Celebrity Favorites: The Game

Game says the smart money is on Drake to do some phenomenal numbers next week when the SoundScan results for Thank Me Later are announced. Drizzy's debut finally came out Tuesday (June 15), and Game thinks [article id="1641412"]Drake will live up to his hype[/article] and be rewarded with high sales.

"[article id="1640554"]Thank Me Later got leaked[/article]," Game said recently in NYC. "You think he ain't gonna go out there and push over gold the first week? I got [him selling] over 650,000 first week. That's what I'm giving Drake: 650, man. Every now and then, a man comes along and reshapes hip-hop; this is the dude for this time. I came out, my first album, 590,000. I feel he got a bigger buzz than I did. When I came out, everybody else was still poppin'. Right now ... he's just coming down. I got my album coming, Tip coming, Ross coming, but everybody is on their Drake stuff -- even me. Dude is good, man."

Game said he wasn't sold on the Canadian MC initially but became a believer.

"At first, I thought it was just catchy hooks," Game recalled. "But he got something to say. I like it. He's not from America, but you can tell his influences are us, and dude [is] dope. Plus, all the chicks like him."

Drake's Thank Me Later was bootlegged two weeks ago, but Game is from the school of thought that [article id="1640694"]if the music is great, it will sell regardless[/article].

"Lil Wayne showed me that," Game told us a few weeks ago. "His album leaked four weeks before Tha Carter III was supposed to come out, and he sold [article id="1589491"]a million the first week[/article]. That's just an excuse. ... It's no longer acceptable, because people are still selling.

"Every album is getting leaked from now until the duration of hip-hop," he added. "It's just once it hits the plant, or once a radio station gets their promo, somebody is gonna leak the album. You can look forward to it being leaked a week early or whatever. It's gonna get leaked."

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