The Game Biography

Never ceases to entertain his numerous fans around, The Game seems quite determined to spend the rest of year 2006 greeting the devoted followers through some performances he is about to hold either on screen or on stage. Already taping several of them for "Last Call with Carson Daly" and "CD USA", the rapper next can also be seen appearing on "The Late Show with David Letterman" aired on November 16 before showing up live on date 21 at the Avalon in Hollywood for Flash Concerts 2006. Following this, there will be a series of other live gigs set to kick off abroad on December 4 in Manchester, U.K then runs up to date 22 with stops that include venues in Scotland, Italy, Belgium, Denmark, and Germany.

Considered to be a pioneer in bringing back the West Coast hip-hop scene also breaking the East Coast emcees' dominance in the rap circuit, The Game was born Jayceon Terell Taylor on November 27, 1979 in Los Angeles, California and grew up in Compton alongside a Crip gang neighborhood known as Santana Blocc. This rough surrounding inescapably forced him to face the gloomy side of life since a very young age as he often witnessed both of his parents preparing to do drive-bys while out there, neighborhood friends got murdered for little more than the shoes on their feet. "My childhood was fucked up," he admitted. "But it wasn't really that different from anyone else who lived in the 'hood."

Things unfortunately did not get better by the time Taylor reached his teens, even turned worse following the brutal murder of his older brother Jevon, leading him to run behind another older brother named Big Fase 100 through whom he later got involved in gang-banging, drug dealing, and shootings. Though so, he still managed to finish his study at Compton High School in 1999 to then enroll in Washington State University, thanks to his basketball skills. Sadly, the scholarship was revoked when he was found with drugs in his possession and so, sunk him deeper into the street life as he thus concluded to engage in drug trade not long after he moved to an apartment on the outskirts of Compton in Bellflower with Big Fase.

Such dangerous venture inevitably brought Taylor to dire situation which finally reached its culmination on October 1, 2001, the day he was shot five times by the assailants coming to his apartment late at night. Though the incident almost cost the young man his dear life as he laid in coma for two days at the hospital, it on the other hand appeared to be a blessing in disguise since this became the turning point for him to start anew. "That was the biggest learning experience ever in my life," he recalled. "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."

Came to a decision to be a rapper, Taylor then spent much of his time listening to hip-hop music while recovering. "I listened to so much music that it started to consume me," so he said. "I would jot down Jay-Z's rhymes, Snoop Dogg's rhymes, Ice Cube's rhymes, and kind of fix them so that they pertained a little bit more to me."In the course of five months, the guy persistently studied the artists' albums and crafted his free-styling skills until he felt confident enough to make his first effort, a mixtape called "You Know What It Is Vol. 1" via The Black Wall Street Records that he founded with Big Fase. To his delight, the work ultimately found its way into the hands of Dr. Dre who instantly signed him in under his Aftermath Entertainment.

Afterwards adopted the nickname his late grandmother had given him due to his eagerness to always 'game' for any sports activity as his moniker, The Game was then plotted to work together with 50 Cent's G-Unit to create a growing buzz around both of them. Within a short time, he wonderfully saw himself participating in the band's mixtapes while also getting featured in their music video of "Wanna Get to Know You" as well as Cent's "In Da Club" before releasing his U.S debut single "Westside Story" in September 2004. Previously welcomed the birth of his son, Harlem Caron Taylor, by summer 2003, he smoothly followed it up with his first major album "The Documentary" released on January 18, 2005.

Featuring the likes of Eminem, Faith Evans, Busta Rhymes, and Mary J. Blige, the record really did not find any difficulty to instantly soar as the new phenomenon in the hip-hop scene as it amazingly sold over 586,000 units in its first week to secure the top spot of The Billboard 200. In the meantime, two out of its eighteen tracks namely "Dreams" and "Hate It or Leave It" gloriously became massive hits with the latter peaking at number two on The Billboard Hot 100, all unmistakably leading The Game to widespread popularity in consequence. By the end of the year, sales on the LP had already reached 2.2 million copies which thus urged the RIAA to bestow double Platinum status on the album and so automatically made the rapper's star shine brighter for sure.

Amidst this great success, however, The Game gravely could not elude himself from feud with many other rappers even before the release of "The Documentary", notably with Cent and G-Unit, mainly because Cent perceived that he was disloyal for refusing to participate in G-Unit's beefs with the likes of Nas and Jadakiss. This thus prompted the rapper to finally leave Aftermath for Geffen Records by 2006 in his effort to completely be disconnected from Cent and G-Unit. On the other hand, one more achievement was joyously attained in the same year as he received Grammy nod for Best Rap Performance by a Duo or Group category while "Hate It or Love It" landed another for Best Rap Song.

Following his move to Geffen, The Game wisely dedicated most of his time to work on his sophomore effort titled "Doctor's Advocate", in the process again making star-studded collaboration, this time with Kanye West, Jamie Foxx, will.i.am, and Snoop Dogg among others. Prior to the record's arrival in stores on November 14, 2006, he confidently launched a single called "It's Okay (One Blood)" on July 24 then "Let's Ride" on September 25, in between shockingly ending his engagement to Valeisha Butterfield, daughter of U.S. Congressman G. K. Butterfield, that he announced in June.

In 2007, Game announced that he'd be releasing "LAX" as his last studio effort. The album was eventually released on August 22, 2018 and battled against Slipknot's "All Hope Is Gone" for the No. 1 spot on Billboard 200. "LAX" first topped the list, but then ended up placing second in the tight race after Slipknot's labels asked for a SoundScan recount.

"LAX" spawned four singles, "Game's Pain" with R&B singer Keyshia Cole, "Dope Boys" with Blink-182's Travis Barker, "My Life" with rapper Lil Wayne and "Camera Phone" with R&B singer Ne-Yo.

Despite having announced "LAX" as his last album, Game began working on his next LP, "The R.E.D. Album", in 2009. In June that year, he dropped a song titled "Better on the Other Side" which is a tribute to Michael Jackson who passed a few days earlier. It features P. Diddy, Mario Winans, Chris Brown, Usher and Boyz II Men.

Later in early January 2010, Game posted a twitpic of him wearing a lot of Aftermath chains with a caption saying, "It's funny how things come Full Circle." Later he confirmed that he had returned to Aftermath Entertainment. His "R.E.D. Album" was finally released on August 23, 2011 and reached No. 1 on the Billboard 200.

Shortly after the release of the long delayed fourth studio album, Game announced he had begun working on his fifth LP. The record called "Jesus Piece" was released on December 11, 2012 as the rapper's last project under Interscope. Featuring appearances from Lil Wayne, Big Sean, J. Cole, Jamie Foxx, Wiz Khalifa, Tyga and Chris Brown, it debuted at No. 6 on the Billboard 200.

On October 8, The Game released his first project since leaving Interscope, a mixtape titled "Operation Kill Everything". Days after the mixtape's release, Game spoke to XXL where he said he had started working on his sixth studio album. He also mentioned he had talked to Warner Bros. Records about a record deal.

On October 12, 2013, Birdman announced that he had signed Game to Cash Money Records. In 2014, he joined other Cash Money artists on the compilation album "Blood Moon: Year of the Wolf". He appeared on the set's lead single "Bigger than Me" which heavily sampled rock group Polica's 2013 single "Warrior Lord". The following day, Game announced that his sixth studio album, a sequel to his debut album "The Documentary", would be arriving in January 2015, with Dr. Dre returning as producer along with Just Blaze and Scott Storch.

Later on March 18, 2015, Game announced that "The Documentary 2" was set for release on June 30. The album was then pushed back to August 7 before being pushed back again to August 28. The record is led by single "100" featuring Drake.