I will always think of The Game as the emcee who tapped into the vibe of late-80s/early-90s West Coast gangsta rap and brought it to the next generation. His music often interpolates or re-samples classic songs by NWA, DJ Quik, Ice-T, and of course Dr. Dre-who would sign him to Aftermath Records. He’s among hip-hop’s elite, possessing formidable skills on the mic and a discography boasting several albums that hit #1 on the Billboard charts.
The Game’s most widely-known trait is his repeated use of name-dropping in his lyrics. The Merriam-Webster dictionary defines name-dropping as “the studied but seemingly casual mention of prominent persons as associates done to impress others”, and the hip-hop world buys into the phenomena wholeheartedly. Emcees drop the names of notable collaborators, producers, and celebrities in their lyrics: often by associating themselves with them or conducting wordplay with their names. For example, in the song “Bach to Bach” Fabolous rhymes “Quarterback life, people wanna pass you sacks / Matte black Maybach I named it Matt Hasselbeck”. This of course is a nod to NFL Pro-Bowl QB-turned-analyst Matt Hasselbeck. Game does this on a grandiose scale and his usage of proper nouns in his lyrics is arguably higher than any other emcee. I decided to conduct a count of his name drops and map them.
Method/Criteria: Using the Original Hip-Hop Lyrics Archive (OHHLA.com) and Genius.com I took note of everyone mentioned in The Game’s studio albums-no mixtapes-counting frequency of unique names and total name drops by album. I sorted the names into 17 categories loosely based on professions (athlete, musician, politician, etc.) to assist with later analysis. The only names omitted were fashion designers: Louis Vuitton, Tom Ford, (Mario) Prada, and the like. I didn’t include them at first, and when I though to start I was a few albums into the count and didn’t want to start over. Exceptions are Dapper Dan, Virgil Abloh, and basketball players with sneakers.
Everyone was mapped based on their hometowns or cities they were most known from. For example, Serena Williams was born in Saginaw, Michigan, but is notably from Compton, California. I aggregated location information to determine if The Game favors name-dropping people from any region in particular. Of course all points are symbolized as a nod to The Game’s membership in the Bloods.
Findings: Based on my counts The Game made a total of 1,094 name drops (averaging 109.4 per album) and mentioned 650 unique names. Based on album:
– The Documentary: 130
– Doctor’s Advocate: 84
– LAX: 123
– The R.E.D. Album: 96
– Jesus Piece: 96
– The Documentary 2: 98
– The Documentary 2.5: 100
– 1992: 119
– Born 2 Rap: 102
– Drillmatic: 146
The Game’s top 5 name drops are Dr. Dre (148 times), 2Pac (75), Biggie (47), Jay-Z (42), and Kanye West (40). Dre, Pac, Kanye, Nas, and Snoop Dogg are mentioned at least once per album.
He drops musicians, record executives, politicians, fellow gang members, models, actors and actresses, and even terrorists (al-Qaeda and ISIS are both mentioned in his songs). Musicians are shouted out the most by far (377 total), followed by 85 athletes and 45 fellow gang members. He also name drops the family members (parents, spouses, and children) of 10 emcees.
Geographically a total of 36 states, two US Territories, the District of Columbia, and 30 countries are represented.
Elite Emcees: The Game has a penchant for shouting out emcees on the top of the food chain, just look at his top 5 above. Other emcees with more than 10 name drops that are top-tier in my opinion are Eminem (35), Lil Wayne (23), Kendrick Lamar (18), and Ice Cube (13).
G-Unit: The Game’s affiliation and subsequent beef with 50 Cent and G-Unit are well known in the hip-hop community. It should be no surprise The Game name drops them in both friendly and threatening bars. He calls out 50 Cent’s name the most at 35 times, and the rest of G-Unit a total of 15: Lloyd Banks (5), Young Buck (5), Tony Yayo (4), Sha Money XL (1).
West Coast Love: The Game is from Compton so of course there were more name drops of Californians than those from any other state (155). New York was a close second (143), mostly due to shouting out hip-hop veterans.
Errors/Omissions: See my notes above regarding omitting fashion designers. I also realize my numbers are quite different from other great rap data sources like Hip-Hop By The Numbers, and even by The Game’s own count, so the possibility of my own human error isn’t out of the question. I will say I come damn close though. I did my counts by hand, writing out every name drop song by song, album by album. I’m happy to share my summary tables and data with anyone who has a different count.
Rap GEO 