Credit: NRK P3

The Game was once a member of G-Unit before his beef with 50 Cent over alleged disloyalty saw them distance themselves. The Compton rapper released his debut album, The Documentary, through 50’s label and Dr Dre’s Aftermath imprint in 2005, with Eminem producing and featuring on the song ‘We Ain’t’.

50 has had a longtime relationship with Em after Slim Shady discovered him and signed him to Shady Records label in 2002 following the release of his Guess Who’s Back? mixtape. Despite his issues with 50, The Game stayed clear from Em due to his level of lyricism.

“In hip-hop, Eminem is the only rapper that nobody ever wants a problem with, including myself, man,” he said during an interview. “Eminem is like the most lyrically insane. Even when I was going at 50 and me and Dre wasn’t seeing eye-to-eye, I stayed away from the white dude. Y’know, ’cause he a problem.” When asked what he would do if Em dissed him, The Game said he would “run.”

Despite his comments, The Game went on to diss Eminem months later with a 10-minute track called ‘The Black Slim Shady’ from his Drillmatic – Heart vs. Mind album. He rapped on the song, “Ask Dre, all I got is my word, my dick and my MAC-10,” he raps. “One thing you can never have is my muthafuckin’ black skin/ This ain’t no suit that I wore, this ain’t a mansion to hang a plaque, this ain’t no stupid award.”

During an episode of Drink Champs, The Game also claimed that Eminem wasn’t a better rapper than him. “Eminem is Eminem, I like Eminem,” he said. “He’s one of the fuckin’ good MCs, great MCs. I used to think Eminem was better than me. He not, he’s not. Challenge it.”

He continued, “Yes, I do [want to do Verzuz against Eminem]. What you mean, yeah I do? The fuck you mean? I’m not saying I want smoke with Eminem; I’m saying I want smoke with Eminem, him and him, whoever.”

While his words have been hot and cold over the years, The Game once stated that working with Eminem on ‘We Ain’t’ was one of the best moments of his career. The pair haven’t collaborated since, likely due to his long-standing friction with 50.

“Watching Eminem record and his whole recording process,” he told VladTV. “That might’ve been one of the highlights of my career, because I don’t know if you want to call it weird or legendary or some Einstein type of shit, evil genius type of shit, but Em is a very, very complex and different individual in good ways.

“When he writes raps, he turns the paper around — he just writes in circles and turns it. When he reads it, he turns it back the opposite way and starts to read it … when we were using paper, I don’t know his recording process these days […] That process was dope. I’m forever grateful for being able to experience, y’know, prime Eminem in his essence in Detroit.”