Ever since the Palisades fire erupted on Jan. 7, the Game has been waking up at 4:30 a.m. After a quick shower and change of clothes, he’s out the door and on the freeway. He gets to one of the locations he has planned for the day by 6:00 a.m., meeting with first responders across Los Angeles who are on the front lines of the fight against the blazes that have rapidly spread across the city.
Together with his longtime friends Joe Mariscal, Travis Wilson, who is also his business manager, the Game begins handing out blankets, pillows, clothing, coffee, bananas, and water to firefighters who are waking up for another 12-hour shift to face the flames. As he arrives, he also encounters firefighters who are just getting back from the night shift, their uniforms and faces coated in dark soot.
“In my 45 years of living in Los Angeles, and I’ve been here almost all of those years, I’ve never seen anything like this,” says the Game. “Waking up, seeing the smoke covered sun and all this stuff has really got me in a position where I just want to just love things, love people, and help.”
As powerful winds continue to sweep through the area, evacuation orders have moved eastward, with Brentwood and Encino residents now among the 105,000 people who remain under mandatory evacuation. More than 12,000 structures have been damaged or destroyed with the fires engulfing more than 40,000 acres as of Jan. 12, according to CalFire, and the death toll has risen to at least 24 people.
As firefighters continue to struggle to contain the flames, thousands of Angelenos have volunteered to deliver basic resources like food, shelter, emergency supplies, and more to their fellow residents impacted by the fires and first responders, many who have come from across the U.S. and even include firefighters and disaster relief workers from Mexico.
Seeing the city and country come together has made a lasting impression on the Game, who was among the evacuees and left his home as the fire burned just over the hill in the Palisades. His upcoming album, The Documentary 3, originally set to release on Jan. 18., has been pushed back, as his priorities have pivoted.
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“[The firefighters are] bringing Los Angeles back,” he says. “What are these guys doing before they leave home? They’re kissing their children and their wives, and they’re saying, ‘I’ll be back.’ And sorry if I’m getting emotional, but maybe they come back, maybe the fire is dangerous and they don’t. Those are the risks that they take. … Just being there with the firefighters and seeing what they put in, day in and day out, has really had me choked up most mornings. And that’s what keeps me compelled enough to wake up every morning and just shoot down the freeway before traffic.”
The multiplatinum rapper has also worked with Cleo Watts of nonprofit Cleo’s Critter Care, Tanya Sabga, and Angie Cotton to help get animals displaced by the fires reunited with their owners, bringing food and water to shelters overwhelmed with hundreds of rescued pets. In one post, the Game urged anyone who had lost a pet to reach out to social media accounts @cleoscrittercare @angietatts @wrapcitydetailing for “information to all the animal shelters near or surrounding the Altadena/Pasadena effected areas.”
The Game is among a growing number of celebrities who have showed up for the Los Angeles community. Beyoncé‘s BeyGOOD charity foundation donated $2.5 million to the newly-established LA Fire Relief Fund, while Jamie Lee Curtis announced plans to donate $1 million toward fire-relief funds. Jimmy Kimmel Live paused its tapings as wildfires spread to multiple areas of Los Angeles, using its Hollywood backlot as a donation center to collect essential resources for those affected by the fires.
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Music-industry-specific resources have also emerged, in addition to resources available to everyone in the area. Nick Cannon, who the Game shouts out, recently visited and thanked inmate firefighters for battling the Los Angeles fires.
“It just goes to show that — as a city, as a country, as a human race — we still love each other, and we still care,” says the Game.
When explaining to his 14-year old daugther, Cali Lynn Dream Taylor, why he’s meeting with first responders every morning for the past week, he emphasized the power of community. “What if one firefighter just didn’t go to work that day? What if one person didn’t donate? What if everybody just decided to not do anything? Then we wouldn’t have this big conglomerate of people here to save our city.”
He continued, “I named my daughter California. That’s her name, California Dream. And I’m like, ‘What would your name be if I wasn’t out here putting in the work that I needed to for the city and the state?’ … And she got it, and ever since then, she’s been in full support, as well as my sons.”
“If there had to be an underlying statement for me, it would be to tell everybody to just have a heart,” he says. “Be a lot more human, and just love on the people close to you, because we didn’t see this thing coming.”
As forecasters warn that another round of dangerous winds are expected to return this week, the Game reflects on the days to come. He says that he told first responders: ‘We’re gonna be here every day, if you guys are gonna be here every day.”
