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5/5/2008 Your new album L.A.X. was pushed back until July. Is that a good move?  You know how that’s how it goes, man. When the album gets pushed back, it’s usually because they need more time to breathe or somebody’s scared of dropping on the same date as somebody. I don’t have no problem with dropping on the same date as Hannah Montana, Elvis Presley, Michael Jackson…You know.  Did you do anything differently on L.A.X. than what you did on your previous two albums?  Every album I’m going to change the concept. I’m going to stick to the concept, whatever concept we set for that album, I’m going to go around and get the beats and the producers and do all that stuff and bring the movie to light.  Did being a new father affect the music you made for L.A.X?  Oh, man, being a father just has a snowball effect on my life. My kids, man, they push me to grind, man. And every time I come through, I gotta make the biggest and the best album for them so their future is financially secure.  Are you trying to set an example in the hip-hop community and to young people in general by being a responsible father to your kids?  I try to make the music that appeals to the hip-hop that I grew up listening to. I’m not trying to be an example, but if you want to take an example from what I’m doing and me letting my kids be my motivation and loving them to death, then I would love to be an example to other rap artists and fathers in general around the world.  Did your first single, the Cool and Dre-produced “Big Dreams”, go as far as you wanted it to?  As soon as I got out of jail, I crashed a session with Cool and Dre and they let me record that and I threw it on the internet the next day. “Big Dreams” isn’t going to go as far as the next big song, but “Big Dreams” is up to over 100 spins and I think that’s dope.  You shout out Jay-Z on “Big Dreams”. Will we see you working with Jay sometime in the future?  Oh, man, you gotta ask Jay. I would love to work with Jay just like I did Dre and 50 and people that I used to work with that I can’t work with anymore. Game gotta get it done by himself.  You shout out a lot of legends in “Pain”. How important is it to you to pay homage to the real legends of the game?  It’s really important because a lot of artists these days are forgetting to do that or they’re not doing it. I always want to be the last of the last of the greatest of the real hip-hop MCs. On every album or every couple of songs, I’m always going to touch base on the hip-hop of old, the hip-hop that we love and the hip-hop that we grew up on, from the Rakims to the N.W.As to the Spice Ones to the Juice Crew all the way back to Grandmaster Caz and Flash and the Furious Five, and Double Trouble and Run-DMC, LL Cool J, Kool Moe Dee, Canibus, Mos Def, Ice Cube. The list goes on and on. I could do it all day, man.  Do you want to work with more artists from the ‘80s and ‘90s?  You know, what I do, I hear a beat and the beat tells me what I should say on it and what I should work with on it. If I get a beat that demands some of the great pioneers then that’s what I’ll be doing.  What did it mean to you when KRS-One reached out to you for “Stop the Violence 2008”?  Man, it meant a lot to me. Me and KRS-One, we were friends before that and we are friends after that. I love him and his legacy and I appreciated that phone call when I got it.   What other producers did you work with on L.A.X?  My same lethal injection crew. Swizz Beatz, Just Blaze, Cool and Dre, Hi-Tek, J.R. Rotem, Trey Beatz, a lot of the same guys. I don’t like to break up the formula. Why break up the Bulls when you’re winning championships, you know?  Are fans too hung up on you working with Dr. Dre again?  I think everybody’s too hung up on that, man. If Dre wants to work with me, he’ll call and nine out of 10 times, I’ll go through and we’ll make some music, but until then, man, Game’s gotta do Game. I can’t wait on Dre or anybody else. This is hip-hop, man, and I’m a potent figure in hip-hop. I just gotta do what I gotta do to keep my album afloat. I can’t be waiting on anybody.  If Dre works on Detox, will you be involved?  I think that if Dre actually does do or starts working or finishes Detox, I don’t think he can finish it without having me.  Did your “911 Is A Joke” remake in the wake of the policemen who shot Sean Bell being acquitted get the response you wanted from the hip-hop community?  Yeah, it did, man. I got Reverend Al Sharpton on my voicemail and Sean Bell’s wife called. I’m getting a lot of positive feedback. Some negative, too, but I expected that. I got a video for “911 Is A Joke” dropping later today.  You were angry with the hip-hop community over their response to the policemen who shot Sean Bell being acquitted. Can you explain that?  I just feel like more people should have stepped up. I reached out to a couple of hip-hop artists to see if they wanted to take part in what I was doing and it seemed like they were scared. And that’s their own thing, man. I’m not going to call anybody pussies or punks, man, but I just felt like more people should have stepped up. And it wasn’t until I did what I did until everybody was like, ‘Oh, I guess it’s safe.’ Everybody’s coming out with Sean Bell tribute songs and I feel like that’s all bullshit.  You feel like Sean Bell songs are more for rappers to get their name out there than to actually pay tribute to Sean Bell.   Exactly.  You recently launched ThisIzGame.com. What inspired you to start the site?  I wanted a website that really focused on me and it was really for my fans so they could get the true blue out of Game. I wanted them to get the true information and not have to go to other websites to find out about me. It’s your one-stop shop to get information, clothes, news, music and what have you on Game.  Are you surprised that Young Buck got kicked out of G-Unit or did you see that coming?  I told you guys that that was going to happen years ago, man. I think Lloyd Banks is going to be the next to go and then it’s just going to be 50 and Yayo. But G-Unit is a thing of the past, man. I don’t want to focus too much on G-Unit. You don’t even have to put this in the article because I’m tired of the whole G-Unit thing.  Will fans and writers ever not ask you about 50 Cent?   I think as long as I live there’s going to be someone asking me about 50 or asking him about me. At least let’s do some damage control and talk about it as least as possible.  No doubt. Are you satisfied with your place in the hip-hop game?  Yeah, I’m definitely satisfied, man. I never thought that I would go platinum. I’m eight times platinum with two albums. I’m about to drop a third one that’s going to be multi-platinum, man, and I hope that I can break 10 times platinum with this album, man. I’m further along than I ever thought I would be.  Do you have any sales goals for L.A.X?  I don’t have any goals or nothing. From here on out, I’m floating and I’m happy. I’m peaceful and I just want to do my music and I’m not going to focus on sales goals or what I do the first week. I just want to make good music. As long as I know I made a fucking classic album and it’s packaged and put on shelves, it’s going to do what it does, man.  In other interviews you’ve said that L.A.X. is going to be your last album. Is that still the case?  Yeah, it’s the last album, man. I’m done. I’m just going to be watching Kobe dominate the NBA for the next five years.  Have you been keeping up with the 2008 presidential race?  Yes. Obama all the way, man.

By Brian Kayser

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