The Game is known for his feature-filled albums, but it’s never cost him a dollar.
The Compton rapper reveals that he’s never paid for a verse from another rapper.
“I ain’t never paid for a verse in my life ni**a,” Game commented before laughing off claims that he paid $200,000 for 16 bars. “200k for a 16 never a day blood !!!”
Game’s revelation comes after his manager Wack 100 claimed that Game had to remove his “O.P.P.” collaboration with NBA YoungBoy from Drillmatic because his verse cost too much. NBA reportedly charges $300,000 for a feature, but he gave Game a “hell of a deal” and only charged him half of that. However, Wack says the $150,000 fee was still out of the album’s budget.
“That situation would have cut into marketing overall so I had to make an executive decision on whether I wanted to pay the tab he sent me,” he said during a Clubhouse session.
Wack considered paying for the verse, but he had to reallocate the budget after Game expanded the album to 30 tracks. “I would have been able to handle the bill, but originally the album was gonna be 20 songs deep. Another 10 songs was added, six of those was samples so some of the budget got ate up,” he added.
As a result, “O.P.P.” will be re-released to streaming services without YoungBoy’s verse.
Game called in the features on Drillmatic, which includes appearances from Kanye West, YG, Roddy Ricch, French Montana, Tory Lanez, Meek Mill, A$AP Rocky, Cam’ron, and Big Sean.
One feature that didn’t make the album was Nipsey Hussle, who was supposed to appear on “World Tours.” Wack claimed that Nipsey’s brother pulled it because of his past comments about the late rapper. However, it was reportedly Nipsey’s music handlers who sent Wack a cease-and-desist after discovering that the posthumous verse was not cleared.