Xzibit

Xzibit是崛起于90年代末期的西岸重量级说唱歌手，此前曾经是the Likwit Crew的成员，Xzibit前两张专辑《At the Speed of Life》和《40 Days & 40 Nightz》，其中的作品具有鲜明的地下说唱乐的Hardcore风格，并没有步入这个领域中的主流，尽管这样，Snoop Dogg仍然称赞他是“当今乐坛最重要的说唱歌手之一”，而Xzibit则不失时机的与众多艺人合作，不断完善自己。单是1999年，Xzibit与其它歌手的合作便达到了三十几次。随后个人第3张专辑Restless依靠精良的制作和豪华的客串歌手阵容成功杀入主流市场,而Man vs Machine和Weapons of Mass Destruction却差强人意，最终Xzibit选择换东家，06年专辑Full Circle请来了Rick Rock, DJ Quik, Daz Dillinger, Jelly Roll ... 专辑曲风多变而不失强硬，Xzibit也小爆发了以下，再次证明了自己的实力.
by Jason Birchmeier
West Coast heavyweight Xzibit expanded his following with a series of increasingly superstar-laced albums beginning in the late 90s, ultimately aligning himself with Cali kingpin Dr. Dre at the decades end. Years before, Xzibit began as a member of the Likwit Crew, a loose collective of West Coast rappers including tha Alkaholiks and King T. After touring with them in 1995, Loud Records released the feisty young rappers debut album, At the Speed of Life (1996). The album became an underground hit, and when Xzibit released his follow-up, 40 Dayz & 40 Nightz (1998), he was heralded as one of the West Coasts most promising talents.
Xzibits mainstream breakthrough came when he joined Snoop Dogg for the Dre-produced coast-to-coast hit Bitch Please. Next, he appeared on the posse song Some L.A. Niggaz from Dres 2001 (1999) album, yet another high-profile appearance. By this time, Dre had obviously recognized Xzibits talent and invited the young rapper to crisscross America during summer 2000 with the massive Up in Smoke tour, which featured Snoop, Eminem, and Ice Cube, among many others. That winter, Loud released Xzibits biggest-budget album yet, the Dre-executive-produced Restless (2000), which boasted the single X. The song became the rappers biggest hit yet, but it didnt scale the charts or break him into heavy rotation at either urban radio or MTV.
Two years later, Xzibit returned with another big-budget superstar-laced album, Man vs Machine (2002), and yet again he fell a bit short of mainstream success. Even so, Xzibit remained as hardcore as ever and continued to collaborate with his closest West Coast colleagues, primarily Ras Kass, Saafir, and tha Liks, along with bigger names like Snoop and Eminem. His allegiance to the West Coast and those he came up with continued to win him much respect from his fans, who remained dedicated if not massive in number.
Weapons of Mass Destruction (2004) followed two years later and eventually went gold. Around this time, Xzibit began acting, playing significant roles in the films Full Clip (2004) and XXX: State of the Union (2005). He also began hosting the MTV television series Pimp My Ride in 2004. A longtime car fanatic, Xzibit was perfect for the over-the-top car restoration program and played a big role in the shows ever growing popularity. Now a household name, the rapper returned to his musical career with the ambitious Full Circle (2006), his first non-major-label album in some time.