Rapper The Game admits that his feelings were hurt when he was excluded from the acclaimed Super Bowl halftime show that featured a bevy of legends that incuded Dr. Dre, Snoop Dogg, Mary J. Blige, Eminem, 50 Cent and Kendrick Lamar.
The 42-year-old Compton, California-born rapper, whose real name is Jayceon Terrell Taylor, believes that Dr. Dre and organizers were apprehensive about inviting him because of the explosive and unpredictable behavior that has characterized his career.
“The real reason I wasn’t on the Super Bowl [halftime show] is because I’m not a ‘safe’ artist,’” The Game told the “I am Athlete” podcast hosted by Brandon Marshall, Pacman Jones and Nick Young. “You don’t know what the Game gon’ do when he get up there. So, it’s just like, ‘He not safe,’ so they went with the safe artists.”
The Game reasons that the Super Bowl halftime show was an ode to Los Angeles and therefore he and the likes of YG should have been inserted into the lineup that won rave reviews that February day.
“We, on the West Coast, are the only motherf—ers who have this crab-in-a-barrel mentality, where we wanna keep n—-s down,” The Game explained. “Snoop Dogg is an icon. Dre is an icon. Em is an icon, but Em is not from L.A. 50 is not from L.A. I’m not taking away from the fact that they were on the Super Bowl, but L.A. [artists] wouldn’t have been in the Detroit Super Bowl or New York Super Bowl. It just wouldn’t have happened … L.A., L.A., L.A. all around the Super Bowl and I didn’t get the call.”
When one of the hosts asked how being left off that all-star team made him feel, the Game retorted, “I was hurt by that.”
The Game adds that Dre should have phoned him to let him know why he was left off the squad.
“I talk to Dre often. I just know if I was Dre and he was Game, he would’ve been up there,” he continued. “That’s just it. It’s L.A. I am L.A. I’m in the streets … So, yeah, I was hurt. Now am I bothered by it today? I’m not bothered by it today.”
