The Game has love for what 50 Cent and G-Unit did for his career, but he feels like he didn’t benefit from his affiliation to the group as much as fans might think.
The Los Angeles native spoke about his time with the New York-based crew in a new interview with Vlad TV published on Monday (December 8). While noting he was never actually signed to the label, Game expressed his frustration with not getting paid for being a part of the group.
“I appreciated the step up on the ladder,” he began. “I always felt like if I didn’t sign – I mean, I didn’t sign with G-Unit. I was never signed to G-Unit. But I always felt like if I never got put in G-Unit or Dr. Dre never signed me to Aftermath, I would still be sitting here talking to you with the same track record. Because I’m the type of n-gga if I put my mind to something and I say this is what I want to do, that is just simply what I’m gonna do. I’m gonna achieve it…
“So it was cool being in G-Unit but then it wasn’t because I felt like we was just in it,” he added. “I felt like 50 was making the money and we was just in G-Unit. Which is cool because I mean, I’m saying, he’s 50; but I wanted to get some bread. I definitely wanted to just be a solo artist and get to it. And I appreciated the pit stop but I don’t think that I needed G-Unit to be Game.”
He continued: “And G-Unit was dope and 50 was dope and that experience was dope but I just don’t feel like I ever really fit or that it was just me because I’m not the solider type. I felt like I was my own boss and I’m a king in my own right and so I needed to stand on my own two.”
You can watch the interview below.
While things are pretty cordial between 50 Cent and The Game now, the pair’s bitter rivalry once threatened to boil over at Tim Thomas’ birthday party until Snoop Dogg saved the day — according to the former NBA star.
Appearing on the Weekend Work podcast, Thomas recalled celebrating his birthday at Diddy’s soul food restaurant in New York City the mid-2000s, and said The Game was keeping tabs on his movements in hopes of running into his bitter rival.
“We were at Justin’s eating and Game comes in and said, ‘Yo, I need to talk to you.’ I’m like, ‘What’s going on?’ At that time, I don’t really know the ins and outs of 50’s business,” the former Knicks forward began.
“He’s like, ‘Yo, you talk to Five?’ I’m like, ‘Nah, I haven’t talked to him in a minute.’ At this particular moment, the guys were out of the country. Snoop was in town, he coming to the party and we were playing the Lakers.”
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He continued: “There was just so much going on. I just wanted to have a good game, which I did — I think I had like 35 that night. Then I just wanted to get to the party and enjoy myself.
“But there was so much tension going on because at that moment, Game was following me around the city to see if I was gonna link up with Fif […] It was so much tension because everybody wanted to make a move. They didn’t know if they should make a move or whatever, and I was like, ‘Yo, it can’t go down, right?’”
Fortunately for Thomas and the rest of the attendees, Snoop’s arrival at his birthday party diffused the tension that was brewing and prevented any violence from erupting.