Keep Playing the Trumpet

When the NY Knicks honored Bill Bradley by retiring his jersey, Bradley told the crowd at Madison Square Garden a story. 

 Bradley began, “At a gathering after a Knicks game in Chicago, a man asked me a question, ‘Do you really like playing basketball?’”

 “Yes, yes I do,” Bradley told the man.

 The man replied, “I know what you mean. I used to play the trumpet and we were good. Some of the guys in my band wanted to tour. But I didn’t.” 

 The man told Bradley he was afraid the life was too insecure and opted for the safer route—law school—instead. 

 Bradley then said, “I asked him, ‘Do you like the law?’”

 “Yes, but not like playing the trumpet,” the man acknowledged.


 Hip-hop artist Fare Games wants to play his metaphorical trumpet as long as possible.

 Though he adores the fellow members of his band, T.G.K.O.D.—also known as “Top Guns”—Games elected to “go solo.”

 “I want to make this a career,” Games said. “The other guys aren’t that committed.”

 Of course, like the trumpet player Bill Bradley met who opted to pursue a career in law, Games also has a non-musical contingency plan—the financial world.

 Games professes a keen interest in the stock market, and he plans to enroll in Chicago’s Roosevelt University in the fall of 2013 to major in finance.

 Nevertheless, his first love remains music.

 “This summer, I had a single on iTunes, and I shot three videos, too,” Games summarized.

 One of those videos garnered nearly 500,000 views.

 In addition, “I just dropped a mixtape [on September 28],” Games said.

 “Arcade Games,” his third mixtape, had over 1,300 views as of October 4.

 Games, 21, said, “I’m trying to get it [the latest mixtape] posted in as many places as possible to catch someone’s eye with it.”

 Games is confident, because “I put my all into this project.”

 Games, born Rifaa Muhammad, grew up on Chicago’s south side in a dangerous neighborhood.

 “There were gangbangers and drug dealers around,” Games said.

 However, he says that environment benefited him, because “they are all aspects to draw from in my music.”

 While Games was raised in that grueling setting, he wasn’t really of that world, because his mother removed him from the neighborhood public school after he completed first grade.

 She placed him in private school, where he thrived and earned a scholarship to a private, Catholic high school. Of course, Games is used to being on his own and feeling a bit out of place, since he’s the youngest of seven children—and the only boy.

 Though the high school was comprised predominantly of white students, and Games initially felt tentative, he said joining the football team—he played linebacker—helped him assimilate.

 “Up to that point, I had no white friends,” Games explained. “But that helped me meet people.”

 Games, who drew the “Fare Games” moniker while playing basketball with his cousins in Michigan, said continuing to meet people is integral to success in the music industry.

 “This business is all about networking, meeting people every day, and getting in touch with the important people,” Games said.