"Prepared to Die": The Game Recalls 50 Cent Beef as a Near-Fatal Mirror of Biggie and Tupac
"Prepared to Die": The Game Recalls 50 Cent Beef as a Near-Fatal Mirror of Biggie and Tupac
The ghosts of hip-hop’s most violent era nearly claimed two more legends in the mid-2000s, according to a chilling new retrospective from The Game. In a deep-dive interview with VIBE Magazine’s Datwon Thomas released this week, the Compton rapper admitted he was "100 percent sure" that his infamous feud with 50 Cent would end in a double homicide.
Reflecting on the height of the "G-Unot" era, The Game (Jayceon Taylor) described a period of his life where he moved with the grim certainty that neither he nor his rival would survive the decade.
A Modern-Day 'Biggie and Pac'
The Game, now 46, drew direct parallels between his clash with 50 Cent and the 1990s East Coast-West Coast war that claimed the lives of The Notorious B.I.G. and Tupac Shakur.
“I was prepared to die in that beef,” Game told Thomas during the 30-minute sit-down. “I was almost 100 percent sure that me and 50 was going to die in that. I just knew it. We already seen it happen, and I was the biggest rapper on the West and he was the biggest rapper on the East at that point. We were both young, in our 20s, and I just thought that we wouldn’t make it out of that.”
The rapper emphasized that at the time, he felt he had a "duty" to live up to the violent mythology of the genre, admitting that his mindset was warped by a mix of extreme success and genuine hatred.
"N***as Died": The Cost of the Conflict
While the public often viewed the beef through the lens of diss tracks like "300 Bars and Runnin'," The Game revealed that the "street" reality was far grimmer. He reminded viewers that the 2005 shooting outside Hot 97 in New York was just the tip of the iceberg.
“It just so happened that we made it out of that without being hit,” he explained. “But people got shot and people died in that beef. Game and 50 made it out, but n***as died. It was that serious. And I thought it would be me and him. Me or him.”
The Game recounted several unpublicized incidents, including a time he allegedly went to 50 Cent's Connecticut estate to vandalize the property and "rip a basketball rim off," as well as tense standoffs in Queens project buildings where he draped "G-Unot" banners.
The Michael Jackson Intervention
Perhaps the most surreal moment of the interview involved the "King of Pop." The Game reiterated a story he first shared late last year: that Michael Jackson personally called him in an attempt to mediate the feud. Jackson allegedly praised the "magical" chemistry on their hit "How We Do" and invited the two rappers to collaborate on a song for his own album—an offer The Game famously hung up on because he was "too deep in the beef" to care.
Peace
The two titans finally shook hands in a Hollywood strip club in 2016, ending a decade of hostility. While 50 Cent has yet to respond to the latest interview, he has previously admitted that the fallout was a result of "overreacting" and "missed opportunities."
For The Game, the 2026 reflection is less about reigniting old flames and more about acknowledging the "miracle" of their survival. In an industry currently reeling from a new wave of violence, the "Law Boss" of Compton’s story serves as a stark reminder of how close the culture came to losing two of its most iconic voices.
