Xzibit on his first album in over a decade, ‘Kingmaker’: “It’s all about energy”

The Detroit-born, LA-raised rapper also told us about his new single 'Play This At My Funeral' and why "diversity in hip-hop is lacking"

Xzibit has spoken to NME about the making of his new album ‘Kingmaker’, how he nearly retired, and how the “diversity in hip-hop is lacking”.

The rapper-turned-actor is gearing up to release his eighth studio album in early 2025, marking his first in 12 years. ‘Kingmaker’ will serve as the follow-up to 2012’s ‘Napalm’ which featured the likes of E-40, Wiz Khalifa, Prodigy and more.

NME sat down with the 50-year-old in London, where Xzibit (real name Alvin Joiner) sported his returning signature – a sign that he’s once again “ready to go” and “feels all powerful like Samson”.

Now, the Detroit-born, LA-raised rapper has released ‘Play This At My Funeral’ – the lead single for ‘Kingmaker’ – which Xzibit said is his “state of the union”.

“It is a morbid title but I think ‘Play This At My Funeral’ has nothing to do with me dying,” the rapper explained. “This is a snapshot of where I am mentally, physically, emotionally. Some finite statements are made in there. I think it’s really dope to be able to come back and show people where I am, what I’ve been doing, what I’ve done, so it answers a lot of questions.”

Joiner also stated that ‘Kingmaker’ “has nothing to do with him being royalty or sitting on the throne and being a part of some kind of hierarchy”, but a sign that he wanted to share his knowledge of “the good, the bad, the ugly, the ups and downs” he’s faced throughout his life and career that he attributes to “making him successful”.

“Music is what I do the best, naturally,” Xzibit said while explaining why he decided now is the time to release an album. “I do a lot of other things – a lot of different films, a lot of different TV stuff – but music is the catalyst to what makes everything work. So, I felt the music had come to a point where it needed to come out.”

He continued: “I’ve been working on music off-and-on for the last 10 to 12 years but I didn’t feel like it was what I needed to put out. I didn’t feel like it was different enough. [I was] able to hear something in myself that I hadn’t heard before, so it made it easy to know [it was time to release the music].”

On ‘Kingmaker’, Joiner is set to go back and forth with hip-hop heavyweights as well as some of LA’s most promising new talent. When asked what led him to choose such a range of collaborators, Xzibit said he worked with those whose craft he “believed” in.

“Of course, I work with the legacy artists I’ve already worked with before,” he said. “Some people I haven’t worked with before on this album. [For example,] I’ve never done a song with Ice Cube.

“It’s all about energy. Whether it’s the new artists or the legacy artists: when you get in there and you feel it coming out the speakers, you know it’s right. So, I really appreciate the way people stepped up and got in on the album so it’s dope.”

Every one of Xzibit’s albums has charted on the Billboard 200 chart (his 2000 magnum opus ‘Restless’ is certified platinum) but he told NME that he felt no pressure to recreate past success while making ‘Kingmaker’ and “just needs to do what he does really well.”

He added: “I don’t care what’s going on in the industry. I don’t care what people are doing or following trends. I don’t need to do that. I just need to do what I do well.”

However, he revealed that he was previously contemplating the idea of retirement after releasing ‘Kingmaker’.

“When I first started making this album, this was the idea like, ‘OK, let me put one more out into the universe,’ but the way this album came out, everybody around me is telling me that this is not my last album,” he admitted. “I’m not gonna say this is my last album but let’s see how this does.”

Last month, Xzibit signed with Greenback Records – a new record label launched by MMA fighter and former UFC double champion Conor McGregor. Despite McGregor “not being a record guy”, Joiner said: “It’s dope because one thing I do know is that he’s a serious businessman. He has a vision.”

Xzibit explained how the venture happened: “He approached me to come to work with him. He’s got a great team of people around him and he’s serious. Those things made me feel secure [enough to sign with the label]. I bring credibility to the label being the first album that they drop. I have a long history in the music industry that I feel like they respect my music and are going to put [their] 100,000 per cent behind it.”

This has been an eventful year for hip-hop music, particularly with the intricate feud of Kendrick Lamar and Drake making headlines throughout the summer. When asked whether he agreed 2024 has been a remarkable period for the genre, Xzibit said, “I think every year is a great year for hip-hop”.

He continued: “You have to remember, hip-hop has just turned 50. It is a fairly new genre in the scope of music. Everything goes in cycles: it started in the ‘70s and graduated into a lyrical-type thing and then gangster rap and reality rap came into play and it goes through cycles.”

Xzibit then explained why modern hip-hop differs from the era he blew up in because “people have these access to each other like never before.”

“I’m not gonna be the guy to be like, ‘Oh these young whippersnappers don’t know what they’re doing.’ I’m here to be a positive part of the solution, not part of the problem. It’s just a different time and [the younger generation] is going through a whole different set of issues that we weren’t going through.”

Joiner also expressed his gratitude that “hip-hop music is flourishing, feeding families, [and] giving people that don’t have degrees or college educations a chance to be successful and be known.”

However, Xzibit said that he does have some qualms about modern rap – particularly how “diversity in hip-hop is lacking”.

“Diversity in subject, diversity in creativity, production: everyone is trying to do the quick hit and nobody’s taking chances,” he said. “There’s more than one way to get to the success you want. I want people to look at how different the landscape was.

“Nobody sounded like each other and everybody was striving to be unique, especially when I came out. It was like, ‘Yo, I want to have my own mark’. I think that’s what’s missing out of hip-hop.”

He praised Kendrick Lamar for his star-studded Juneteenth ‘Pop Out’ celebratory concert back in June, where the rapper was joined by the likes of Dr. Dre, YG and his fellow Black Hippy members Ab-Soul, ScHoolboy Q and Jay Rock in an unforgettable celebration of West Coast hip-hop.

“It was like I was watching the Super Bowl,” Xzibit told NME. “It was something really magical about that. Regardless of all the noise with the beef stuff and all that, what that young man has been able to accomplish with his career – touching so many people and having a global impact – is amazing.”

After gaining popularity at the turn of the millennium with ‘Restless’, Xzibit went on to host the infamous MTV car makeover show Pimp My Ride. Many would believe Xzibit is tired of being asked about the highly popular series that ran for six seasons in the ‘00s.

However, Xzibit said “it matters not how he feels” about being continually asked about the show 20 years after it first aired. “People are going to do it anyway. I think I’ll be 90-years-old and somebody’s gonna be like, ‘Hey, ain’t you the guy from [that show]?’ Or they’ll try to talk to me about some car they got outside. I’d be like, ‘I really don’t give a shit about your car, but thank you’. It’s a blessing.”

He went on to say: “If you look at the show and really analyse what made that show successful, it was [that it was] about wish fulfilment. It was about people seeing something happen for someone else in a positive sense, as ridiculous as some of the stuff was. The programming wasn’t geared towards that.”

Xzibit concluded by expressing his gratitude for the hosting gig as it made him “a favourable person to put in film and other TV projects” and placed him “in front of people that nine times out of 10 knew nothing about his music”.

Joiner has yet to announce a release date for ‘Kingmaker’, but the 18-track album is expected to be out early next year.

“I want people to hear that I’m happy and I’m content,” he ended. “All my other albums I can listen to and be like, ‘Fuck! I wish I would have did that different,’ or ‘That’s not mixed well!’ The audience doesn’t know but I know. I don’t feel like that with this album. I feel like every fucking thing is nailed. From the music, the lyrics, the mixing, the production, the videos, the roll out: everything is spot-on.

“This is going to be a great ride. I’ve been on a lot of rides, but I haven’t been on one like this.”

The album, ‘Kingmaker’, is expected to be released in early 2025 and ‘Play This At My Funeral’ is out now via Greenback Records.