The Game is catching heat over a claim about Kendrick Lamar that many fans think he made up.
In a fresh interview on Big Boy’s Neighborhood, The Game said he tried several times to sign Kendrick early on. According to him, their history goes way back to a youth program in Compton long before Kendrick linked up with TDE.
“First time I met Kendrick was a long time ago,” The Game recalled, saying he spotted a young, confident Kendrick at the YET Center in Compton. “I always knew… I knew what he was gon’ be.”
He went on to claim that while he was working closely with Top Dawg and helping shape Jay Rock’s early career, he kept pressing TDE’s founder to let him sign K Dot.
“I was always asking Top, ‘Yo, let me get Dot,’” he said. “He was like, ‘No.’ He knew what he was, I knew what he was.”
According to The Game, even while Kendrick was still hitting the road as Jay Rock’s hype man, he kept pushing for a chance to bring him onto Black Wall Street. He added that Top Dawg once suggested merging TDE and Black Wall Street, but The Game claimed he turned it down because he only wanted Kendrick as his artist.
But plenty of people aren’t buying that version of events — especially folks from Top Dawg Entertainment.
Under an Instagram post about the story, TDE’s head of security 2Teez called The Game out directly, writing: “Blood faking he never wanted to sign Kendrick!!!!!”
TDE engineer MixedByAli also chimed in under Akademiks’ repost of the clip, dropping laughing emojis — a clear signal he doesn’t see The Game’s story as legit either.
Despite the debate, The Game and Kendrick’s shared catalog is small but memorable. Their biggest links include “The City” on The R.E.D. Album, where Kendrick delivers that powerful outro verse, and “On Me” from The Documentary 2 — a raw, Compton-heavy collab that shows both rappers at their sharpest.
