Why did Kanye West and The Game fall out?
Kanye West and The Game once enjoyed a solid working relationship, beginning around 2005.
That year saw the release of The Game’s debut album The Documentary, which featured the Ye-produced track ‘Dreams,’ while Kanye released Late Registration, which included the song ‘Crack Music,’ which The Game rapped on. The two seemed to suit each other well enough, but, somewhere along the way, their relationship broke down—and got nasty. Now they seem to hate each other, but what, exactly, happened between them?
Kanye and The Game seemed perfectly tight until only very recently. In February earlier this year, they released ‘Tina’ together, an admittedly odd song about Beyoncé’s mother, Tina Knowles, that is set to feature on The Game’s next album, The Documentary 3. Ye was the executive producer for the record, but, only two months after ‘Tina’ dropped, they started engaging in a very public spat.
It started, as is fairly common these days, with Ye melting down on X. He started attacking The Game, which, given he has been one of the few public figures to maintain support for Ye over these recent years of controversy and horribleness, was fairly unexpected, albeit Kanye’s erratic behaviour doesn’t necessarily follow any particular logic.
Ye was angry about The Game’s links to Top 5, a rapper from Toronto who has ties with Drake. Top 5, according to Kanye, had been threatening him, meaning he was extremely annoyed with The Game for associating with him. “Why is Game, who I have gifted two Maybachs, showing affection to Top 5, who is threatening my life?” Ye posted on X, referencing the fact that he had previously gifted Game with some luxury cars. “Well, I guess I’m no longer executive producing that album [The Documentary 3].”
The Game duly responded on Instagram, firing back, “Forget you and your Maybachs! I’ll be back in LA in a week, and you can come collect them yourself! I never asked you for anything, and when you gifted me those cars, I made it clear that I was fine without them. Yet you insisted.”
He then called out Ye for apparent cowardice. “You say you owe me for being the only solid one out of everyone,” he posted, “yet you won’t even call me like a man to address this situation.”
The Game went on to claim that his association with Top 5 had actually been encouraged by Kanye at first, but, suddenly, he’d changed his mind about that. “You asked if I knew Top 5, and when I confirmed, you told me he was threatening you. I reached out to him out of respect, and he agreed to let it go,” Game posted. “I informed you it was resolved, and then you changed your number!”
This has been quite the turn, given how solid the pair had seemed until so recently. The whole truth of the matter is still a little murky, but, as things stand, it seems Kanye and The Game are no more as friends or collaborators. The Documentary 3 hasn’t been released yet, and it’s unclear if this unexpected feud will affect its roll-out. Time will tell.