The rapper who once dubbed himself the black John McClane is captivated by the image of the warrior, and thus sympathizes with the soldier and the G. For all its technical mastery, however, “Napalm” lacks the eloquence that would prevent misunderstandings, making it inevitably fall behind rap’s quintessential reckoning with how individuals get caught up in Uncle Sam’s wars, Eric B. Joe dreams of a John Doe existence before waking up to the hail of bullets (i.e., the thundering guitars) again. A key scene in the song is a lushly orchestrated break where G.I. “Napalm” walks a fine line between supporting the troops (he performed live in Iraq in 2011) and deploring the insanity of war. “Napalm”‘s titular track, first appearing on a Travis Barker mixtape last year (credited to production squad 1500 Or Nothin here), is a stunning rock excercise where X adopts the delivery of a (legit) rock rapper. Is Xzibit in 2012 simply another old dog unwilling to learn new tricks? A déjà vu is inevitable when considering the album titles and respective opening tracks of “Napalm” and “Weapons of Mass Destruction” (“State of the Union”/”State of Hip Hop vs. The danger in all this is that the artist eventually becomes his own stereotype, following a seemingly failsafe formula. He’s the quintessential rap agitator who has come to shake things up, every song a Cali quake. While many of his peers, especially on the West Coast, have opted for a self-explanatory, well-selling rap persona, he’s simply Xzibit, the guy who corners and confronts you, the listener, to teach you a lesson – verbally.Īs a rapper X is always in action, with or without the lights and the cameras. In terms of what he represents, he has shown consistence across underground favorites “ At the Speed of Life” and “ 40 Dayz & 40 Nightz,” commercial victories “ Restless” and “ Man vs Machine,” to later works. The relevance implied by his voice was ever so often matched by his lyrics. At times X to the Z’s flow has been mightier than his pen, but he’s never been all bark and no bite. Having an advantage like that invariably leads to hubris. There are a million and one people who rap. His voice and flow are a symbol of rap’s vigor and vitality. No, the iconic figure that is Xzibit emerges whenever he opens his mouth and raps. Not because he’s a gold and platinum recording artist or because he gave the ‘rapper’ archetype an unusually personable face on one of MTV’s most famous shows.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |