The Game: Huge in Japan

Is the Game one of these artists who are really big in foreign countries, like Michael Jackson, or Night Ranger, the group who did "Sister Christian," which is huge in Japan (just like my cock)? I keep seeing these videos of him leading a crowd in a spirited chant of "Fuck Jay-Z!" and I notice he's some of everywhere other than the US.

The Game being huge in Japan would help explain how he's managed to remain on the Forbes list despite the fact that his career has gone downhill ever since he got kicked out of G-Unit. (Though, for what it's worth, Fiddy's own career has gone downhill since about the same time.) The Documentary supposedly sold 4 million, but its superior followup, Doctor's Advocate, didn't sell nearly as well, and L.A.X didn't sell nearly as well as that. His career has followed more or less the same trajectory as Tony Yayo, and yet, you don't see Tony Yayo on the Forbes list, despite all of the important work he does for Fiddy.

It could be that the Game is purposely trying out his Fuck Jay-Z movement overseas, because he's not sure how well it's gonna go over here in the States. Crowds over in foreign countries aren't gonna understand what the fuck you're saying anyway. They'll chant "Fuck Jay-Z!" at a Game concert, then turn right around and attend a Jay-Z concert. They're just fascinated with huge black guys. I've heard chicks in Japan will fuck any ol' black guy, if you tell them you're a rapper. I might have to go over there and tell them I'm Biggie Smalls. And you guys know I don't even dine on Chinese.

But I digress.

It'll be interesting to see what happens when he brings his movement back stateside. I consulted the world's most accurate encyclopedia, to make sure his album sales have been in decline (I see he does indeed have a lot of plaques from foreign countries, but I'm not sure if it's an inordinate amount), and I see he's planning on releasing an album called the Red Album later this year, even though he said he was retiring after L.A.X. (Shocker!) I'm assuming the title is meant to bait Jay-Z. And who knows, the entire album might be full of songs speculating on which ball players Beyonce has been with and what have you. You know the Game tends to be heavy on the name dropping anyway.

He might want to see about pushing his release date up to compete with Jay-Z's. I saw where Fiddy Cent, for a minute there, was gonna drop Before I Self Destruct on 9/11, the same day as the Blueprint 3. Then he decided to push it back, for whatever reason. Is it because he already got humiliated once in a sales battle? He must not have read my post(s) about how Curtis probably sold more copies than it would have, from being released the same day as the Kanye album. The huge drop-off from the sales of the Massacre was because people had a couple of years interim to realize they don't really like 50 Cent's music.

Even if he can't make it back to the US in time to spoil Jay-Z's release date, the Game could have more of a movement on his hands than you'd think. It would probably take having spent the past few years covering these issues (i.e. throwing salt) to sense it, but there's been a sea change in terms of Jay-Z stannery on the Internets. It used to be I couldn't do a post critical of Jay-Z without a swarm of butthurt Jay stans taking to the comments section. These days, there's only like one guy left. Maybe they've all just moved over to Nah Right (their ancestral home), but still. Then there was Jay's ill-advised crusade against autotune, as if he's been some great defender of real hip-hop. That doesn't seem to have gone over very well, now has it?

If the Game can seize on this momentum, he could be as big again in the US as he is elsewhere. Yeah, there's always the rest of the world, to keep him on the Forbes list, but there's nothing like a blowski in your own backyard.