The Game was born Jayceon Terrell Taylor in Los Angeles, California to Lynette Baker and father George Taylor II. He grew up in Compton, California.[1] in a primarily Crip gang neighborhood known as Santana Blocc,[6] although he grew up to become a member of the Bloods.[7][8] In an October 2006 interview with MTV News correspondent Sway Calloway, The Game described his family as "dysfunctional" and claimed that his father molested one of his sisters.[9] After graduating from Compton High School in 1999,[10] Taylor claimed to have attended Washington State University on a basketball scholarship before being suspended in his first semester because of drug allegations. However, the university's athletic department refutes these claims.[11] It was then that he started fully embracing street life and turned towards selling drugs and gang banging.[12] At the age of eighteen, he began to follow his older half brother, George Taylor III known as Big Fase 100, who was the leader of the Cedar Block Pirus.
Music career
Beginnings
Studying various influential rap albums, The Game developed a strategy to become a rapper himself and with help from Big Fase, they founded The Black Wall Street Records. The label originally featured such artists as Glasses Malone, Vita, and Nu Jerzey Devil, along with The Game himself.[13] His stage name was coined by his grandmother.[14] The Game first gained prominence when he attended a hip-hop summit hosted by Russell Simmons and Louis Farrakhan,[15] releasing his first mixtape You Know What It Is Vol. 1 in 2002, followed by a record deal with the independent label, Get Low Recordz owned by JT the Bigga Figga. Originally Sean Combs of Bad Boy Records was going to sign him to his label,[16] but The Game's mixtape found the attention of famed producer Dr. Dre, who signed him to Aftermath Entertainment in 2003.[17] In October 2004, he released his first album Untold Story through Get Low Recordz, which sold over 82,000 copies within its...