The Game

Jayceon Terrell Taylor (born November 29, 1979), better known by his stage name The Game or simply Game, is an American rapper and actor. Born in Compton, California, he initially released a series of mixtapes under the wing of fellow West Coast rapper JT the Bigga Figga. After releasing his debut album Untold Story independently in 2004, he was discovered by record producer Dr. Dre and signed to his Aftermath Records label imprint. The Game rose to prominence following the release of his major-label debut album The Documentary (2005), which peaked the Billboard 200 along with its sequel, Doctor's Advocate (2006). The former album received double platinum certification by the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) and two Grammy Award nominations—Best Rap Song and Best Rap Performance by a Duo or Group for its single, "Hate It or Love It" (featuring 50 Cent).

A rising artist in the 2000s, the Game was considered to be a driving force in the resurgence of West Coast hip-hop into the mainstream, and competing with many of his East Coast counterparts. The Game was placed into G-Unit by Dr. Dre and Interscope Records co-founder Jimmy Iovine. As a result of his disputes with group leader 50 Cent, Game left Aftermath and signed with Geffen, another label under Universal's Interscope Geffen A&M corporate unit to terminate his contractual obligations with G-Unit in 2006. This foresaw the release of Doctor's Advocate, which was met with continued success and spawned the singles "It's Okay (One Blood)" (featuring Junior Reid), "Let's Ride," and "Wouldn't Get Far" (featuring Kanye West).

The Game found similar critical and commercial success with his third and fourth albums, LAX (2008) and The R.E.D. Album (2010), which peaked at numbers two and one on the Billboard 200, respectively. His fifth album, Jesus Piece (2012), served as his final release with Interscope and peaked within the chart's top ten, along with his next self-released albums: The Documentary 2, The Documentary 2.5 (2015), and 1992 (2016). His ninth album, Born 2 Rap (2019) was announced as his final; however, his career continued with the release of his tenth album Drillmatic – Heart vs. Mind (2022), which was met with mixed critical reception.

The Game was born Jayceon Terrell Taylor on November 29, 1979, in Compton, California, to parents George Taylor and Lynette Baker, who both were members of the Crips street gang. He grew up in a primarily Crip-controlled neighborhood known as Santana Blocc, although Taylor himself grew up to become a member of the Cedar Block Piru Bloods through his brother. In an October 2006 interview with MTV News correspondent Sway Calloway, the Game described his family as "dysfunctional". His older half-brother, George Taylor III, a.k.a. the rapper Big Fase 100, was a Cedar Block Piru Bloods leader in West Compton, California.

Taylor and his sibling spent six years in foster care. Taylor attended Compton High School. He went on to attend the community colleges Antelope Valley College, Harbor Community College and Cerritos College each for a time before leaving school.

By the early 2000s, Taylor had become heavily involved in selling drugs and participating in gang activities.

While recovering in the hospital from gunshot wounds he incurred in late 2001, Game told his brother to go out and buy all of the classic hip-hop albums. Over the course of five months, he studied all of the various influential rap albums and developed a strategy to turn himself into a rapper. With the help of his older brother Big Fase, they founded the label. It originally featured such artists as Glasses Malone, Vita, and Nu Jerzey Devil, along with Game himself. His stage name was coined by his grandmother, who was a huge fan of the 1997 blockbuster, The Game.

At the start of his career, Game attended a hip-hop summit hosted by Russell Simmons and Louis Farrakhan where he met Bay Area producer JT the Bigga Figga. The two agreed to record music and JT packaged some of these songs with Nas verses, releasing them as the mixtape Q.B. 2 Compton (He would later release the rest of these recordings on 2004's Untold Story and 2005's West Coast Resurrection). This mixtape reached the hands of Sean Combs, founder of Bad Boy Records, who originally was on the verge of signing him to his label. Five months later, he was discovered by Dr. Dre who listened to the same mixtape. Dr. Dre signed Game to his Aftermath Entertainment label in 2002 and he released the mixtape You Know What It Is Vol. 1.

In late 2003, Interscope Records CEO Jimmy Iovine and Dr. Dre decided to have Game work with 50 Cent and G-Unit in order to help build a growing buzz around Game which would also fuel interest in G-Unit. Game made his first cameo appearance in the music video for 50 Cent's "In da Club", where he is seen dancing with a girl. Since then, he has made numerous cameo appearances in music videos by 50 Cent, Lloyd Banks, Young Buck, and Fabolous. Game spent the next two and a half years working on his major label debut album and being mentored by Dr. Dre.

Not having dropped an album despite being signed onto Aftermath Entertainment and Interscope Records for a while, Game was still able to create hype around his image alone. He appeared in ads for Sean Combs's Sean John clothing company and had an endorsement deal with Boost Mobile, appearing in a commercial alongside Kanye West and Ludacris. Game also appeared heavily on the mixtape circuit and guest starred on mixtapes for DJ Green Lantern, The Diplomats, and G-Unit. The first single released with Game on it was "Certified Gangstas", which also featured Jim Jones and Cam'ron. Though the single wasn't considered to be mainstream, the buzz increased around the West Coast rapper.

On September 28, 2004, Game released his first promo single, "Westside Story", from his major label debut album. He had originally chosen to title the album Nigga Wit' An Attitude Volume 1 (as heard in the lyrics to "Dreams"), changed the album title to The Documentary, which featured Dr. Dre and 50 Cent as executive producers. The album spawned the hit singles "How We Do" and "Hate It or Love It", the latter receiving two Grammy nominations. The album debuted at number one on the Billboard 200 and was the sixteenth best selling album of 2005 in the United States. It also debuted at number seven in the United Kingdom and sold over five million copies worldwide. In October 2004, he released Untold Story through Get Low Recordz, which sold over 82,000 copies within its first three months. The album featured artists like Sean T, Young Noble (of the Outlawz), and JT the Bigga Figga. Game also appeared on various mixtapes hosted by DJ's such as DJ Kayslay, DJ Whoo Kid, and DJ Clue. Game also released a second mixtape You Know What It Is Vol. 2 through his own record label and appeared on the video game NBA Live 2004 on a song produced by Fredwreck called "Can't Stop Me".

Later that year, the young rapper Lil Eazy-E, son of rapper the late Eazy-E, entered a feud with Game. The two used to be close associates and recorded music together. Lil' Eazy-E has since directed numerous diss songs targeting the rapper and has expressed his anger over what he felt was Game's misuse of his father's name. Game responded by claiming that Lil' Eazy-E was trying to establish himself off the success he had made since releasing The Documentary. He released a song titled "120 Bars" where he claimed that Lil' Eazy-E does not write his own lyrics. However, on the same track, Game stated that he would rather not feud with Lil' Eazy-E due to the deep respect he has for Lil' Eazy-E's father. Lil' Eazy-E later responded with "They Know Me". On October 30, 2006, Game went on KDAY and said that he and Lil' Eazy-E had ended their feud.

Dr. Dre's nemesis, Suge Knight, also had an ongoing feud with Game that stemmed from Yukmouth's claim that Game had been slapped by Suge Knight. Game responded on his website, saying that if Suge Knight had ever touched him, he would be "six feet under". After the 2005 BET Awards show, associates of Death Row Records had their invitations to a party hosted by Ciara rescinded. Supposedly, a member of Death Row Records tried to steal Game's chain. Game stated on his website that he disliked Suge Knight because of "the lives he has endangered". In Miami for the 2005 MTV Video Music Awards, Suge Knight was shot and wounded at Kanye West's party by an unknown gunman. Game vigorously denied involvement in the shooting, but the incident renewed efforts to pacify hip-hop feuds and Game has consequently been discouraged from attending certain events in hopes of averting retaliation. Later, Game and various representatives of California's rap cliques formed a West Coast "peace treaty" to end many rivalries between West Coast rappers. Although Suge Knight did not attend, he and Game declared their feud over.

Game appeared on 106 & Park on May 16, where he confirmed LAX would be the last studio album he records. He had originally announced that Dr. Dre would be producing for the album, but neither Dr. Dre nor Aftermath Entertainment had confirmed. The album went head to head with heavy metal band Slipknot's All Hope Is Gone on the Billboard 200 albums chart, seeing that both albums were released on August 22, 2008, therefore both albums were competing for the number one spot on the Billboard 200. LAX ended up debuting at number two on the Billboard 200, at first, it looked like LAX had debuted ahead of All Hope Is Gone by 13 copies. Initially, Billboard published an article stating that the Game had secured the top spot with a margin of 13 units, in what was described as the "closest race for number one since Nielsen SoundScan began tracking Data in 1991". Slipknot's labels Warner Music Group and Roadrunner Records asked for a SoundScan recount, a historic first. Nielsen proceeded to the recount, which placed LAX at number two with 238,382 copies, and Slipknot in the first position with 239,516 copies scanned, a margin of 1,134 copies. After the recount 12 hours later, the article was rewritten and Slipknot was awarded the number one spot. LAX spawned four singles: "Game's Pain" with R&B singer Keyshia Cole, "Dope Boys" with Blink-182 drummer Travis Barker, "My Life" with rapper Lil Wayne and "Camera Phone" with R&B singer Ne-Yo. In the United States, the album has sold over 660,100 copies.

It was confirmed in May 2009, that Game began working on a new album, titled The R.E.D. Album On June 26, 2009, Game released a song titled "Better on the Other Side" a Michael Jackson tribute, the day after Jackson's death. It features Diddy, Mario Winans, Chris Brown, Usher & Boyz II Men. On October 3, 2009, Snoop Dogg posted a picture on his Twitter of himself, Dr. Dre and Game in the studio working together, The picture was taken a day earlier and it marked the first time Game had worked with Dr. Dre for some years since the beef with former fellow G-Unit labelmate 50 Cent caused him to release his two following albums on Geffen Records. Later in early January 2010 Game posted a twitpic of him wearing a lot of Aftermath chains with a caption saying "It's funny how things come Full Circle". Later he confirmed that he had returned to Aftermath Entertainment. He traveled to Pristina, Kosovo for a concert, that according to him would be the greatest of his life. In an interview there, Game stated: "I love Albanians, If I could be reborn, I'd be reborn Albanian". On June 3, 2011, Pitchfork announced that Game was working with Odd Future leader Tyler, The Creator on a track called "Martians vs. Goblins". Finally released on August 23, 2011, The R.E.D. Album reached number one on the Billboard 200 with first-week sales of 98,000 units.

Shortly after the release of the long-delayed eighth studio album, Game announced he had begun work on his ninth album. At the time titled Soundtrack to Chaos, he said the album would not feature him "name-dropping" or feature any artists as guests for vocals. In March 2012, Game announced the album name had been changed to F.I.V.E.: Fear Is Victory's Evolution and that it could be his last album released under Interscope, but on August 28 the rapper published a new title: Jesus Piece.

In an interview with MTV on November 8, Game revealed that as Jesus Piece is his last album before his deal with Interscope comes to a close, he has had talks with both Maybach Music Group and Cash Money Records for a possible new record deal. He also stated that he would consider releasing music independently.

The album was released on December 11, 2012, with features from Lil Wayne, Big Sean, J. Cole, Jamie Foxx, Wiz Khalifa, Tyga and Chris Brown among others. In promotion for the album Game started a free weekly music giveaway titled "Sunday Service". All the tracks are leftovers from Jesus Piece. Game also showed interest in making a future collaboration LP with Chris Brown. Game explained the concept of Jesus Piece does not have a spiritual theme, but it would have a "Gangster" theme of enjoying life while also having faith in God. Jesus Piece became Game's first album since the multi-platinum selling and critically acclaimed The Documentary, to feature production from Dr. Dre. Game announced on social media that every Sunday leading up to the album that he would be dropping new music, which failed to make the album's final cut. Game compared the album's quality of production and high number of guests to his mentor Dr. Dre's The Chronic 2001. Upon release the album received generally positive reviews by music critics. Most reviewers have praised the production and guests and the album. Jesus Piece debuted at number six on the Billboard 200 with first-week sales of 86,000 copies in the United States. As of July 26, 2013, it has sold 281,000 copies according to Nielsen SoundScan.

On November 30, 2012, Game announced that he and fellow rapper Stat Quo were starting a new record label titled Rolex Records. Both artists would use the label to release new music and sign other artists. On October 1, 2013, Game announced he was officially leaving Interscope Records, and that he was now a free agent. The following day he told Artistdirect that him signing to Cash Money Records was likely, and that a final announcement of a signing would probably come in January 2014. He also stated he had talked to Kendrick Lamar, Nipsey Hussle, and Snoop Dogg about possibly doing collaboration albums in the future.

On October 8, the Game released his first project since leaving Interscope, a mixtape titled Operation Kill Everything. The mixtape featured guest appearances by Too Short, Schoolboy Q, Chris Brown, Lil Wayne, Problem, Nipsey Hussle, Juicy J, Young Jeezy, Stat Quo, and Ty$ among others. The day after the mixtape's release, the Game spoke to XXL where he said, he had begun working on his ninth studio album, which will be executive produced by Cool & Dre. He mentioned he had also talked to Warner Bros. Records about a record deal, and was still possible that he would re-sign with Interscope. Then the following day, the Game released a deluxe edition of OKE to iTunes, featuring two bonus tracks, including "Hollywood" a song with Scarface.

In December 2016, the Game announced that he is working on his next and final album. On June 21, 2019, he released the first single of the album titled "West Side". On November 1, 2019, the Game released the second single, "Stainless", featuring Anderson .Paak. His ninth studio album Born 2 Rap was released on November 29, 2019, his fifiteth birthday. It debuted at number nineteen on the Billboard 200.

On July 23, 2026, the Game's collaboration with Timbaland, YG and Swizz Beatz, "Red People", was released. On August 20, 2026, the Game revealed that the third installment in his The Documentary series, The Documentary 3, would be released the following day. It was preceded by the single "No Brakes" with Drake. The album features a large roster of guest artists, including Drake, Kanye West, Snoop Dogg, Tyga, YG, Lil Wayne, PartyNextDoor, E-40, Leon Thomas, and the late Drakeo the Ruler, among others.

In 2000, the Game appeared on the dating television show Change of Heart; in the segment his partner criticized him for "acting macho when in reality is said to be sensitive." The episode came to an end where a mutual friend of the Game and his partner suggested in them staying together, the Game decided to stay together but was rebuffed by the offer when his partner agreed to a change of heart and the Game was subsequently dumped on TV.

The Game also ventured into acting. In 2004, he had a minor role voicing the character "B-Dup" in the video game Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas. He also voiced himself in the video game Def Jam: Icon. In 2006, he made his film debut in Waist Deep as a character named "Big Meat".

The Game was chosen to play and bought a large amount of shares for the Inglewood Cobras, established in 2005 and playing in the American Basketball Association basketball franchise team. The team folded after playing fewer than five games in the ABA in the league's 2005–2006 season. The team was coached by former NBA player Sean Higgins.

The Game is a fan of the Los Angeles Rams of the NFL, occasionally being spotted at the team's home games in Inglewood.

The Game has also partnered with 310 Motoring to create his own shoe, The Hurricanes. A portion of the proceeds of the shoe were donated to the victims of Hurricane Katrina. 310 Motoring ceased operations in 2008, thus ending production of the Hurricane shoe brand.

The Black Wall Street Records was an American independent record label founded in 2002, by the Game. The name "The Black Wall Street" is adopted from what was the racially segregated Greenwood neighborhood of Tulsa, Oklahoma. During the oil boom of the 1920s, Greenwood was home to several successful and prominent African-American entrepreneurs.

Before The Documentary, Game dropped a series of mixtapes on his own label, The Black Wall Street. After leaving G-Unit Records, Game hoped to push The Black Wall Street to the mainstream to compete with his former label and labelmates. Though the label didn't released an official retail album, it did released several mixtapes including the "Black Wall Street Journal" and "BWS Radio" series. Former artists who have been on the label include: Vita, Ya Boy, and Charli Baltimore.

Blood Money Entertainment was an American independent record label. In December 2012, the Game founded a new record label, Rolex Records, alongside fellow rapper Stat Quo. Following its founding, he bought his entire team at the record label Rolex watches. After a six-month legal battle with Rolex, he changed the name and logo of the record label to The Firm, which then became Blood Money Entertainment. The label has signed West Coast rappers Skeme, King Marie, Pharaoh Jackson and Dubb.

Prolific Records was an American independent record label founded by the Game in the autumn of 2019. According to court documents obtained by AllHipHop, Priscilla Rainey was granted ownership of the Game's vanity label, as well as royalties from his tenth studio album, Born 2 Rap (2019). This means Rainey now has full control over any salary the Game was receiving through his imprint.

100 Entertainment is an American independent record label founded in 2021 by the Game and his manager, Wack 100.

Taylor is the father of three sons and one daughter.

Taylor became a father for the first time in 2003 with the birth of his eldest child, Harlem Caron Taylor, just before the launch of his debut album, The Documentary. He later welcomed his son, King Justice, and daughter, Cali Dream, in 2007 and 2010, respectively. His fourth child, Blaze Taylor, arrived in 2024.