The Game
Shooting star: OK, who do you have to be shot by round here to become a rap star? In the cut-throat world of hip-hop, it's not enough to talk tough - you gotta have a few bullet wounds to prove you're 4 real and get in da club. 50 Cent was shot to fame by a trigger-happy gang member, and now Jayceon Taylor aka The Game has some Crip to thank for popping a cap in his ass, and helping him on the road to superstardom. Taylor started out as a hustler and drug dealer in his native Compton, the notorious LA 'hood, and that's where he would have ended his days, if it wasn't for a wake-up call from a Smith & Wesson. "That was the biggest learning experience ever in my life," says the 24-year-old star. "This sounds crazy but I appreciate that happening to me, because I'd probably be dead if it didn't."
Docu-drama: With his début album, The Documentary (see review), The Game has been hailed as the saviour of West Coast gangsta rap, and the successor to Snoop Dogg's crown. He's coming to the East Coast of Ireland on February 25th, as Snoop's support act at the Point. The album shot to the top of the Billboard 200 on a wave of hype, selling more than half a million copies in its first week. Seems that The Game is what everyone's been waiting for. "A lot of rap today is bubblegum bullshit that says nothing and means nothing to anybody living in the 'hood," he claims. "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." Game's rhymes are influenced by Compton's original gangstas NWA, and Dr Dre himself has taken the young tyro under his wing, signing him to his Aftermath label.
Game boy: Nicknamed The Game by his grandmother because he was "game for anything", Taylor had set his mind on a career in sports, inspired by his hero Michael Jordan. But the gangbanging lifestyle beckoned, and soon Game was running the local drug trade with his brother. He was all set to be a bad boy for life, until one night in 2001 when a gang burst into his apartment and shot him five times. While recovering from his brush with death, he sent his brother out to buy classic rap albums by Dre, Biggie, Jay-Z, Ice Cube, Snoop, 2Pac, Kool G Rap and NWA. "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."
Get-out cause: The Game insists that he's not glorifying the gangsta life on The Documentary's 17 semi-autobiographical tracks. "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. I'm just one human being raised in the 'hood who wanted nothing more than to get out."
