Controversy Surrounds The Game's New Hit, Sparks Change in Lyrics

At the end of August The Game, born Jayceon Terrell Taylor, released the first music video from his new album, LAX (in stores August 22nd). The track, "My Life", featuring Lil Wayne, which is collage of the pain he has experienced in his life and seen in others, goes through a shooting in what is supposed to be his Compton, California hometown, to a robbery where a young fman loses his life, to him and Lil Wayne rapping laid-back lyrics in a cemetery. He pays homage to Sean Bell, Kurt Cobain, Notorious B.I.G. and Kanye West's mother (who recently pass away) through the song and video.

To be honest, the song is at times touching and is a welcome change to the commercial and, what is often fake, gangsta' rap.

That being said, the lyrics released with the video are not what was meant to originally be released. When "My Life" was first leaked in June and downloaded, a nearly identical version was streamed onto computers. What is different? Well, in an apparent attempt to pay homage to the late Deshaun Holton (better known as Proof from D12), The Game appeared to take a swipe at Eminem. The lyrics, which began to pop up through the blogosphere with questions, were as follows:

"We are not the same, I am a Martian
So approach my Phantom doors with caution
You see them 24‘s spinnin‘? I earned them
And all the pictures of me and Em, I burned them
So there ain‘t no proof that I ever walked through 8 Mile
And since there ain‘t no Proof, I never walked through 8 Mile."

The lyrics now read:

"We are not the same, I am a Martian
So approach my Phantom doors with caution
You see them 24's spinnin'? I earned them
And I aint no preacher but, Here's my Erik sermon
So eat this black music, And tell me how it taste now
And f**k Jesse Jackson 'Cause it aint about race now!"

After the controversy The Game released a statement about the meaning behind his lyrics. "When I originally wrote the song 'My Life,' I was trying to think back on events that affected my life and how they changed me," Game said. "When I first got signed to Aftermath and G-unit, I was exposed to so many different people — from Dre to Em to 50 to Proof. I always identified with Proof. We were always cool, and he would reach out to me whenever I was going through something. I remember when Proof died vividly, and now every time I think about going to Detroit, I get depressed. That is what I was trying to say in that verse. And the more I looked at it, I realized that people would take it the wrong way."

While we are all glad we don't have another rap beef on our hands, I have to say, I'm surprised that the track was ever recorded with those lyrics. Didn't anybody in studio listen to it and think "Wow. Maybe burning pictures with Eminem might not sound endearing?" Apparently not.