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How a Rap Battle Against Kanye West Led to One of the Best West Coast Hip-Hop Songs of the 2000s

How a rap battle at a party led to The Game meeting Kanye West and eventually making one of the best West Coast rap songs of the 2000s.

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Few artists have a better debut album on their resume than The Game. For his first outing in the mainstream, he had the help of every popular producer and rapper you could imagine. Timbaland, Havoc, Busta Rhymes, Mary J. Blige, Eminem, and Nate Dogg all came on board off the strength of Dr. Dre and 50 Cent’s cosign. Moreover, Dre and 50 were also responsible for a strong chunk of the album, saving the day when The Documentary was almost shelved completely by the label.

But it’s his outing with Kanye West that arguably stands as the crown jewel of the album. “Dreams” acts as one of his strongest sample flips as well, a prime example of how unstoppable he was as a producer........

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