I will not lie and say that I have had very high expectations for any of Xzibit’s albums after Man vs. Machine from 2002. Interesting enough, I only listened to each of that albums (Weapons of Mass Destruction & Full Circle ) only once.
Today I decided to go through Xzibit’s whole discography, from 1996 At The Speed Of Life to 2006 Full Circle. Since I have done that… in next few weeks (or days) you can expect review of each album from Xzibit’s discography. Only thing is that they will not be chronologically ordered. I’ll start with Weapons Of Mass Destruction which was released in 2005. That was three years after Xzibit’s last album Man vs. Machine. Unlike during the times of 40 Dayz & 40 Nightz, Xzibit was now commercially established rapper (celebrity?). He had one platinum album (Restless ), and one which went gold ( Man vs. Machine ), and the most important, he was hosting one of the MTV’s most popular shows (Pimp My Ride ). I remember when I’d heard for this album first time, my basketball teammates were adoring hit single Hey Now ( Mean Muggin ) , but okay, that’s one another story, let’s move to the album. I bought it only because NBA Live 2006 for Play Station 2 wasn’t out yet, I didn’t want to leave the store with empty hands so I bought one record. It was this album. Now, almost 3 years later, I listened to it again, it was maybe the third time overall I’m listening to it… and today, I have a slightly different opinion on it than three years ago. Let’s see it…

I’ll break it down immediately… I love this album wholeheartly.

Like I have said before, I didn’t have big expectations about it. I wanted to listen to it only to add Xzibit’s discography albums ratings to my Microsoft Excel album rating list. Track after track I was wondering how was I so dumb to miss this songs. Almost every song just rocks… maybe some hooks could have been executed better…but F it, some old school albums don’t even have hooks and they are still dope.

Maybe the main strength of this record is that it has great variety in subject matter.

Cold World is great introspective storytelling from political point of view, it consist of three stand alone stories and only critic is Jelly Roll’s poorly executed hook. Back 2 Way It Was is dope too, it’s a great look on current state of hip-hop, and kind of reminiscence on golden age and his career executed in great way. Ride Or Die has very appealing singing hook, it is kind of introspective too, with gangsters as the subject matter. It will be stupid to talk about singing hooks and not to mention Judgment Day, amazing haunting, soulful track, backed up by Xzibit’s nice lyrics, about part of the life which is not so nice, and already mentioned singed hook by some R’n’B singer whose name I don’t know.

More than for these introspective songs, Xzibit was always respected for his battle and braggadocio lyrics which made songs like 3 Card Molly and Chamber Music classics in underground rap circles. That part of his MC repertoire isn’t left here, we get some great songs of that type, LAX, Tough Guy and Klack are prime examples.
LAX, which is also featured in Need For Speed Underground game, is one of the song which perfectly describe Xzibit at his best. It’s very similar to his previous efforts like Chamber Music and U Know. It even contains somewhat appealing hook and great dark beat. Klack, which is featured in driving game too (Juice), is another of Xzibit’s adrenaline rising songs, this time he is supported by his Strong Arm Steady mates and they don’t fail either. Busta Rhymes is featured on Tough Guy, even if he was dropping bad albums in that time, and even if I was never biggest fan of his music, I find him charismatic and lyrical here. It’s one of those uptempo songs with speed hooks, and this is just another time where X to the Z spits hard ‘tough guy’ rhymes over menacing beat. It will be nice to credit Beware Of Us and put them in same basket as these tracks mentioned above, but even if it’s the lyrically great posse cut, I don’t feel it much, just like Let It Rain posse cut from 40 Dayz & 40 Nightz.

What would post 21st century rap record look like without club song? Xzibit knows the answer so he recorded two of them for this release. Hey Now (Mean Muggin) featuring Keri Hilson is catchy as club song can be, she sings the hook and X rhymes over Timbaland produced beat. I remember one dance competition I was watching in 2006, this song was main event, every team had to have at least one dance over this song. Muthaf!!!a is another club effort. Opposite to it’s name, it’s very good…what more can I say, catchy beat and catchy hook,… oh yes, and Xzibit’s on it.
Because these two songs are singles, I’ll mention 3rd single too. Criminal Set is one of those bouncy, crip walking west coast tracks made for purpose of bumping them when you cruise the city in your lowrider. I got to credit great samples in hook, and of course, give props to Battlecat for producing this. Since I was talking about club songs, I’ll end with Saturday Night Live which is, even if it isn’t lyrical masterpiece, so catchy I could bump it all day long. Except for this Jelly Roll opening verse (?) I have no real complaints about it.

I saved Scent Of The Women for the end. This is one of those songs where you got yourself like: ‘Oh man, he really matured as an artist.’ When you start to listen you can get a little bit disappointed, it starts with that overused part of hip-hop where artists talk about how they don’t care about girl’s emotions and how they want to have another girl every single night. But then you get major 360 turn and in the end he claims that behind every strong man is a woman and he changes the (haunting) hook to prove it. I don’t know how to describe this, you should listen to this. This is the one of the songs which can change your whole picture about the artist. He reminds me on late Tupac Shakur here, Tupac had songs like How Dou You Want It, but he had Keep Your Head Up too. Xzibit had F’n U Right on Restless, and then, he made this. He really dots the I (or X) on his career.

I won’t really talk about cons of this album because there are almost none. I can only mention Crazy Ho which doesn’t even have Xzibit on it (it’s Strong Arm Steady track) so I won’t credit it. And that’s all? Yes, it’s not even Xzibit’s track.


And…that’s all. As you could have seen, I liked this album. Like I have said before, it has it all, subject matter varies from song to song, Xzibit is dope MC so he can’t really go wrong (at least at this album) with his lyrics and flow, production is tight, guest verses are mostly above average and it has maybe the best running time for rap record. I strongly recommend this album for every hip-hop fan, and even to those who don’t credit rap as their primary music. I think that this is one of the rap’s most overlooked releases in past few years.



TRACKLIST:

1. State of the Union (skit)
2. LAX (5 stars)
3. Cold World (4 stars)
4. Saturday Night Live (4 stars)
5. Muthaf!!!a (4,5 stars)
6. Beware Of Us(3,5 stars)
7. Judgement Day (5 stars)
8. Criminal Set (4,5 stars) ]
9. Hey Now (Mean Muggin')(5 stars)
10. Ride or Die (4,5 stars)
11. Crazy Ho (Strong Arm Steady)(2 stars)
12. Big Barkin'(skit)
13. Tough Guy [feat Busta Rhymes] (4 stars)
14. Scent of a Woman (5 stars)
15. Klack (5 stars)
16. Back 2 the Way It Was (4,5 stars)


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My Xzibit Collection:
40 Dayz And 40 Nightz - @@@@1/2


Recommended: Yes

Great Music to Play While: Driving