The reason why The Game beefed with Eminem: “That’s just how I get sometimes”
The Game has never been one to hold back against rappers he has an issue with, but even his beef with Eminem felt a little random. The Compton rapper dissed Em on ‘The Black Slim Shady’ in 2022, which appeared on his 31-track album Drillmatic: Heart vs. Mind.
Across the ten-minute song, Game attacks Eminem for his skin colour and struggles with addiction while also bringing up his ex-wife Kim and daughter Hailie. “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.”
Em responded to The Game’s diss track in his verse on EZ Mil’s ‘The Realest’, rapping, “Only reason they still play your shit in the clubs/ Is ’cause you still perform in ’em.”
During an interview with VladTV last year, Game admitted that his reason for dissing Eminem actually had nothing to do with the Detroit rapper. Instead, he was using it as a way to get back at Dr Dre, claiming the N.W.A legend doesn’t have the ability to take him on in a rap battle.
“Throwing shots at Eminem and beefing with Eminem, it was just me being upset with Dr Dre,” he said. “Dr Dre can’t out-rap me, so I just went at Em, just because that’s just how I get sometimes. But it’s always competitive. It ain’t like I’m gonna see Em and be like, ‘What’s up now?!’ It’s Em, you know what I’m saying? And Em took his shots on a record that dropped, and yo, Em is a funny guy.”
Although he was signed to Dre’s Aftermath between 2003 and 2006 and released his debut album, The Documentary, on the label, The Game has had harsh words for his mentor over the years. During an interview with Drink Champs, he claimed that “Ye did more for me in the last two weeks than Dre did for me my whole career” following the release of their song ‘Eazy’.
Game later said he regretted the comments he made about Dre, admitting he was drunk at the time. “So basically I was hollering at N.O.R.E. and them a little inebriated,” he said on the Bars and Nuggets podcast. “And I said some things that I meant. I’m not gon’ take it back – I ain’t no sucker. But having Dre do anything for your project, anything in your career, touch any part of anything you’re doing in life is such a blessing that I shall not ever shit on that again.”
He added, “I haven’t talked to Dre since. And it don’t really matter if we talk again in life. Like, I’m a standup Compton, LA n*gga and it is what it is. I said what I said, I’m not going back on it. It’s just that I should have actually gave him more grace for what he did do and that was actually mentoring me and doing things that nobody could have done for me in my career.”