Admitting he's had enough of life on the road and wants to settle down and be a good dad, The West Coast emcee's upcoming album L.A.X is touted as Game's 'See Ya Later' to the hip hop world.
He says, "I've been around for about six years and my kids are getting bigger and sometimes I'm gone for a long time, so I feel like a deadbeat dad.
"I know what I'm doing (is) securing their future financially but I miss the time that I get to spend with them."
The rap star reveals his recent legal troubles helped him make up his idea to quit the rap business.
He explains, "The good thing about that is it kept me in California and I got to take my kids to karate class and tutoring and basketball games; I fell in love with being a father."
But before you get the Kleenex out and decide to leave The Game action figure in its box, consider that it's rare for a hip-hop artist who goes away to stay away. In fact, the threat of retirement is becoming as common in hip hop as bling and hos.
Think 50 Cent's recent vows to retire if he did not come out on top in the chart battle with Kayne West. Well he didn't, but surprise, the 31-year-old star was reluctant to honour his promise, and instead blamed the defeat on his record label.
Bay Area gangsta-rapper Too $hort did actually retire in 1996, but it was a short-lived vacation, as he came back with a couple of singles just two years later and released the aptly titled Can't Stay Away in 1999.
Mase, Dre, Snoop Dogg, Jay Z, Diddy, and Nas (amongst others) have all toyed with the idea of hanging up the mike in exchange for a quieter life of loafers and Mylanta, (or whatever retired rappers do when they're not spitting rhymes) only to release tracks a few short years later.
"I have yet to actually see someone [in hip-hop] retire and not come back to the game," said Horace Madison, co-founder of the Madison Smallwood Financial Group, money managers for a who's who of hip-hop and R&B, including Usher, Swizz Beatz, Outkast and Mase. "I've seen forced retirement, where no one buys their records anymore, but not when they still have the ability to sell records and make money. There's a degree of being out of touch with reality that clouds their vision and allows them to think that they can retire when they haven't maxed out their earning potential in the three-to-five-year window they have." Listening Game?
Madison said that while rappers proclaim to retire to direct, act and/or produce, most artists don't make enough money in that short window of fame to retire and continue living in the blingin' life style they're accustomed to. And we're guessing The Game won't like lining up for clubs when no one remembers why they liked him in the first place. Tactics being the name of The Game (pun intended), there just maybe a financial gain to announcing retirement, only to re-announce a return just in time for a new album.
See you in a few years Game!
Copyright : MTV Australia
