The Game says that he once lost a rap battle to Kanye West after the two began freestyling outside of a party in California. The Compton rapper recalled the incident during a discussion with Matt Barnes and Stephen Jackson for the All The Smoke podcast, ahead of the release of his new album Drillmatic.

“So yeah, me and Ye we end up freestyling outside of [the party] … my shit was all gangsta, but Ye had the punchlines and he had the women; so he beat me that night,” Game said. “So ever since then me and Ye we’ve been locked in.”

The Game, Kanye
Leon Bennett / Getty Images

He went on to say that the two bonded over the moment and West has had his back in the music industry ever since. The Game even remarked, earlier this year, that Ye has done more for his career than Dr. Dre.

“It’s crazy that Ye did more for me in the last two weeks than Dre did for me my whole career,” Game declared on the Drink Champs podcast, back in February.

Drillmatic: Heart vs. Mind, which has been delayed several times by this point, has finally been given a firm release date by The Game. Fans can expect to hear the highly-anticipated new album on August 12.

“My apologies for the delay but fans sometimes don’t understand how hard it is behind the scenes trying to clear samples on over 30 records & to get publishing splits, agreements, mixes approved, featured artists agreements & a million other things done in order to have a clean, flawless album put together & released,” he recently wrote on Instagram.

Check out The Game‘s interview with All The Smoke below.

[Via]