Heavyweight

Early life wasn’t kind to him: his mother’s sudden death forced him to move to the other end of the US to live with his father, who abandoned the family years earlier. The two didn’t get on, the young Alvin got in trouble with the law, and he ended up staying with his sister in Los Angeles. Xzibit soon became one of the leading figures of the West Coast underground hip-hop scene, and the launch of his albums 40 Dayz & 40 Nights and Restless near the end of the 20th century launched him into the mainstream. Following his debut on the big screen and the great success of MTV’s Pimp My Ride which he hosted, he hit hard times again. He is now turning things around with his first album since 2012: in the run-up to its release, the rapper is joined by old friends Ras Kass, DJ Hoppa, Demrick, Problem and James Savage on 10 November at Kwadrat. (Bartosz Suchecki, “Karnet”)