Hip hop artists and American law enforcement don't have the best of relationships to begin with, but The Game made that fact literal and apparent during a recent game of pick-up basketball.

The "Red Nation" rapper was shooting hoops in Los Angeles with friends and strangers at a local rec gym last weekend when he got into an on-court dispute with one man.

The dispute descended into fisticuffs, with The Game connecting on a punch to the man's grill. Turns out it was a rookie LAPD officer who was off-duty.

TMZ Sports caught the fracas on camera (of course they did).

The case has descended into a who-said-what-first type of story. The Game claims that the officer threatened him first by implying he was getting a gun from his bag. The cop himself is saying in turn that The Game issued the first threat.

TMZ says the rapper is being investigated by the LAPD for battery.

More details surely to come.

UPDATE: In an interesting tidbit first pointed out by Bleacher Report, the right hand that The Game used to throw the punch was channeling the spirit of one of the most famous punch-throwers on earth: Iron Mike Tyson.