This year’s Super Bowl Halftime Show was led by Dr. Dre who brought on a star-studded cast of acts for the show. Kendrick Lamar, Eminem, Mary J. Blige, Snoop Dogg, Anderson .Paak, and 50 Cent all joined him on stage for the epic performance. Afterward, it appeared that The Game, who’s collaborated with some of the aforementioned artists on multiple occasions, implied that he should’ve been among the performers for the show. However, he later denied that he was upset about being left out of the show. “I don’t feel no way about not being included,” he said at the time.
A few months later, The Game has now backtracked on his denial. The topic came up in an upcoming episode of the I Am Athlete podcast — led by Brandon Marshall, Pacman Jones and Nick “ Swaggy P” Young. The episode was teased in a preview clip. “The real reason I wasn’t on the Super Bowl [Halftime Show] is because I’m not a ‘safe’ artist,’” The Game said. “You don’t know what the Game gon’ do when he get up there. So, it’s just like, ‘He not safe,’ so they went with the safe artists.”
He continued, “We, on the West Coast, are the only motherf*ckers who have this crab-in-a-barrel mentality, where we wanna keep n****s down. Snoop Dogg is icon. Dre is icon. Em is an icon, but Em is not from L.A. 50 is not from L.A. I’m not taking away from the fact that they’re were on the Super Bowl, but L.A. [artists] wouldn’t have been in the Detroit Super Bowl or New York Super Bowl. It just wouldn’t have happened … L.A., L.A., L.A. all around the Super Bowl and I didn’t get the call.”
The Game then admitted he was “hurt” that he was left out of the lineup. “I talk to Dre often. I just know if I was Dre and he was Game, he would’ve been up there,” he said. “That’s just it. It’s L.A. I am L.A. I’m in the streets … So, yeah, I was hurt. Now am I bothered by it today? I’m not bothered by it today.”
You can watch the preview clip above.