When the Palisades and Eaton fires broke out in Los Angeles on January 7, The Game knew he had to do something to help his hometown.
The rapper, 45, who was born and raised in Compton, California, exclusively tells Us Weekly that he felt “compelled” to assist fire personnel as they battled the L.A. wildfires, which have claimed at least 27 lives and destroyed or damaged over 12,300 structures, according to NBC News. In order to do so, he decided to push the release of his upcoming album, The Documentary 3, from January 18 to February.
“I just couldn’t put out an album. Even in this interview talking about the album with you, it feels selfish, right?” The Game says.
The Game was at home with his family in the San Fernando Valley when the wildfires began in the Pacific Palisades. The family was forced to evacuate and stay with a friend in the city, where they saw the destruction on the local news.
“I sat back for a few hours and then I thought to myself, ‘I do have to do something and I don’t know what to do.’ So I just hit the streets,” The Game says. “I went to the Pacific Palisades fire. There were a bunch of cars in the streets, abandoned, and we couldn’t really get in there. I talked to some firemen and asked them what they needed. I got them some coffee; I knew it was going to be a long night. And then, from there, I was like, ‘I got to do it bigger.’”
The Game then made it his mission to assist firefighters and displaced residents throughout the city. He and his friends brought tents, blankets, food, water and other essential items to firefighters battling the Eaton Fire. They woke up at 4 a.m. and stayed overnight to help firefighters in Altadena, a historically Black neighborhood in Los Angeles that has been heavily impacted.
“We saw the night shift come back in the morning. They were covered in soot and ashes and you could barely see their uniforms,” The Game explains. “Being there and seeing it, I felt so compelled to just stay out there every day. It wasn’t anything that we planned. We just were going around helping where we could. I started to get addicted to the feeling of relieving some of the stress of these firefighters.”
The pull to help was so strong, in fact, that The Game has postponed the release of his new album so he could focus on fire relief and helping the city of Los Angeles.
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“I’m putting a 100 percent of who I am to bringing Los Angeles, and California, and cities inside California, back to a calm before I do any type of promotion or anything,” he says. “Just seeing the smiles on people’s faces and the relief from getting some help is all that I really need, at the end of the day.”
The Game hopes that the wildfires, which are still raging in the Pacific Palisades and Altadena, will soon be fully contained. Until then, he plans on helping in whatever way he can.
“I have a new respect and love for firefighters,” he says. “I want people to pay attention to the people that literally lost everything when their homes burned down. People in the Altadena area, all these historically Black-owned businesses and homes that have been there for a 100-plus years. Let’s spread the love and distribute equally; and make sure that as a city, as a state, as a nation, that we give everybody the support, and the love, and the same rebuild.”
Check the LAFD website for local wildfire alerts and click here for resources on how to help those affected.
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