While serving his prison sentence, the Game didn’t want to make a mockery of people doing “real time.” He just wanted to stay out of the way. But like a lot of celebs who find themselves in prison, Game was harassed and got into physical conflicts with some of the corrections officers.

“They was doing all kinds of crazy stuff,” the MC said recently in New York. “They were playing G-Unit songs through the intercom while I was asleep. They was playing ‘Window Shopper’ just to irritate me. First couple of days, I was getting irritated and pissed off. But then it started to set in that this is a big game to them and they just kids, and they don’t really understand life yet. It was funny after a while. It wasn’t funny the first couple of times, though.”

Game only had to serve two weeks of his 120-day sentence — for which he gives a big thanks to his lawyers — but it was a burden nonetheless. Game’s first single after his release from prison in mid-March was the Cool & Dre-produced “Big Dreams.”

“I was just free,” he said. “I was so happy to record, even though I was in there for just two weeks. In jail, you’re counting seconds: ‘1, 2, 3.’ Nothing’s happening, man. You’re just standing there. No TV, no radio, you’re in your cell. You gotta find time to meditate. Read a book. Work out. That’s what I did. I read four or five novels in two weeks. Got my push-ups on.”

In addition to “Big Dreams,” the Compton MC also released “Game’s Pain,” an ode to hip-hop luminaries from LL Cool J to the Fresh Prince. Keyshia Cole sings on the hook.

“There was a message in The Documentary, there was a message in The Doctor’s Advocate, there is no message in L.A.X.,” he said of his upcoming LP. “If there is a message, that message will be that for the first time in my career, I was able to record a studio album in peace — without drama, without anything rendering me helpless, without having to fight with my label or 50. Or without worrying about if Dre would be producing on the album. I can do it on my own. I proved that with my last album.”

Game described his state of mind as “free-spirited” and said his artistry is vastly improved.

“My lyrics, 10 times elevated,” he said. “I’ve grown as an MC more than I’ve ever thought I could have done. I got to record with people that really wanted to do music with me.”

In some cases, the artists and producers broke their necks to work with the Game. No MP3s were sent out. Everybody who contributed to the album, whether it be vocally or musically, was actually in the lab with Game during the recording sessions. Ice Cube turns up, as do Marsha Ambrosia and Busta Rhymes on a record called “Undefeated.” Ne-Yo appears twice on “Thug and a Gentleman” and “Camera Phone.”

“I came up with a couple of concepts,” Game said. “Two times in a row, he outwrote on my hooks. They became Ne-Yo hooks. … Ne-Yo is like my Nate Dogg right now.”

L.A.X. will be released July 8.

cred: mtv

Through his statements in recent interviews — like the one in last month’s XXL magazine, in which he spoke of his suicidal thoughts (”There’s some good days, some bad days,” he said. “Sometimes I’m beat down by my demons, sometimes I beat down my demons”) — you would think the Game made his next LP, L.A.X., with a heavy heart. The ferocious Compton MC said he felt quite the opposite. He told MTV News he made his record “free-spirited,” with a “free mind and free conscience.”

“It’s my third album,” he said on the L.A. set of his video for “Pain.” Keyshia Cole is featured in the clip and on the song. “I dropped the first album, classic. Came back with Doctor’s Advocate, classic. [Now] its number three on my road to being a hip-hop legend. All my favorite rappers are legends, and I want nothing more than to be considered among the top, elite MCs.

“I decided on [the title] L.A.X. because that’s the major airport here,” he added. “I figured people fly into LAX coming and going. I consider myself like that airport, because anything coming through and leaving California gotta come through me.”

“Pain” shows Game’s undying love for hip-hop, as he references everyone from New Edition to Nas.

“Public Enemy and N.W.A is on my boombox,” he raps. “Had to say, ‘Today Was a Good Day’ had the ‘hood buzzin’/ Ice Cube my favorite rapper/ Y’all n—as can’t tell me nothin’/ Everybody’s first bootleg was ‘Boyz N the Hood.’ ”

“Me and Keyshia came up around the same time,” he said of their collaboration. “We always wanted to get in the studio together but never had the chance because both our careers took off at the same time. She blew to superstar status on the R&B side. I blew up on the rap side. I knew she would come in and kill it. And she did.”

Keyshia Cole gives a tribute to the Queen of Hip-Hop Soul at the end of the song. “See, Mary J., I want you to understand you paved the way for me. I’m givin’ homage to you.”

“He was doing a tribute [to hip-hop], and it’s rarely done,” Cole said of the collabo. “I really could feel his pain because of the tribute I did to Mary. … It’s a really nice record.”

L.A.X. comes out July 18.

cred: mtv