---

http://www.freep.com/entertainment/music/xzibit6_20020906.htm

---

On Xzibit: Native Detroiter's raw, rugged sounds put him in company with fellow rappers Eminem and Snoop Dogg

---

BY KELLEY L. CARTER
FREE PRESS STAFF WRITER

Alvin Joiner, 26, sometimes cringes when he thinks of what his mother and father used to do when they found the rap music he tried to hide from them as a kid in Detroit.
Then he remembers what that punishment led to. And he laughs because it's what jump-started his rap career.

"My parents were Jehovah's Witnesses and they didn't particularly care for rap music," says Joiner, , who is known as Xzibit. "I would get my little headphones and sneak and listen to it at night. Every time they would catch me, they would get it and break my tapes. And I'd be mad. Eventually, I got sick of it. So I said, 'You know what? I can rap my own stuff and they can never take that from me.' "

So he did. He completed his first rap, "Down With Me," when he was 13, four years after his mother's death. He would sit in the lunchroom at his middle school and beat on the table, spitting his rap and hoping to pull in a crowd with his louder than life vocals.

He called himself Xzibit A, playing off his first name, but later dropped the A as his popularity grew.

A schoolyard gimmick turned into a professional gold mine.

On Sunday, as part of the Anger Management Tour, Xzibit will perform at the Palace of Auburn Hills with headliner Eminem, Ludacris, Papa Roach and Xzibit's label mates, the X-Ecutioners.

On the edge of superstardom (he recently was featured on MTV's "Cribs"), the rapper, who has been recording since 1996, will release his next CD, "Man vs. Machine," in October. It willfeature super-producer Dr. Dre and other rappers including Snoop Dogg and Eminem.

This all began with his youthful admiration for rap music, which became something to wrap his mind around while he tried to get past losing his mother at age 9.

Xzibit moved from an east side Detroit address to New Mexico shortly after his mom died. His father had remarried and the new couple wanted to start in a new place.

It was a confusing time for the rapper. He got into a lot of trouble -- fighting, skipping school -- and, when he was 14, he was sent to a state juvenile facility, where he spent the next two years.

"I was a brotha from the east side, going out there with some cactus -- I was like 'What the heck?' It was definitely a culture shock. But it was a strange time, man. There was a lot of uncertainty and a lot of long drawn-out hurt because my mother was special to everybody, especially my family," he says. "Everything happened real fast, real quick."

And so did his career.

At 17 he moved to California.

"I knew I could be doing something better with my life other than doing what I was doing. Everyone that I was involved with was either being hurt, put to death or put to jail. And I didn't see myself going like that," he says.

"It was a life decision. I wasn't in trouble when I went to California. I wasn't running from the law or anything like that. I just wanted something better for myself and something better for my life. I stepped out on faith, man, you know. That's exactly what it was. God smiled down on me because it could have went either way."

Xzibit went the way of music.

For years, he worked the L.A. underground hip-hop circuit and it was there he hooked up with Likwit Crew, a group that featured rappers such as Tha Liks, Defari and King Tee. In 1995, they went on tour and that led to Xzibit being signed to Loud Records. He released "At the Speed of Life" in 1996 and showed hip-hop lovers his raw, rugged sounds.

Getting the breaks
His bigger break came in 1998 with the release of "40 Dayz & 40 Nightz" which broke a BET Rap City record for the video single "What You See Is What You Get." That video held the No. 1 position for six straight weeks on the popular rap show.

Xzibit followed that up with a cameo on Snoop Dogg's "B Please," a popular tune that still is on regular airwave rotation.

That paved the way for his 2000 release, which he worked on with Dr. Dre. A certified platinum CD, "Restless" became his biggest-selling effort.

And it really put him on the musical map.

Next came collaborations with Eminem, De La Soul, Limp Bizkit's Fred Durst, Erick Sermon and Korn's Jonathan Davis. On the current Anger Management tour, his cousin, Detroiter DJ Carl the Invisible Man, is touring with him.

Xzibit is proud of the work he's done up to now. But, he says, he's been saving his all for his next album, due Oct. 1. He says he wanted to give people time to get used to him before he pushed the envelope the way he wanted to.

"I feel like it's my most well-rounded material. It's got a lot of fun in it, too -- don't get me wrong. But I think the elevation of the music and the intensity of the music is what makes it my favorite album so far," he says.

The album also has a serious side. His mother was a writer, too. Before she passed away, she published a book of poetry.

"Missin' U," one of the songs on the album, which was produced by Ric Rock and features Andre Wilson, is a tribute to his mom, who was only 32 when she died.




KELLEY L. CARTER can be reached at 313-222-8854 and carter@freepress.com.

---