The rapper who trolled New Zealand for 12 straight years.
The rapper who trolled New Zealand for 12 straight years.
The Game has failed to appear at nine different shows here since 2012. So why do promoters keep trying to book him?
On New Year’s Eve, the man born Jayceon Terrell Taylor – the Compton rapper more commonly known as The Game – had an important message to share with his 14 million Instagram followers.
“I’m looking forward to being a better person for me and all those close to me,” Taylor wrote. “Happy New Year’s Eve to those who have the capacity to enjoy turning another page.”
Here in New Zealand, Taylor’s legions of fans were hoping the rapper really was ready to turn over a new leaf.
For the past 12 years, the ‘How We Do’ and ‘Hate it or Love It’ hitmaker has caused repeated chaos across our live concert and music festival scene.
Taylor has left a trail of broken promises, failed tour stops, last-minute cancellations, and bonkers accusations levelled at “janky” promoters in his wake.
He has performed in Aotearoa just twice: in Porirua in 2009 when a Stuff reviewer called him “as close as can be to talentless”; and at Spark (then Vector) Arena in 2012, a concert I described like this:
Since then, Taylor has made it to New Zealand exactly zero times, despite nine events being promoted with The Game’s name high up on the bill.
His excuses for those no-shows are laughable at best, and at worst have outraged fans and caused serious rifts with promoters. One failed tour reached court and reportedly cost Taylor and his crew hundreds of thousands of dollars.
His excuses include:
Going “missing” in 2007 for Roc Tha Block, a one-day Spark (then Vector) Arena festival that also included Akon, Pitbull and Sisqó on the bill. The Game pulled out at the last minute and there remains no official explanation for his no-show. The incident prompted me to write this headline for Stuff:
“Auckland, it’s going to get real awkward,” promised Taylor in a bizarre 2013 tour video done in a mock Australian accent. Things did indeed get awkward when The Game’s September concert at The Powerstation was axed. “The terms and conditions of hiring the venue were not completed, as required, by promoters,” the venue said when cancelling the show.
Taylor was due to perform at Raggamuffin in 2016 alongside Wu-Tang Clan, UB40, Macy Gray and Xzibit. I still remember the boos echoing around Trusts Arena when he cancelled during the festival. Things got weird: Taylor claimed he’d made it here only to be turned away at the border; Raggamuffin organisers denied this and said the rapper failed to board his plane in Dubai. Whatever happened, at some point Taylor appeared to confuse Australia with New Zealand. “This is surely the last time any promoter in their right mind tries to bring the Compton gangster rapper back,” I wrote in my review at the time. I was so young, so naïve.
In 2017, Taylor was booked to perform a farewell tour at Logan Campbell Centre with promoters claiming it was “the last chance for fans to see the rapper in his full glory”. It wasn’t to be. “This tour is FAKE,” Taylor wrote on Facebook. This is the tour that ended in court, with Australian promoters Tour Squad reportedly winning $500,000 in damages over the failed tour. It emerged Taylor had upped his appearance fee, wanted to bring an entourage of 15 people with him and demanded promoters pay him $3.21 million to film a tour documentary.
Six years later in 2023, The Game was booked to perform alongside Ice Cube and Cypress Hill at two hip-hop throwback shows in Auckland and Christchurch. Last April, on the day the tour was due to kick off in Australia, Taylor pulled out with organisers blaming “logistical issues”. He was replaced by a Major Flavours showcase by DJ Sir-Vere including Scribe, Savage, Che-Fu and Sid Diamond. A few months later, Taylor pulled the same stunt on the same bill in Glasgow.
All that – all that! – and yet it’s just happened again.
Juicy Fest, the insanely popular hip-hop nostalgia festival that tours nine dates across Australasia every January, booked The Game to appear alongside T.I., Ashanti, Mase, Trey Songz, Mario, Keri Hilson, Fabolous and Bone Thugs-N-Harmony.
Sitting at my desk while looking over the press release last year, I spat this out in exasperation:
It seems promoters never learn.
On January 3, the day Juicy Fest was set to kick off in Christchurch, organisers announced the inevitable.
Taylor wouldn’t make it.
“The Game is packed and ready for NZ – and yes he has his Visa! However, due to a personal hold up his arrival may be delayed a day or two and the worst case scenario is that he misses the Christchurch show. If he does, he’ll come back at the end of the festival tour for a headline show.”
The visa is the only part of that statement that is true: late yesterday, Immigration NZ confirmed Taylor was granted a character waiver on December 28 and issued a short-term entertainment visa so he could perform at Juicy Fest.
December 28 is less than a week before the festival was due to kick off.
Talk about cutting it close.
Despite the delay, organisers continued their unearned optimism and doubled down, booking Taylor for more events: an after party in Auckland at The Studio on January 6, and a stand alone Hamilton concert on January 10 with Bizzy Bone.
Spoiler alert: Taylor didn’t make it to the Christchurch leg of Juicy Fest.
He wasn’t in Wellington either.
Fans in Tauranga didn’t get to see him perform, and neither did those in Auckland.
His name was scrubbed from that after party.
(Tickets are still on sale for the Hamilton event. They cost $131.)
With fan outrage increasing, and as dozens of questions about his whereabouts flooded Juicy Fest’s Facebook posts, organisers finally fronted up.
They took to Instagram to apologise.
They said they were sorry.
They explained why The Game didn’t make it here this time.
And they admitted he might not make it to any Juicy Fests at all, including all the dates in Australia being held over the next two weeks.
The reason?
(I have to admit it: this made me laugh.)
It seems Taylor forgot to renew his passport.
“Juicy Fest and The Game want to apologise … Right now we are at a point that we can’t promise anything. We have put at least 10 months and hundreds of hours into getting our brother, The Game, into New Zealand for Juicy Fest.
The Game faced a setback at the airport as he was about to travel to New Zealand yesterday … While we understood all issues to be resolved, what was unknown was that his passport had been canceled and we are working on obtaining a new one.
The delays relating to public holidays over the Christmas and New Year period have only hindered this process. We’re not sure when The Game will be in New Zealand but we can guarantee he will be here … it could be in time for a New Zealand show (Tauranga), it could be in time for an Australia show or it could be after the Juicy Fest tour is over.
We just don’t know yet.”
“We can guarantee he will be here” is a hell of a statement to make after what’s unfolded over the past 12 years, especially after a week that included four no-shows.
That’s a guarantee no promoter is in a position to make, no matter how much money they’re waving around.
Yet they still seem desperate to book him despite Taylor’s constant issues stepping on a plane aimed towards Aotearoa.
Why?
‘You’ve got more chance of Tupac turning up.’
To answer that question, you need to dive into the comments.
On Juicy Fest’s Facebook page, every post by festival organisers is flooded with dozens of messages just like these:
Fans are desperate to see The Game perform live.
Songs like ‘Wouldn’t Get Far’ and ‘Let’s Ride’ rattled subs in trunks, earned constant radio rotation and soundtracked high school parties throughout the mid-2000s.
Taylor’s got an aggressive swagger and thuggish flow that sounds incredible when used with the right producer.
Nostalgia is at an all-time high right now, so who doesn’t want to be in a sunny field with a drink in their hand next to their friends with this as the soundtrack?
With every no-show, the promises get bigger and the demand gets greater.
After the past 12 years, anyone who gets The Game to perform in New Zealand would be labelled a miracle-maker.
Juicy Fest is the country’s biggest hip-hop throwback event – and among our biggest drawcards on a summer stacked with 100 competing festivals.
That’s why promoters are ready to bet it all on getting The Game here.
They’re willing to risk losing their booking fee – up to 50% of an artist’s performance demands – on a gamble that they’ll be able to make it happen.
I reached out to Juicy Fest’s organisers to see if they’d be willing to discuss the
10 months of work they spent trying to get Taylor here.
I had no response.
So I turned to The Game’s favourite social media app, Instagram, and did something I rarely do.
I DM’d him.
I asked him why he didn’t make it to Juicy Fest.
I asked if he had a message for his disappointed fans down under.
And I sent him this question:
Just like his status here, Taylor’s left it unseen.
Thanks for reading Boiler Room. If you’d like to contribute to keep this thing going, please consider upgrading your subscription. If you’ve already done so, thank you. You’re awesome!