Xzibit has slammed the current state of Hip Hop — but has also offered some ideas as to how to get the genre “out of the toilet.”
TMZ was on hand when the “Paparazzi” rapper spoke at a panel discussion on Thursday (September 14) in Santa Monica, CA. The discussion, which also featured Layzie Bone, had X passionately decrying what had become of the genre he knows and loves.
“Hip Hop is huge,” he said. “And it made so many people so much money, they think anybody can do it. Everyone feels that Hip Hop is so accessible that anybody can do it.”
He continued: “It’s become a mockery of itself. It’s become too accessible. There was a time that there was somebody that you had to go into their office and get an investment into your career. Now, if you just have a laptop and WiFi, you can be an artist … People do themselves a disservice by trying to participate in that.”
Offering some ideas as to how to improve the state of Hip Hop, Xzibit continued: “We should have unionized. We should have had some kind of union, we shoulda had a board, we shoulda organized ourselves. ‘Cause right now, you know, becoming 50 years later we still don’t own shit.
“So until we own it, until we control it, until we have a say who gets to fuckin’ call themselves this and call themselves that — like everybody else — it’s gonna continue to spiral out of control. And that’s why we’re not on the Billboard [charts], because nobody is in the pilot seat guiding us to where we supposed to go.”
He added: “This is a billion dollar industry! But until we take the focus and we clean up our own backyard, it’s not going to have the same respect it that’s it garnished in the past.”
Xzibit hasn’t released a new album since 2012. However, back in 2022, he teased fans that he was hard at work on what was likely to be his final album.
“I have an album called Kingmaker that I’m putting the finishing touches on now,” he said. “I’ve been working on it for a minute. I feel like this is gonna be my last album.”
He continued: “Not that I’m gonna retire or make any weird statements like that … but I think as about full feature-length albums I think things have changed and people digest music a little differently now, but for my catalog of music, I haven’t put out a record since 2012.
“I will never lose love for Hip Hop, but what I do know now at my age is that time is the most important thing that we have. I’ve given a lot of time to the planet as Xzibit and my priorities are changing on the daily. So I will always be there for my fanbase and they’ve always been there for me, but I wanna be present for the people that I love.”
Despite promising to drop the album in January or February 2023, it has not yet seen the light of day.
I do not believe we need to fix hip hop. An artist needs freedom to be an artist. I also appreciate innovation and evolution in any industry. Hip hop as we know it has been around for 50 years. Not many sectors in the world are the same as they were 50 years ago. With 50 years of hip hop there is now a lane for everybody. That wasn’t the case even 30 years ago. The simple answer is to do as I do and only listen to music you like!
Lol no. If you were around d from the golden Era to now you would not be saying that. We went from formula 1 to civics racing. It’s really embarrassing. I don’t see other genre’s with overweight woman on their knees shaking their asses at an awards ceremony.
Nah. This stripperho/destroymycommunity/killpeooplethatlooklikeme ABCDEFG trash isn’t Hip Hop. It’s talentless sewage.
Well you make an assumption that golden era style hip hop is the only rap that can be made. That isn’t allowing hip hop to breathe and evolve. Guys today cut out the middle man to get their product out. Ain’t nothing wrong with that even if some do not like the new lyrical content. I hate most rap out now. I also recognize most rap today isn’t made for me.
It’s only up to journalists and radio dj’s. Not labeling hiphop anything with autotune in it would be the first step. Call it pop or whatever. Not labeling hiphop anything because the artist is black would be the second step. Rihanna or Beyoncé who frequently appear on hiphop sites are so hiphop like Celine Dion. Stop playing out the race card every time. Not inviting and not writing about these artists would be the third step. I believe it will never happen, because journalists are some money hungry no-brainers in general, as radios get more listeners with wack shit. Interestingly rock and guitar music in general went through some similar shit when it reached its highest popularity. Hopefully hiphop will go out of fashion in a few years and we, who know about the EPMD’s, Awol One’s and Madlib’s will get back the style.
That was a good take…
All you have to do is look at most of the headlines here to see that he’s talking facts. Everybody chasing clicks with no integrity.
Good discussion so far! As far as what X said, there were no lies told.