Every other year, Xzibit somehow manages to churn out another mediocre album which falls short of mainstream success. So, if by happenstance you stumble across ‘X to the Z’s latest significantly under-promoted album ‘Full Circle’, you may well find yourself pressing play with great scepticism and very little expectation. But you’d be surprised.

Having parted ways with Columbia, ‘Full Circle’ is Xzibit’s first release under his new label Koch Records and demonstrates the newly renovated rapper’s most fluent work to date.

On ‘Rollin’, Xzibit refers to his transformation in ‘Pimp My Ride’ terms: “Strip down my frame/Repave my lane,” and indeed it seems X has undergone a re-spray and some much needed repairs.

Xzibit takes an overtly politically conscious stance on this album, defining himself as “Malcolm X to the Z”, and he articulates social awareness on tracks like ‘Family Values’ and ‘Black & Brown’ with a severity that, in all honesty, doesn’t quite suit him. The X on this album seems a world apart from his comedic MTV alter ego and suggests that Alvin Joiner is trying emphatically to put ‘Pimp My Ride’ aside and re-evaluate himself.

Yet he manages to stay loyal to the West Coast fellowship, name dropping the Cali culture of 64 Impalas, Converse and Chrome throughout. However, his allegiance to the West on this LP has it sounding uncomfortably like Snoop’s 2005 album ‘Rhythm & Gangsta’. He spits, “I love Los Angeles, you can hear it in my music.”  - but hold on; isn’t Xzibit from Detroit? It’s difficult to place X on this track; he demonstrates a stylistic versatility that is both ingenious and shambolic.

Nevertheless, none of that matters on the album’s stand out track ‘Scandalous Bitches’, a hilariously witty discourse about promiscuous girls with an anecdote about how his lady cheated on him with Usher; delivered over a radio-friendly beat that sees producer Fyre Dept jumping on that Neptunes sound.

The album’s strongest cut is ‘On Bail’ - a collaboration with The Game and T-Pain. Unfortunately for X, he is lyrically outdone by the ‘Doctor’s Advocate’ and is by no stretch of the imagination in the same league as The Game, who himself doesn’t even seem to be delivering one of his better verses.

‘Concentrate’, the first release, demonstrates one of the album’s better productions on a CD cluttered by the very average beat-making of Jelly Roll.

‘Full Circle’ is a good quality album… by Xzibit’s standards. But it is by no means a contender for prominence in the wider context of hip hop’s current climate. The Game has raised the bar for the West and Xzibit is struggling to keep up. For fans of X, this is the best you will hear of him, but for cynics, while he may silence some of your criticisms, he’s unlikely to win you over.

Xzibit proves himself on ‘Full Circle’ as a decent lyricist, but for now should keep pimping rides.

Rating: 3 out of 5

Best Tracks:

6) Scandalous Bitches

7) Concentrate

8) On Bail

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