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The Game
Will The Game make it back to New Zealand next year? (Image: Tina Tiller)

Pop CultureNovember 23, 2022

Six gigs, four no-shows: Will The Game make it to New Zealand this time?

The Game
Will The Game make it back to New Zealand next year? (Image: Tina Tiller)

Someone is trying to bring The Game to Aotearoa – again. Good luck to them.

Twice. Just two appearances. To date, the only times ungoogleable rapper The Game has performed in New Zealand is in 2009, and again in 2012. At those shows, one in Porirua, the other at Spark Arena, the aggressive Compton artist known for hits like ‘Let’s Ride’ and ‘How We Do’ downed an entire bottle of spirits, forgot his own lyrics, berated anyone leaving the venue and hassled someone about their height.

So why do promoters keep trying to bring The Game down under? Over the past 15 years, The Game has announced his intention to perform here six separate times, including festivals and his own headlining shows. Yet, the man born Jayceon Taylor always has an excuse as to why he can’t make it – from missed flights to “janky” promoters and over zealous customs agents. It is never his own fault.

He might very well be the most unreliable artist ever scheduled to perform in Aotearoa. Yet someone’s trying to do it again. Next year, The Game is scheduled to play two shows. He’s playing the undercard at a throwback hip-hop festival also featuring Cypress Hill and Ice Cube at Christchurch’s Hagley Park on March 31, and again at Auckland’s Trusts Arena on April 1.

Will he make it? Promoters Room Service have one thing going for them – they’ve already achieved two minor local hip-hop miracles, managing to get the country’s five-year ban lifted against Tyler, the Creator for his headlining slot at Bay Dreams, and they’re the only ones to entice Cardi B to perform in Aotearoa, even if she only played for half an hour.

If anyone can make it happen, they can. But they should probably have a little looksie at The Game’s checkered relationship with New Zealand, because the history books are against them.

Roc Tha Block, Spark Arena, September 3, 2007

I met the promoter out front of Spark Arena and he peeled off a single ticket from a huge stack he was carrying around with him. Inside, the venue was so empty you could swing several cats at the front of the stage. At Roc Tha Block, The Game was billed as headliner for a hip-hop festival also featuring Naughty By Nature. It was troubled from the start, shifting dates because Akon didn’t get his Visa sorted, meaning openers Mims and Juelz Santana were replaced by Pitbull and Sisqó. On the day, things got worse when The Game didn’t turn up. No one would say why. “There is no official statement,” said a Universal Music promotion manager at the time. At least we got this immortal intro from a NZ Herald review: “It was billed as the ultimate urban experience. It almost became the ultimate urban disaster.”

Te Rauparaha Arena, Porirua, August 28, 2009

Due to lack of interest, The Game’s first New Zealand appearance was downsized from TSB Bank Arena to Te Rauparaha Arena in Porirua. There, a game Dominion Post critic reported that “tens” of people arrived for a show that sounded diabolical. “He hacked out hackneyed rhymes over pre-recorded beats,” wrote the reviewer, who called the rapper “monotonous” and “as close as can be to talentless”. Yikes.

Spark Arena, February 26, 2012

That review didn’t stop promoters from booking The Game to headline his own show in 2012. Here are some sample quotes from the NZ Herald review that ran the following day: “The 32-year-old spent much of his Vector Arena show … scowling, berating the crowd and massaging his own ego by boasting about his achievements … [he] downed most of a bottle of spirits, taunted a little person who was dancing on stage, swore at members of his entourage , groped female fans and told the crowd off for talking during a Nate Dogg memorial … On the Kanye West-produced soul-sampling stunner ‘Wouldn’t Get Far,’ Game admitted he couldn’t remember the song’s third verse … his ego is out of control.” Who wrote this? Oh. That was me. This was the last time The Game appeared in Aotearoa.

The Powerstation, September 11, 2013

Just a year after making it, promoters clearly felt like they were in The Game’s good books, scheduling him to perform at Auckland’s best mid-sized live music venue, The Powerstation. To celebrate, he released a bizarre, out-of-focus promotional video which I must have seen dozens of times. It’s incredible. “Auckland … it’s going to get real awkward,” declares The Game, slurring his words in a mock Australian accent. Surprise, surprise, this show didn’t happen. Then things did get awkward. A still-visible note on The Powerstation’s website declares: “The Game will not be playing at The Powerstation. The terms & conditions of hiring the venue were not completed, as required, by promoters.”

Raggamuffin, Trusts Arena, February 20, 2016

Boos erupted from the crowd gathered at Trusts Arena when it was announced The Game wasn’t going to make it for his much publicised performance. But it wasn’t until the following day the reason became apparent, as a war of words broke out between festival organisers and the rapper. Raggamuffin claimed he’d missed his flight from Dubai and flown back to Los Angeles. “We honestly believed The Game would honour his obligations to our festival and it was only when we had our people at the airport on Saturday to pick him up to play Raggamuffin IX did we find out he did not board the plane in Dubai.” In response, The Game denied this, saying: “I didn’t miss my flight, we were denied entry once we landed at Customs.” Who’s right? Who knows. But Stuff scored an incredible headline out of the situation: ‘The Game mistakes Australia for New Zealand’.

Logan Campbell Centre, September 25, 2017

Promoters billed The Game’s 2017 tour as “the last chance for fans to see the rapper in his full glory”. There’s was nothing glorious about how this went down. Soon after the dates were announced, The Game warned fans not to buy tickets and called tour organisers “janky”. “I’m not scheduled to be in Australia until 2018,” The Game said. “And this will not be my last tour.” Promoters Tour Squad responded by filing charges against the rapper. “We are not going to sit here and say ‘OK’ and take this on the chin… We are not going to let him get away with burning another promoter,” they told media at the time. Tour Squad won that case and The Game was ordered to pay $500,000 in damages. In coverage of the ruling, it was revealed The Game tried to pull out of the tour when promoters refused to fund a $3 million documentary he planned to make while down under.



Auckland/Christchurch, March/April, 2023

Will it be sixth time lucky? God knows! I suspect I might be back here, continuing my 15-year odyssey tracking the concert confusion surrounding a rapper who seems to think contracts and locked-in dates and printed posters and Facebook reminders are mere suggestions of a time he may or may not show up to play an intended. My heartiest best wishes go out to everyone involved.

* This story has been amended to include The Game’s 2009 show in Porirua, which he did show up for: there’s video proof.

Keep going!
A vision, wrapped in plastic (Screengrab: TVNZ)
A vision, wrapped in plastic (Screengrab: TVNZ)

Pop CultureNovember 22, 2022

Justice is served: Seven Sharp finally gets a snazzy new set

A vision, wrapped in plastic (Screengrab: TVNZ)
A vision, wrapped in plastic (Screengrab: TVNZ)

Good things really do come to those who wait.

Earlier this year, The Spinoff campaigned for justice for Seven Sharp, the only TVNZ show without a fancy studio. Since Omicron hit our shores, Seven Sharp presenters Hilary Barry and Jeremy Wells have battled through terrible conditions, forced to broadcast every weeknight from a dark corner of a TVNZ newsroom filled with lonely sneakers and overflowing handbags.

Last night, justice was finally served. The Seven Sharp Two were released from their grotty studio prison into a utopia of soft lighting and wipeable surfaces as the show surprised viewers with a sparkling new set. The empty Sistema containers in the background had vanished, the paper screensavers that sometimes fell down during the live broadcast were gone. It’s a new dawn, it’s a new day, and Seven Sharp was feeling good.

I bet it even has that new car smell (Screengrab: TVNZ)

It doesn’t matter why Seven Sharp launched their new set in November, a mere four weeks before the show finishes for the year. How can you ask questions at a time like this? As the nation’s clocks hit seven sharp, fake dappled light fell through the fake window and it seemed like the wooden seagull on the new shelf would burst into song at any moment, like a choir of angels receiving a long-awaited vision of clarity and contemplation.

Hallelujah, Seven Sharp. Bow down beneath the plastic fiddle leaf fig and rejoice.

At the centre of this vision, as full of texture and earthy tones as their new couch, sat Hilary and Jeremy. At first, they pretended nothing was different. Simon Dallow crossed over from 1News and Hilary and Jeremy launched into their first item like it was just another day on Seven Sharp, as if that Friends feature wall was nothing more than a bad cheese dream. Then Jeremy and Hilary finished talking about rising food prices, and they could wait no longer. Seven Sharp has had a glow up, and they wanted to tell us all about it.

“I like what you’ve done with the place,” Hilary told Jeremy, as they sat on the New Zealand-made couch and surveyed their new surroundings. It was a bit of a DIY project, Jeremy told us, but the shelves aren’t straight, please don’t put a spirit level on them. Don’t worry, the only spirit I could feel last night was the Ghost of Good Morning Past, because this set would have been all of Mary Lambie’s mid-90s dreams come true. Can you imagine reading out a fax on that sleek settee? What a time to be alive.

The judges deliver their verdict (Screengrab: TVNZ)

Around Jeremy and Hilary was a whole new world. Beneath their feet, a mat. Beside them, shelves. Those shelves were filled with trinkets, possibly clues left over from Celebrity Treasure Island, and a trophy that no doubt said “Winner: Snazziest Set 2022”. A ladder lay against the wall, and although we couldn’t see what was at the top, I like to think that’s where all the retiring TVNZ presenters go after their farewell drinks. Pretty sure that Richard Long’s moustache is up there somewhere.

Nothing says “news” better than a ladder to nowhere, but Seven Sharp’s crowning glory was the scenic New Zealand vista on the wall, an uplifting image of blue skies and native bush. Now the sun will always shine on Seven Sharp, even when the economy’s going to shit or when Hilary gets her shoulders out. I hoped an interview with economist Brad Olsen would include him asking how TVNZ could afford herringbone floors during a cost of living crisis, but sadly, they ran out of time. Maybe Brad was too busy staring at the ladder to even think about it.

Have I told you lately that I love you Rod Stewart (Screengrab: TVNZ)

Then came the interview of the evening, a Zoom chat with music legend Lord Roderick Stewart. We last saw The Rodinator on our screens for Rock the Dock and now he was back, on this night of nights, to vouch for the couch. Rod was promoting his upcoming New Zealand tour, but he couldn’t compare to the star power of Seven Sharp’s new set. The rhythm might be in his heart, but poor Rod didn’t even have a ladder behind him. All he had were toy cars and a lot of polished mahogany. Sucks to be him.

The night ended with Hilary putting the plastic wrap back on the sofa, because she knows beauty is fleeting and that this set must be protected at all costs. “It’s a bit slippery with the plastic on,” Hilary warned as she slid off the couch of dreams. It was less Seven Sharp, more Seven Silky, but who needs friction when you have new curtains? The jewel in TVNZ’s current affairs crown finally has the set they deserve, seagull and all. Those were our people today, New Zealand. That’s your new couch, tonight.

Seven Sharp screens on TVNZ 1 every weeknight at 7pm and streams on TVNZ+. 

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