This is for that Game stan who tried to argue that this 50 Cent sounding album was fully written by Game.
This or Hunger For More was the first album I ever bought, this is certainly a straight classic.
This is taken from a Complex article about the making of The Documentary, with interviews from Game himself, Aftermath A&R (who Game mentioned on No More Fun And Games) and producer Needlz
1. Westside Story
Mike Lynn (A&R for Aftermath): “That was the first record that Dre and Game did. 50 wasn’t involved yet. That was just Game. Game wrote that record. That’s Game’s record. The different skill that 50 brought to the table was that he was hook ready. At the time, Game was still developing his hooks
50's never claimed to write lyrics for anybody, he always made the hook/theme of the song for everybody on G-Unit when they were hot, every hit sounded like a 50 record.
2. Hate It Or Love It
The Game: “‘Hate It Or Love It’ kind of came at sort of the mid-way point [of the recording process]. This was probably the beginning of ‘04. I was in Connecticut, I had the beat, and I was on my way to 50’s house. This was right when I joined G-Unit—and it was like three hours from New York to Connecticut—so I was in the back of this fukking Escalade and I was just writing. I write songs backwards. I start with third verse when I write. Because when you write songs from front to back, nine times out of ten times the third verse is the weakest. Why? Because you’re tired. So I start from the back. When I got [to 50’s house], 50 wrote his verse and put it on the front. And then he came up with, ‘Yo, we should say hate it or love it. Call it ‘Hate It Or Love It’ and let’s write a hook.’ And then we wrote the hook just sitting right there vibing, like some old-school, head-bouncing, huddle shyt. It was just me and Fif down there.
Sha Money XL: “I met Cool & Dre at Chris Lighty’s office in the winter of 2004. I told them, ‘Let me get some heat.’ They gave me a few tracks and ‘Hate It Or Love It’ was one. When I heard ‘Hate It Or Love It’ I knew that was [a hit] instantly. 50 had Game in Connecticut for like a month. He worked on the whole album. 50 got the whole thing started. 50 was writing the hooks. He wrote the hook for ‘Hate It Or Love It.’ He wrote almost all the hooks on the album, seriously. You'll see it on the credits. And then that beat came and he was recording that like he was...Fif normally records regardless. Like, that song could have ended up on The Massacre. That record stood out enough for him when he recorded, before Game even heard it. Game didn't even know what he was walking into. He came into the house, Fif had the records all laid out for him. Him on a verse here, with a hook there. All laid out. When Game heard ‘Hate It Or Love It,’ he jumped on it and magic happened.”
Mike Lynn (A&R for Aftermath): “‘Hate It Or Love It’ was for 50. 50 called me when he did ‘Hate It Or Love It’ like, ‘I’m thinking about keeping it for myself and G-Unit, but I might give it to Game.’ He played it for me over the phone and I’m like, ‘We gotta have that!’ I knew it had a chance to be a single, but Dre wasn’t 100 percent sure because of the tempo. But when we tested it, it came back and people were definitely into it.
Now this nikka coulda lied and said "50 wrote his verse, then I came up with 'Yo we should say hate it or love it' then I wrote the hook" but he admitted it, 50 said the song was his and it was originally called MVP.
But DAMN Mike Lynn and Sha Money exposed that lying ass nikka
3. How We Do
The Game: “I was in the studio going through Dre beats, and I came across that beat, and I loved it as soon as I heard it. I wasn’t supposed to be going through the beats, I was going through them unauthorized. [Laughs.] [I went through] maybe like 30 beats. I had to do it real quick because Dre stepped out to go to this little meeting. So I lied to Vito (Dre’s engineer) and told him, ‘Dre wants me to listen to some shyt,’ because I didn’t like what he had up for me. It was called ‘Fresh ‘83,’ that’s what the beat was named in Dre’s folder. I guess he thought it was some ‘83 breakdancing shyt.
“Of course, Dre was like he didn’t like it at all. I was like, ‘Give me 30 minutes to write to it.’ So I started writing. Once Dre came back in from a meeting, he heard the first verse, and was like, ‘Oh, we’ve got to finish this.’ When I finished the whole song, I didn’t have a hook—I just rapped straight through. Without 50 on the hook, the song just went straight through. And Dre was like. ‘Nah, we’ve got to break up some of this shyt and write a hook.’ And so he called 50, and Fif came in and wrote the hook out. Then the shyt was so crazy, 50 wanted on the song. So, my second verse, he kind of took out—it was too many words—but he made it fit him. [The song] was all my verses. All 50 did was change it a little bit to fit him. Not his style, he just changed the words and took out a couple words. He ain’t really change much.”
Damn 50 was runnin shyt at Aftermath, he almost did a Jay Z and took the whole song from the lil nikka LOL! But if you listen to How We Do, Game sound like he copying 50's verses.. and 50 went crazy on the last verse.
4. Church For Thugs
Sha Money XL: “50 recorded that hook in Jimmy Iovine's basement because Game couldn't come up with a hook. We was at Jimmy's house chilling. We was having a meeting with Doug Morris and we was just there on some other shyt. Jimmy was like, ‘Yo, we need a hook for this record. It's a big record.’ And 50 wrote that hook right there in the basement. He did a rough vocal for Game to hear it and do it over. I'll tell you the truth: Game did his thing on his album. Whether he wrote it or not, he performed. He's a studio rapper.
Yo swear to God... when I first got this album I was like "Damn 50 must've wrote this shyt!" track coulda been a single
5. Special (RIP Nate Dogg!)
The Game: “That’s Dre [talking in the beginning]. It’s either Dre or Fif. I can’t remember. I haven’t heard The Documentary since I did that song. We was in the studio for all the songs 50 is on. You know what, 50 was on the hook when I got the beat. It was from 50. And he gave it to me, and I put Nate Dogg on it.”
Needlz: “I was doing a lot of stuff with G-Unit at the time. [That song] kind of happened out of the blue. I wasn’t really expecting it. I just got a call and it was like, ‘Yo, we want this beat.’ 50 wrote that hook. I’m not sure how much of the verses he did, but I know he did the hook, and he submitted it to Game. I didn’t hear the [original] version, but I got the split. [Laughs.] When you sign the contract, you see who gets what. And I think 50 got a good part of that record. If you listen to it, it sounds like a 50 hook. People don’t really understand that 50 really did take Game under his wing. He did his whole album. He gave up records, you know what I’m saying? Just imagine if 50 had all those records on The Massacre, like 'How We Do,' all those records man? It would have been insane.
Ayo this nikka basically said 50 on the album so much he can't even listen to it no more LOL! Game got tired of making excuses and told the truth on this one. But it's clearly a 50 track, no way around it.
But shout out to Needlz though on some real shyt... do you know how big 50 Cent was during that period? Every track he was making was a hit, Game was gettin them shyts for free like water
6. Runnin' (feat. Tony Yayo)
50 ain't write this one but...
Angelo Sanders (A&R for Aftermath): “You don’t get those [kind of songs] on too many albums. That’s a timeless record and people are still singing. We had Dion, he was butter back then. He brought that magic. And Yayo, that was my idea because we were gonna put Lloyd Banks on that record originally. And Yayo had just came home from jail and I was like, ‘We need to go with Yayo on that.’ Game was like, ‘You right, let’s do it.’ We reached out and Yayo was with it and he spit that fire. I don’t know another verse from him that I like better, and I’m not just trying to be biased. He really was on some shyt when he gave us that. He came home from jail and I think they took care of him after because we got that first hungry verse and that was it. [Laughs.] He was like, ‘Woo, got that off my chest.’ [Laughs.]”
That Yayo verse was tough but can you imagine if Banks was on this
Anyway I fukks with Game's music HEAVY until 08 but this album is a definite classic. I only made this thread cause one nikka tried say I was lying, this is proof nikka!! You can't deny this shyt.
But wait
Can you imagine if 50 had Hate It Or Love it and How We Do as singles for The Massacre? shyt woulda sold 20mil
