Game tells his side of the story behind the beef
with Joe Budden. Read on.
AllHipHop.com: Let’s just talk about the
whole beef situation and how it started. You know Joe has already kind of said
what he felt how it started but, what’s your view on how it started?
Game: Everybody wants to know how it started,
right? It started with me and Stack Bundles, who I knew and respected as a young
emcee like myself way back before we had deals – on the mixtape circuit. I was
doing my thing early before the Aftermath thing. Clue came to me one time when
I was out here [in New York] and said, “Can you come out here to do a freestyle?”
I’m still trying to finish this album, I’m up-and-coming So I’m
like whatever. Stack is in the studio and I’m like “Yeah that’s
my n*gga, I f*ck with Stack Bundles.” I’m in the studio we get in
and we do the freestyle mix. Me and Stack Bundles, and that’s a wrap. Whatever
and I’m thinking just me and Stack Bundles on the song. And like a month
or two pass and it’s the All Star Game out in L.A. We outside at the W
[hotel], me and my entourage and it’s Fab and a couple celebrities like
[basketball player] Sam Casselle. Joe Budden’s out there and he comes up to
me to shake my hand but like its like almost like it’s a different handshake.
It’s like he’s thinking in his mind “Did Game hear me say that
fly s### on this [Clue] tape?” So he shaking my hand kind of phony. I didn’t
really pay no attention to it I’m like “I don’t know maybe he
just a little weird.”
So while Clue is passing out the mix CDs which
I’m on, we take it everything is going on it’s All Star, so you put
it in your back pocket whatever. So that s### passed over and everybody went
back home. All Star was over. I’m working out in the 24 hour fitness two
weeks after the All Star Game. 50 called me while I was working out in the gym
asking me “Did I do a song with Joe Budden?” And I’m like “Hell
no.” I wouldn’t do no song with Joe Budden that’s like not even
my genre of rap. I’m a gangster rapper, more like a lyricist and I mix
that with my gangster s###. I’m an emcee. Joe Budden is like a rapper.
Like I don’t mean to call out names but I don’t even give a f*ck.
Like Chingy and Ludacris those are rappers. You wouldn’t classify those
as “Aw he got ill lyrics like Biggie and Pac.” Like these are rappers.
Like Busy Bee was a rapper. And Kool Moe Dee is more like a lyricist. So that’s
the way that I separate myself from different categories and sh*t.
So anyway I tell 50, ‘No, I ain’t did
no song with Joe Budden.” 50 like "Yeah you did do a song with Joe
Budden. It’s on the Clue Mixtape. Joe Budden is on the third verse and
he taking shots at G-Unit in the song.” 50 expressed to me that like, he
didn’t think it was a good look. I’m agreeing like "n*gga you
right. It ain’t a f*cking good look but I ain’t heard it." So
I tell 50 I’m a call him back. I go downstairs to my truck and I pop the
CD in and then sure enough this n*gga is taking subliminal shots. I can understand
if you got beef with somebody [like 50], if you got beef with that man
call that man out if that’s who you got beef with or if its them. All you
got to do is call them out and they going to come answer. I understand the competitive
nature of Hip Hop, of battling and rhyming. But he didn’t do that. And
I kind of felt like he disrespected me in the sense that he knew when Clue said
I got this song, he looked at it like Game do business with G-Unit. Game is
the newest member of G-Unit and he on the song with somebody from Desert Storm
and I can come on here and I can certify myself by taking shots at G-Unit. I
will look bigger because Game is on the song.
AllHipHop.com: Right.
GAME: The public doesn’t know how you can
just throw a n*gga on a song. They think we were all there and we did it. To
the public eye, it looks like I did a song with Joe Budden and condoned him
dissin’ G-Unit, which I don’t. I sat down for like a day, a day and
a half. I thought about what I should do. I talked to Jimmy [his manager Jimmy
Henchman] about it. Everybody agreed that he took a shot. In that, there was
no defending the fact that I had to come back at him. That’s what I did.
AllHipHop.com: Joe said that people in your camp
got calls from people in his camp to make sure there was no beef. If I am correct,
he said this happened before All-Star weekend.
GAME: No, that is false. That’s 300% false.
The calls were made because we didn’t want to over-judge the situation
and really end this dude’s career when we didn’t have to. Basically,
we were trying to save him. It didn’t end up that way. I know Joe Budden
as an emcee that likes to take subliminal shots. He did it with Jay-Z. He did
it with 50 Cent. He did it with G-Unit and he’s just that type of emcee.
You don’t do that and just jumping on a song – that was phony. I lost
a lot of respect for him. I did have respect for him. He’s a young Black
rapper coming up in the game – whether he sold five records or 300,000 like
he did – I still respected him as a Black man trying to better his life.
He lost that respect when he did what he did. I feel like he a coward. He made
the response to my record like he a real street n*gga when he really just a
punk. He started it. I want everybody to know that I didn’t start this.
My hand was forced.
AllHipHop.com: He said he felt that with you
on the track, it basically was saying that it wasn’t a diss for the fact
that you were on the record. He said he wouldn’t diss you with you on the
same song. Does that make sense, what I am saying?
GAME: To e that could make sense if it came from
anybody but this fool. He is known for taking subliminal shots. He used the
G-Unit video to cover up his diss for 50. He did it on a song with me so I automatically
had to respond.
AllHipHop.com: He said that he had deaded the
beef with 50 a while ago so there wasn’t a situation there.
GAME: I hear all that, but even if he deaded
the beef with 50 and he said "I’m sorry" or whatever he did to
squash it, he still took a shot at G-Unit, my team and business partners with
me on the song. That was a total disrespect. On the radio, he said if it was
reversed would he do [the same thing I did]. He said, “I would think about
doing the same thing Game did.” It’s like copping a plea, but whatever.
His career was over from the beginning of the beef.
AllHipHop.com: Did 50 Cent put a battery in your
back and tell you to roll on him?
GAME: Me and 50 never discussed until the day
that Joe Buddens dissed me on that song. 50 came at me and said, “Did you
do a song with Joe Budden.” He was just implying that maybe I should listen
to it. Anybody that knows me, knows you can’t put a battery in my back
for sh*t. At the end of the day, I’m living for me. If I wake up and I
don’t feel like going in the studio, I’m not going. I don’t care
who say go. At the end of the day, I got to sit in a corner and die by myself.
I’m a leader and never a follower. But a battery in my back? That sounds
foolish. I think that they put a battery in his back like, “n*gga, you
better get at Game, you soft coward. You better say something.” The only
thing he could do was reply. The sh*t was wack anyway.
AllHipHop.com: On the other side, we’ve
lost a lot of our favorite artists. You are on the rise and Joe has a lot of
fans too. Can we keep this on wax or is it going to lead to something else?
GAME: At this point, I would say that, for the
most part, everybody in the world knows that Joe is not that type of dude. So,
to harm him or to bring any type of street antics on his side would be to belittle
myself because he’s not even that type of dude. So, why even give this
dude just do. Its like RuPaul dissing Shaq and Shaq wants to put money on RuPaul’s
head – why? You know he’s a f##### and he might be mad at himself
for being the type of n*gga that he is. And I use the RuPaul to Shaq [comparison]
because I am up-and-coming and come in the game so I can beast it and I used
that because he’s a feminine guy. Used to be a go-go dancer. We discovered
that. He used to sing in a group with songs like “Butter Love” and
sh*t like that. He was doing the pelvic thrust. His new name is Go Go Buddens.
AllHipHop.com: Is it true that you invited him
to the radio station?
GAME: Yeah, he said, “I’m not coming,
because I’m a scary b*tch.” His diss record, I took it serious. He
mentioned my manager’s name. I got on the next plane smoking like, “I’m
here.” I knew if anything, New York was going to be like "this n*gga
Game is serious." He didn’t want to come to the station and embarrass
himself. He don’t want them type of problems. I’m the next n*gga to
blow. He tried to use me.
AllHipHop.com: I heard he changed the lyrics
like the reference to Jimmy Iovine, I think.
GAME: No, he was talking about Henchmen.
AllHipHop.com: Oh, I didn’t even realize
that.
GAME: He was talking some real slick sh*t. He
changed the lyrics but it’s too late for that. We heard the real version,
live uncut. We heard how you really felt. The first thing you say is how you
feel. Then you get to analyze your sh*t. That’s why I don’t let just
anything come out my mouth if that’s not how I really feel or my heart
is set on. My heart was set on “f*ck Joe Buddens.” It whatever you
want it to be.
AllHipHop.com: Earlier you mentioned you have
a son, how is that?
GAME: My son, he’s eight months old in April.
AllHipHop.com: Oh, that’s what’s up.
GAME: This lil’ n*gga man…I don’t
want no problems just like with this Joe Buddens beef man. I didn’t want
it to get out of hand, because the type of n*gga I am and I know the type of
n*gga he is. I don’t want n*ggas in L.A. or people in my camp to think
its bigger than that, because if it gets out of my hands, somebody might do
something to him… Who are they going to point the finger at? Me. I try
to stop the sh*t. They didn’t want to pick up the phone. They wanted to
act like they were big and bad and almighty. So I did the record.
With my son, I’m living for somebody and
it’s not me. So I am never in selfish mode. I’m grinding. The reason
I do this sh*t is I have a son to feed. This is the only way that I feel I can
secure my family’s future without dying. I was never a rapper from the
beginning. I guess this is what God bestowed on me. I thank God I don’t
have to be out here robbing, stealing and killing, drug dealing no more.