Game: The Ecstatic

It's less than two weeks away from Game's thirtieth birthday. Few seem to realize that the youthful, energetic, and once death-defying rapper is reaching that benchmark in his life. But then again, looking at Ice Cube, Dr. Dre or Snoop Dogg, do gangsta rappers ever really grow old anyway?




If there's one sign that Jayceon Taylor is closing out the third decade of his life, it's his happiness. Speaking with HipHopDX on the evening of November 18 (seven hours prior to publication), the once evasive, sometimes confrontational and always outspoken rapper beams with a confidence and a care in his words. Yes, he still curses like a sailor in a tone reserved for a sidewalk executive, but Game isn't out to offend anybody this time around. Instead, just as the acronym for his R.E.D. album indicates, he just wants to re-dedicate himself to Hip Hop.



The father of two touches upon his recent reunion with one of his mentors, Dr. Dre. He explains why he refuses to "get murdered on his own shit" and why he's chasing down DJ Premier for a pan-am collaboration that he hopes will set Hip Hop ablaze. Two years removed from considering retirement, Game is smiling in the face of adversity. And this time it's sincere.



HipHopDX: I want to start where our last conversation left off, I think it was June, 2008. At that time, you weren't even sure you were going to make another album at all. But you told me, if you were, it was going to be D.O.C. - Diary of Compton. You were talking all these legendary guests and this theme. Maybe that still is a plan of yours, but at what point and why did it evolve to the R.E.D. album?

Game: The way it happened...I was starting to work on D.O.C., right? But, like I told you last time, in order to record The D.O.C., I need to be in the studio with D.O.C., with [Dr.] Dre, with [Ice] Cube, with Snoop [Dogg] - 'cause it's the Diary of Compton. I really want it to sound like...like, after you finish listening to The D.O.C., which will probably be recorded and put out by the end of my career, at some point, when I can get in with those guys and really focus on that project. I want you to feel like you're from Compton after you hear it. You felt everything that I felt and knew everything that I knew; I want it to just sound like you were me. I want you to feel like you grew up with me. You're from Compton [hearing Eazy-E for the first time]. I want you to be on The Diary Of Compton. I want it to be that intimate and that crazy. So to pull off that concept, the key elements were missing at the time when I started the album, so I stopped that project.
 
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