THE GAME f/ junior reid “it’s okay (one blood)”
photography Chad Griffith
To kick in the door, sometimes all it takes is a knock. Sharif “Reefa” Slater, 21, began his career as a teenager soliciting beats to Fabolous. “Me and him from the same hood, so we clicked like that,” explains Reefa, who placed two joints on Fab’s Real Talk. “I’m real blunt, so I’ll walk in[to] a studio session and play somebody some beats.”
That proactive approach wasn’t required when, in February 2006, Reefa slid some work to The Game’s camp during downtime at the Grammy Awards. Reefa recalls, “I didn’t think nothin’ of it, then, two weeks later, they called and said, ‘Yo, you got Game’s first single.’” “It’s Okay (One Blood)” was initially considered for an artist much closer to Reefa’s Brooklyn home. “I had Jim Jones in mind, [until] I heard Game on it.”