The Game says he refused to pay YoungBoy Never Broke Again $200K for a verse on his new album.
The Baton Rouge rapper was originally featured on The Game’s latest album, Drillmatic, but the multi-platinum selling artist’s verse was removed because the Los Angeles rapper did not want to pay the enormous fee for the feature.
The Game is an established artist, but he is not as popular in the present time compared to NBA YoungBoy’s selling point, which has hundreds of RIAA certified Gold and Platinum records, and he is also the second most streamed artist for 2022 with four billion and counting streams behind Drake.
In a statement on Instagram, the Documentary rapper said, “I ain’t never paid for a verse in my life n***a, 200k for a 16 [crying laughing emojis] never & a day blood.”
The Game’s manager, Wack 100, revealed on Friday that NBA YoungBoy’s feature was too high for the rapper, and he was taken off of the album.
NBA YoungBoy was initially announced to be on Game’s 10th studio album Drillmatic: Heart vs Mind on the track “O.P.P.” ‘The Last Slimeto’ rapper was conspicuously absent from the album after its release, and the track “O.P.P” was removed completely.
On Clubhouse, Wack 100 disclosed the reason for the rapper being axed was the feature price.
“Sometimes when it comes down to a situation that I had to make an executive decision about. In YoungBoy’s defense, YoungBoy charges n*****s 300,000 a verse. That’s what he charge. He gave us a hell of deal [150K]. But that situation would have cut into marketing overall,” YoungBoy said.
He added that there were no hard feelings towards YoungBoy as the decision was purely business.
“So I had to make the executive decision to pay the tab he sent me, which was a respectable, great tab. It was love. But that tab would have cut into that, that and that … nothing against YoungBoy, he didn’t disrespect us.”
Wack 100 also disclosed that there were other decisions he had to make to stick to the marketing budget for the project, especially as ten songs and six samples were on the project.
Along with “O.P.P,” the Game also lost out on having Nipsey Hussle on the track “World Tours” after the late rapper’s estate, at the last minute, blocked the Compton rapper from using Nipsey’s verse. The Game reportedly received a cease-and-desist letter from the artist’s estate lawyer.
Meanwhile, ‘Drillmatic’ entered the charts at No. 10 this week and sold 24,959 album equivalent units.
The Game has previously said this is the album of his career and has even boasted this would be the album of the year despite it being the lowest-selling album of his career.
“I can honestly say nothing rap related will be able to stand next to this in 2022,” Game said in a lengthy message posted on his Instagram.
In the meantime, NBA YoungBoy’s ‘The Last Slimeto’ debuted at No. 2 on the Billboard Hot 100 chart last week. The rapper barely missed out by 400 streams to be beaten by Bad Bunny for the top spot. YoungBoy secured 108,000 album-equivalent unit sales, with 103,500 of that amount coming from streaming-equivalent album units.
