The Game

Hip-hop feuds have always been good money-makers, but in the past, many of the people who cashed in were rappers' relatives, since the MCs themselves had already been perforated. Today, in contrast, rhymers such as the Game, né Jayceon Taylor, have found a way to capitalize on beefs without dying in the process. In February, after 50 Cent, who executive-produced The Documentary, the Game's debut, announced that he'd expelled Taylor from his G-Unit crew, the pair's respective posses tangled outside an NYC radio station. Rather than allowing this conflict to escalate, however, the men subsequently reconciled at a made-for-MTV press conference. This event provided a nice boost for 50 Cent's second disc, The Massacre, which sold more than a million copies its first week, and got the Game back in the news on the eve of his first major tour, which teams him with Snoop Dogg at Magness. Predictably, cynics wonder if the quarrel was bogus from the start -- but even if it was, 50 and the Game deserve props for the scheme. After all, pretending to fight over bad blood can be just as lucrative as spilling it.