Xzibit is a rapper who has seen it all over the course of his long career, which began in the mid-1990s when he became part of the Likwit Crew alongside Tha Alkaholiks and King Tee. Nearly three decades later, he believes his genre isn’t in a great place.
Mr. X-to-the-Z was a guest on a recent episode of The Adam Carolla Show alongside legendary director and actor Rob Reiner. When prompted by co-host Chris Laxamana to weigh in about the state of Hip Hop today, he didn’t mince words.
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“I think the education system has failed us,” he continued, explaining that the social-media-induced need to communicate with “emojis and farts and beeps in thirty-second intervals” has caused people to dumb themselves down and “communicate with this new language that doesn’t give you much room for comprehension or expansion.”
He continued by saying he recognizes that artists need to capture an audience’s attention within 30 seconds, which makes it, in his view, “impossible” to create an entire album that is filled with good songs, rather than containing just a few.
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X then continued on to how streaming has robbed music fans of connection to the art form.
“There’s no emotional investment in the music, like when we were putting music out,” he said. “You had the CD cover, the album cover, cassette. You get to open it, you get to see who produced it, you get to read the lyrics. You’re not guessing. A lot of the things that made us have 10, 15, 20, 30-year-long careers doesn’t exist anymore.
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“I don’t know if they’re doing it on purpose or not, but Hip Hop doesn’t have the staying power that it used to have,” he continued, not specifying if “they” referred to rappers or the music industry as a whole.
In contrast with the disposable nature of Hip Hop today, X said, it’s notable that every other genre of music is influenced by it.
“You see country music having elements of Hip Hop. You see pop music. When’s the last time you saw a rock band that didn’t have a Hip Hop element to it? I’m sick of Hip Hop, and I love Hip Hop. I want to see a rock band come out and steamroll.”
The veteran artist’s closing notes expressed his hope for the future.
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“Right now, I think the music itself isn’t a good representation of what we’re supposed to be,” he said. “Not taking anything away from these kids, because they’re feeding their families. They’re not in the street. They’re not doing…some of them aren’t doing anything illegal.
“But I think there’s a real path right now for somebody to come out with some real content and have that staying power, and show that it’s possible.”
You can see the entire monologue by pressing play below.
