During an interview with the I Am Athlete podcast, The Game admitted that he was hurt for being excluded from the Super Bowl LVI Halftime Show. He said, “The real reason I wasn’t on the Super Bowl Halftime Show is because I’m not a ‘safe’ artist.' You don’t know what the Game gon’ do when he get up there. So, it’s just like, ‘He not safe,’ so they went with the safe artists.”
He continued, “We, on the West Coast, are the only motherf*ckers who have this crab-in-a-barrel mentality, where we wanna keep n***as down … Snoop Dogg is icon. Dre is icon. Em is an icon, but Em is not from L.A. 50 is not from L.A. I’m not taking away from the fact that they’re were on the Super Bowl, but L.A. artists wouldn’t have been in the Detroit Super Bowl or New York Super Bowl. It just wouldn’t have happened … L.A., L.A., L.A. all around the Super Bowl and I didn’t get the call.”
When asked how that made him feel, the Game said, “I was hurt by that.”
The Game said that he had no issues with the performers, but believes Dre should’ve at least contacted him to explain why he wasn’t included. He explained, “I talk to Dre often. I just know if I was Dre and he was Game, he would’ve been up there. That’s just it. It’s L.A. I am L.A. I’m in the streets … So, yeah, I was hurt. Now am I bothered by it today? I’m not bothered by it today.”