He may have taken some verbal jabs at Jay Z in the past, but The Game now admits that it was Hov's influence that got Dr. Dre involved in The Documentary. The Compton rapper's 2005 major-label debut remains an acclaimed album in hip hop and beyond with Dr. Dre holding down eight production credits on the project. In a chat with HipHopDX, Game shared that it wouldn't be until years later that he'd learn that Jay influenced Dre to get involved with The Documentary after the Aftermath mogul played a track for the Roc Nation CEO.
"Jay Z was the determining factor on like, Dre really coming back in and really locking in on The Documentary. He probably thought in his mind, what I'm assuming is, 'Maybe I really gotta go listen and maybe Hov hears something different.' But it made sense to me because Dre was more of a West Coast, Snoop Dogg, Xzibit...his ears were conditioned for that outside of f*cking noticing a f*cking Eminem was a rock star. I don't even know how you peg that as Dr. Dre, but he called that one. I was like a West Coast n*gga with like an East Coast flow. So, a lotta my sh*t went over Dre's head, everybody's head. A lotta people didn't even think I was from Compton. They thought I was from like, Brooklyn or Queens and I moved to the West Coast. I had dope ass f*ckin' songs that nobody really could understand except n*ggas from the East Coast."
"I guess Jay, when they were on a yacht or some sh*t, Jay and Dre...Dre was like playing up and coming Aftermath sh*t and when that came on, Jay Z was like, 'That sh*t is a smash.'" After that, Dre followed up with Game by coming back and getting "locked in. I never knew what happened until one of the mutual homies in A&R was just like, 'Yo, he played it for Jay Z and Jay Z was like this needs to come out.' And that was it." Watch Game's clip below.
