Jayceon Taylor, best known as California rapper The Game, touched base this morning with The Big Tigger Morning Show at V-103 in Atlanta to give an update on his own situation in Los Angeles as numerous wildfires continue to displace thousands.
LISTEN NOW: The Game discusses his efforts to aid LA wildfire victims
For those following the devastation on television and social media, it could only be described as a scene from a movie, but The Game admits “it's a little worse than that, man. I've been here all my life and I've seen a lot of stuff, but I've never seen anything like this. It's animals running around -- and when I say animals, I don't just mean cats and dogs, man. It's like, you know, horses, and deer, and mountain lions, and just it's just real dangerous.”
“A lot of these areas where, you know, people live in these high valleys and the hills are all just burned and dark, especially in the daytime,” he adds. “I've been out here with firefighters and going through some of these neighborhoods, helping people and it's just, it's unexplainable, to be honest.”
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Aside from the help he’s provided alongside firefighters and helping families with AirBnb’s, the biggest need out there for people right now The Game says, “is probably prayer.”
“There's a lot of people that are without homes,” he explains, “and I've been finding it hard to say that the last few days, when we have a huge homeless population even before this. So, it's like I've been conflicted of how to feel about newly displaced people, which, you know, my heart is with every single body, but we also have people that were homeless before this that we didn't really care about. I don't know… the streets are wild. It's like you said, it is like a movie.”
In his efforts to provide support to his community, The Game tells us, “I've been following my heart every morning… like right now, I'm not waking up. I've been outside since like 2 in the morning rescuing animals, and I had just got home about an hour ago. My plan was to take a shower and then get back out there and bring the firemen some coffee and breakfast with my team, which are already out there. I've just been waking up every day following my heart, just going in the direction that God sends me in trying to do whatever I can to help people.”
For those looking to help from afar, The Game pointed to a list of GoFundMe campaigns that have been created for those affected “who necessarily aren't as rich as other people.” The rich who are affected, “they obviously have more money, it's easier for you to navigate life after a tragedy," he says. "But there are people who are less fortunate who probably won't be able to put it back together unless we help them. I would say either that, you know, just prayer -- having your heart beat with people that are going through things just naturally as a human. Other than that, that's basically it, man, unless you're here. ‘Cause if you're here, you can actually put in work physically.”
Giving us some context about the fires with the incredibly high winds being considered, The Game tells us, “What happens is every around January, the beginning of the year, we have this wind cycle called the Santa Ana winds, and when they come, they blow, and so that combination mixed with a semi-hot day, like high 70s, will start a fire. I know they're saying, there's a lot of conspiracy theorists and whatnot… I don't know who started it, or what started it. I just know that it's burning down my city.”
“The Santa Ana winds are no joke,” he continues, “and I think this one, the winds blew like 80, 90 MPH, and I mean, anyone driving knows how fast the car goes when it goes 90 MPH, you know what that wind situation might look like in your mind, and it's terrible. I mean, that day when the fire started, bro, you walk outside and your body was getting blown down the street, and if you weren't strong enough to hold it down, you would literally be blown down the street, I swear to God.”
As the evacuation process continues in affected areas, The Game says Uber, Lyft, “and just the city in general are making it a little comfortable on people traveling out of these areas,” a marked difference from the first day he admits. “The fire was coming so fast, people parked cars, like literally left cars in the middle of the road, and firefighters couldn't even get into the affected area, because people got out their cars and just ran.”
“I tell you, man, this is, it's definitely real,” he adds. “It's sad too, to be out there walking through what this fire has ravaged, [it] will bring tears to the toughest person's eyes on earth. I think another thing that people forget about is when we're asked to evacuate these areas, you got people flocking houses. So I think that even the houses that survived the fire and the ones that are still standing, like people running in their houses, you know, when the power is off and all of that, and insurance companies and the security companies are backed up, or can't help. It's just a terrible scene, man. I know this morning, maybe 2 hours ago, they only got the first fire to maybe not even 20%, and then the other one might be a little over 2, so it's gonna be a long week.”
Finally, The Game says, “This is a time where I really gotta take my hat off to these people fighting these fires, bro. They're coming from everywhere. They're coming from, I think we had like Chicago Fire, Minnesota Fire, Colorado Fire, and I'm talking to these dudes, man, and they uprooted, left their families in the cold because on the East, it's, you know, it's snowing and it's freezing, right? These guys are leaving their families, and promising they'll be back, and coming out here fighting these fires, putting their life on the line, and they really are doing a big one, man. Shout out to all the firefighters.”
Listen to The Game's full talk with The Big Tigger Morning Show above, and stay tuned for more conversations with your favorite artists right here on Audacy.