Judging by Xzibit’s gruff, authoritative and sometimes sinister voice, you wouldn’t essentially assume he has a pointy humorousness, however he does. When as soon as requested to call his Prime 5 favourite rappers, he cheekily replied, “Dylan, Dylan, Dylan, Dylan, Dylan,” a reference to Dave Chappelle’s 2004 parody of Puff Daddy’s MTV actuality present Making the Band 2.
In particular person, Xzibit is charismatic, partaking and, sure, humorous. We first turned conversant in his singular voice together with his 1996 solo debut, On the Velocity of Life. However 12 years have handed because the West Coast rap luminary, additionally identified for internet hosting MTV’s Pimp My Trip and his 1999 collaboration with Dr. Dre, “What’s the Distinction”, that includes Eminem, from 2001, has launched his personal document.
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That may change in 2025, when the X to the Z roars again together with his new venture, Kingmaker, the (very) long-awaited follow-up to 2012’s Napalm. To date, he’s launched three singles and movies from the venture: “Play This at My Funeral,” “Been a Lengthy Time (Pt. 2)” and “All over the place I Go” that includes Dem Jointz.
Now 50, Xzibit is making a few of his most introspective music. There are nonetheless moments of self-aggrandizement, however his arduous life experiences, together with the 2008 dying of his toddler son and his 2021 divorce, have given him a deeper perspective.
“There’s been lots of development,” he tells me. “I’ve loads to say, and I consider that I discovered my voice. After I say I discovered my voice, it’s not using it, sound of it, tone of it, or inflection, I believe I discovered what I’m purported to be saying and what I must be saying. I really feel empowered with the music that we’ve been capable of make”
Kingmaker will mark one of many first releases on Dollar Information, an Irish document label co-founded by UFC ex-champion Conor McGregor and enterprise companions Richard Buck and Julian O’Brien.
“I believe now we have a bonus of the unknown,” Xzibit says of the brand new enterprise. “I don’t assume folks know what to anticipate, and I like that. I like these odds.”
Regardless of its grandiose title, Kingmaker, he says, actually “has nothing to do with royalty or having energy or superiority over anybody.”
To him, it means he’s lastly at some extent in his life the place he’s comfy in his personal pores and skin.
“I’m talking from a spot of expertise, empowerment, positivity, and a few actually harsh life classes that hopefully I’ve defined and lived via and set an instance for those that can relate,” he says. “I believe that’s the place I’m. I believe this document is a few switch of data, issues, habits, mindsets and consistencies which have made me profitable. And in order that’s type of what I’ve been attempting to painting, not solely via motion however in my artwork.”
Xzibit admits it took him means too lengthy to get to a spot the place he’s comfy with being so susceptible.
“Wins, losses, you realize, attracts, you title it, I’ve been via it,” he says. “I want I might have had this a very long time in the past. I believe we lock ourselves up within the prisons of our minds much more than we must always and need to.
“We give folks and circumstances lots of energy over our existence, and after I cease giving a fuck about what folks assume or say, it helps loads with that journey,” he says. “However finally, you need to make the selection to be like, ‘Look, irrespective of who this impacts, crucial factor is my peace.’”
And perhaps attaining that peace meant stepping away from making solo albums for some time so he might concentrate on different ventures. After dropping Napalm, he pivoted to doing extra tv, showing in reveals like Hawaii 5-0, American Dad!, and Empire. In April, he expanded his enterprise portfolio by opening Xzibit West Coast Hashish, the first-ever hashish and supply service in Bel Air, California.
That’s to not say he fully deserted music. In 2018, he launched one other Serial Killers album with Cypress Hill’s B-Actual, known as Day of the Useless and adopted up with Summer season of Sam in 2020. He additionally seems on Ice Dice’s new album, Man Down, on the track “Break the Mirror.” In the meantime, he’s been chipping away at Kingmaker within the studio, making certain it lives as much as his expectations.
Whereas the record of who options on Kingmaker are nonetheless below embargo, Xzibit rattled off a few names that would probably pop up—a simple conclusion merely because of his admiration for his or her ability ranges.
“I actually consider that Royce Da 5’9 is larger than the props he receives, despite the fact that he receives an incredible quantity of accolades,” he hints. “I consider that that brother must be in all people’s Prime 5. I believe Killer Mike has a supply and a ardour that makes him excel at MCing. He connects like a preacher; he connects to your soul. I might go on and on, however these two brothers proper there so far as the best way that they make me really feel about hip-hop is excellent.”
And it’s clear with every new track that trickles out that Xzibit nonetheless has a fireplace for his craft, too. His rhymes are nicely written, nicely executed, and spit with intention. Concurrently, he appears to be in place.
As he raps in “Play This at My Funeral,” “Rattling it feels good to be alive.” However he’s additionally aware of the ticking clock and is engaged on turning into the perfect model of himself. “I believe I have to train,” he raps within the first verse. “I gained slightly weight/However my pockets are nonetheless straight.”
When requested in regards to the staggering variety of hip-hop artists who’ve died of their 30s, 40s, and 50s this 12 months—together with DJ Clark Kent, Wealthy Homie Quan, and Organized Noize co-founder Rico Wade—he takes word of his personal shortcomings.
“I can’t say that I’m Mr. Olympia over right here,” he says with a chuckle. “However, I undoubtedly don’t do the issues I used to do. Everyone might use some enchancment, however I’m simply in a spot now the place issues have type of balanced themselves out and I do know the place I’m purported to be. When you notice your personal mortality, you have a look at life much more critically.”
Xzibit, who spent a few of his childhood in Albuquerque, New Mexico—a typically harmful Southwestern metropolis also known as the “Wild Wild West”—was compelled to confront his mortality as a child.
“I needed to make some actually grownup selections after I was very younger, so I’ve all the time type of moved in that course and it’s been useful,” he says. “However now the main target that I’ve turning 50 and into an album cycle and hip-hop itself being 50 years outdated—it’s a reasonably new style—we’re the primary of our technology going into, ‘What does hip-hop appear to be now?’
“There’s lots of ageism. There’s lots of discernment round who must be doing what in hip-hop. There’s no path that’s been laid in entrance of us, so we’re the primary. I’m glad to have the ability to pioneer what that appears like and what it’s. So far as ageism and what folks say about hip-hop and their sharp criticism about who must be rapping and who shouldn’t, no one tells Mick Jagger when he ought to get off stage.”
Judging by the variety of hip-hop elders who’ve dropped a venture this 12 months—Eminem, Ice Dice, Snoop Dogg, and Dr. Dre, to call a number of—Xzibit received’t be getting off stage anytime quickly both.
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