The game defends his 12-year-old daughter’s controversial dress
In the post, the 43-year-old rapper – whose real name is Jayceon Terrell Taylor – reflected on how quickly time has passed as he compared a recent photo of Cali to a childhood throwback.
“Someone please tell the Lord to help… She was only 2 years old a week ago…” he wrote. “Now my baby is 12 years old, growing up and it won’t stop 😩😩 “
Perhaps anticipating a negative response, The Game added: “[DISCLAIMER: before the internet get to INTERNET’n, me & her mother both agreed to let her do her make up for the young & beautiful @the_combs_twins sweet 16 birthday party].”
In the photo, which was taken at Diddy’s joint 16th birthday party for his twin daughters, Cali is crouched on the floor while posing in a metallic silver dress and a white fur coat.
As a result, many felt that it wasn’t just the hair and makeup that made Cali’s look too mature for her, and they didn’t hold back in the comments section.
“12?!? She dressed like 12 smh let me care,” one person wrote. Another added: “Why did she dress like that for a 12 year old.”
Another asked: “Makeup is cool but the outfit is a no for me, it’s 18+ not 12.” Someone else agreed: “This is so inappropriate for a 12 year old 😒”
And the backlash was amplified when popular Instagram site Shade Room reposted The Game’s photos.
They captioned their post: ” #TSRDaddyDuties: Aww! #TheGame’s little girl, #CaliDream is growing up right before our eyes!🥰 #CutenessOverload”
But once again the focus was on how grown up Cali looks in the new photo. One of their followers commented: “12?! No ma’am, this is FOR ADULTS.”
Another wrote: “12 and dress like that??”
And eventually the response became so overwhelming that The Game decided to address the situation directly in a comment on Shade Room’s post. Here, he explained that he and Cali’s mother, Tiffney Cambridge, had an hour-long discussion before deciding to let their daughter wear the dress to the party.
He also said that the dress was incredibly different from Cali’s normal style and that he wanted her to feel confident among her peers.
“I’m going to say this one time so people who aren’t her parents get it,” his comment began. “My daughter is 12 and both of her parents are beyond strict. Tiffney is a school teacher with a master’s degree and 2 other degrees who is an amazing parent and is very capable of raising our daughter to be great even though I wasn’t around in the picture… but I’m in the picture so…”
“Tiffney called me and asked me if it was okay for my daughter to wear the dress in the picture to the twins’ party…” The Game continued. “After talking to her at length for over an hour about it, I agreed to let my daughter rock.. since she wears a school uniform 5 days a week.”
“My daughter has grown tremendously in the last year and is now almost 5’9 in height and beautiful,” he added. “She is a straight A student and is shy in most cases and dresses like a Tom boy in baggy jeans and Dr. Martin boots, almost every day.”
“The twins had a futuristic birthday theme and my baby wanted to look good and be in full confidence to support her friends’ celebration,” the rapper concluded. “I am her father and her protector and she is and always will be a wonderful young woman. I wish everyone happy holidays and thank you for your opinions about a child who belongs to the United States, but we got this. 🙏🏾”
Game’s comment sparked a mixed reaction, with many people insisting that he shouldn’t feel the need to justify his parenting decisions to strangers on the internet.
“If the parents don’t have a problem, you have to take care of yourselves,” reads one of the responses.
But others argued that posting the photo to his 13.3 million followers was unnecessary. Someone wrote: “My thing is, don’t put pictures of your kids online if you don’t want public opinion.”
Another user said: “Sir if you have to have an hour discussion about the dress.. it probably shouldn’t be worn😒 ..talking about Tiffany and her degrees like that makes it better. Children also don’t need to dress like adults to have “full confidence”, all GREAT parents know that.”
Meanwhile, many followers asked Shade Room to delete their post, claiming it encouraged scrutiny. One person commented: “The Shade Room shouldn’t have posted her in my opinion. You all will be the biggest problem.”
Some also took issue with the fact that The Game had promoted Cali’s Instagram account on his original post and encouraged people to follow her. He had added in the caption: “Follow her new page @calilynndreamtaylor, the old one is hacked.”
“I just don’t feel like you’re asking the audience to follow her. She’s only 12. Don’t invite grown men to accompany her,” one person said in response.
Another worried follower agreed: “Play parent to parent I hope you and her mom have her social media passwords and check it all the time. If you put her ig page on your page for everyone to see, it opens up for predators. Honestly, she doesn’t look like 12 years old, be very careful.”
In addition to California Dream, The Game is the father of 19-year-old Harlem Caron and King Justice, 15.
