News of September 15, 2006
The Game vs. Ras Kass: Clash at the Element Club
Two versions, a diss, and a club dispute: How The Game and Ras Kass clashed in September 2006, and Game's album rose to No. 1.
During the night of September 14, 2006, two West Coast rappers clashed at the Element club in Los Angeles: The Game and Ras Kass. On September 15, 2006, the site reported on the altercation. The trigger was a verse in which Ras Kass had directed lines at The Game about a year earlier that, according to The Game, also mentioned his young son.
Ras Kass speaks of superior numbers, The Game of a single punch
As is so often the case, both sides told different stories. According to AllHipHop, Ras Kass claimed that The Game had tried to attack him with a large group; he said he remained unfazed and even challenged him at his car afterward. The Game called the story about the crowd of people ridiculous. He stated that he had confronted Ras Kass at the end of the night regarding the lines about his son and then struck him himself. He declined to respond on record, considering the matter settled.
At the time, Ras Kass was on tour with Rakim and Kid Capri and announced his mixtape Eat or Die. The Game was working on his second album, Doctor’s Advocate.
No reconciliation, but No. 1 for Doctor’s Advocate
Both sides presented the evening differently, and there is no record of a reconciliation. Ras Kass later described, in an interview with HotNewHipHop, another confrontation with The Game on a New Year’s Eve at a club in Los Angeles (the article does not mention the year).
Musically, the dispute played little role. Doctor’s Advocate was released on November 14, 2006, and debuted at No. 1 on the Billboard 200 with around 358,000 copies sold, The Game’s second number-one album. Incidentally, the single mentioned in the post was not called “Let It Ride,” but “Let’s Ride”; it was released on September 25, 2006, as the second single following “It’s Okay (One Blood)” (July 24, 2006).
In 2006, Ras Kass released the mixtapes Revenge of the Spit and Eat or Die (September 19, 2006) and remained active independently afterward, including with the Kickstarter-funded project A.D.I.D.A.S. (All Day I Dream About Spittin). In the biographies of both rappers, the incident at the Element club remained primarily an episode.