Defari, Goldie Loc, Kokane, Eminem, Suga Free, DJ Quik, Butch Cassidy, Defari, King T

Xzibit – Been a Long Time
Y’all remember the time when Xzibit’s name was mentioned for the first time: His first hit, “Paparazzi”, came from the ’96 album “At The Speed Of Life”. Xzibit received some fame, but was still underground. Even the next album, “40 Dayz & 40 Nightz” in 1998, didn’t change much about his status as an underground MC with that touch to the mainstream and its heavyweights. It was time for the L.A. and West Coast based MC with the rough, deep voice to check out the overground, the high society of hip hop. ‘Cause, Xzibit is good enough for the high society, fo’ sho’. X appeared as guest on several other albums, such as Snoop’s “Top Dogg” or Eminem’s “The Marshall Mathers LP” and, which is probably the most important, on Dr. Dre’s “The Chronic 2001”. His raw style made us all waiting for this “Restless” record, Xzibit’s third effort that hopefully would bring him up.

First of all, Xzibit lyrics must be mentioned: as long as I’ve known Xzibit’s rhymes, I’ve seldom heard an MC that was so down-to-earth, so hardcore as Xzibit was and is. This man flows like hell. On the whole record, nobody is able to top him lyrically. This is one of the tightest of the rough MCs, no joke. As far as lyrics are concerned, he’s quite cool, too. It’s not that type of extreme deep shit, Xzibit stays a representative of his own clique on the whole record. I often wonder about that “I’m holdin’ it down with the West Coast”-s tyle. Don’t get me wrong, I love Cali’s sounds, but for me, Xzibit’s voice and his flow relate him to New York. And that’s what, in my eyes, makes this album interesting….

Executive produced by Dr. Dre, the album has it all, everything you want: rough Rockwilder shit, Erick Sermon and Rick Roc also kick some East beats, Eminem produced a beat on which he raps himself (by the way, this is one of the coolest tracks), Soopafly is holdin’ it down for the West together with the Doctor. Result is an album, which has chosen a sane balance between that rough, fast shit and the laid-back, easy type of stuff . “Check Rimz & Tirez” feat. Defari, Goldie Loc & Kokane, produced by Soopafly and with Kokane singin’ the hook, and you have that West Coast flavour you also find on Snoop’s latest record. “X”, the hit single, is produced by Dr. Dre. And it sounds like that. “Don’t Approach Me” feat. Eminem is a good track about media’s haters and the negative aspects of fame and “Front 2 Back” is a Rockwilder beat that lets the disc explode in the beginning. The album is very versatile, check out the different producers, ‘cause Xzibit’s lyrics are most of all hot.

The album has got a good production and a very good MC. The only reason why it is not that dope I thought it would be is the fact that there are many hot tracks, but none of them burns your mouth, which means that the shit is all cool and you don’t need skip tracks because it’a all cool, but it’s not that pure dope I expected after hearing Xzibit on Dre’s record and others. But nevertheless, it’s a dope record. And, AvireX to the Z himself is always tight. Always. (emm)