50 Cent vs The Game (2005-2016)

Summary

The 50 Cent vs The Game beef is the defining intra-label feud of the bling era, and one of the most extensively documented examples of a G-Unit-era rapper turning on the label apparatus that launched him. The Game's debut album The Documentary, executive produced in significant part by 50 Cent and Dr. Dre under Interscope's Aftermath / G-Unit Records umbrella, was released January 18, 2005 and went platinum within a month. Six weeks later, on February 28, 2005, 50 Cent appeared on Hot 97's Funkmaster Flex show and announced he was kicking The Game out of G-Unit. Per New York Times and Rolling Stone coverage, a shooting occurred outside Hot 97's studios immediately after, involving an associate of The Game; one person was wounded. The beef produced the 300 Bars and Runnin' mixtape (September 2005) — a nearly 15-minute sustained diss track that Complex and XXL retrospectives cite as one of the longest in rap history. The exchange continued intermittently across the next decade, with periodic public reconciliations followed by re-escalations. The Game's subsequent albums (Doctor's Advocate 2006, LAX 2008) frequently revisited the conflict. The formal reconciliation came in 2016, when The Game and 50 Cent posted joint photos and statements on social media. Per Complex coverage, the reconciliation followed years of intermittent thaws and re-escalations; subsequent public statements from both artists have characterized the conflict as resolved.