently there was some footage where you were on stage performing and someone threw beer at your kids. What was the situation there?
Game: Yeah, that’s another thing I ain’t gonna talk about. You know it happened, you know every now and then if you believe in God, you gotta believe in the Devil. Sometimes shit happens and you just kind of have to look it off. If it was 2005 that dude would’ve been in the hospital and I’d have been sued for a million dollars by now. But it ain’t. And the beer didn’t really hit my kids, he just threw it our way, it hit me, but I aint tripping off that. But if anything happens to my kids, those are my kids. I will die for them and kill you for them. Point blank, period. When it comes to my kids, everything else goes out the window, out the world, and just out of my life and I don’t give a fuck. When it comes to my kids I will definitely kill you, by myself.
Complex: That’s the thing I felt just watching the video; it was like, “why would anyone do that?”
Game: Man, why would fucking Charlie Manson kill all those people, why would Jim Jones make everybody drink fucking poison Kool-Aid, why would people throw beers? Its just some people are ignorant, they do shit like that and that’s just what it is and it happened, and it’s gone.
Complex: It’s interesting to me you mentioned “if this was 2005”—talking to you now, you seem much more mature. Are you realizing that you’re too grown to get into those kind of shenanigans?
Game: I’m pretty sure you’re not doing the same things you were doing when you were 15, right? You just get older. The only thing that sounds feasible about explaining how you got older, how you get wiser, is simply to say that you’re older and you’re wiser. And it just happens in time. Nobody when they’re 20 is doing the same exact thing when they’re 30. You gotta have some sense or else you’re gonna get looked at like an asshole. If I was fucking selling crack, shooting people, and still out there actually gang-banging, throwing up Blood every single day and shooting Crips in the face, would you think I was smart then? Being Game, putting out albums and having my kids? Nah, that would be the dumb thing to do. So I’m not on that. There are kids out there that are 17 and 18 that will put a bullet in your fucking head at the drop of a dime. And I think that if they went to jail for 20 years, after being in jail they’d wish they’d never done it. When I went to jail the coldest killers in life would tell you, nobody in jail wants to be there a day after they’re checked in.
All these people thinking they’re gangsta. And after the Rick Ross song everybody thinking they’re Big Meech again, Larry Hoover. Nobody really should wanna be that or aspire to be that ’cause you’re gonna end up in a coffin. And trust me, man, most of these rappers, outside of me, 50, and maybe Waka Flocka and some other muthafuckas, ain’t never felt bullets man, ain’t never had a brush with really actually having your life erased. So a lot of these rappers out here playing, man; that’s just not the message I’m trying to send across no more.
Complex: Does that ever bother you as far as other rappers doing that? I mean you mentioned Rick Ross, he’s on your record, isn’t he?
Game: Yup.
Complex: Does it bother you that he’s kind of a phony?
Game: I mean, that’s you talking, not me. But to each his own man. You got opinions and I got mine. Mine, I don’t want to address it and then my second comment about it is to each his own. I mean let’s be 100% real just between me and you, how many rappers are really fucking Big Meech and Larry Hoover, man? Absolutely none. How many rappers outside of John Forte from the Fugees are really moving birds? [Laughs.] Like, come on, man, and that was sort of an R&Bish rapper type of cat and he was really moving birds. I know when I first read that I was like, “Damn!” [Laughs.] We just rappers, man. It’s a lifestyle. And even if you used to chop crack you wasn’t really moving no major major fucking Pablo Escobar weight. So let’s just calm down with all that and get back to music, man. It’s a facade. And I can’t say anything except that I’m a part of it, too. There was a time where I would put 17 bullets in a glock, tie my rag around my face, and do what I had to do to survive. And now, I’m walking into Starbucks, I’m getting me some tea and I’m getting ready to do a show. It’s a long time and a long space and there’s room for a lot of change and a lot of growing up shit that happened in my career from that time ’til now. Now these days, if I’m still pressed or I’m pushed to my limit I don’t think there’s no difference from me being a gangsta rapper than a guy who’s in a fucking post office, gets mad and pulls out an AK on everybody at his job. I think that anybody pushed to a limit will go to the max about their family, their kids, and their lifestyle. So everybody’s sort of gangsta in the world, ’cause who won’t go there if they need to?
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