Just Culture #6: X

X for Xzibit, Legends dropping wonders.

Oct 15, 2024

Just Culture brings you reviews and thoughts from all spectrums of culture in a timely and untimely fashion.

If you’ve been reading Just Thoughts, you may have gotten a sense that I listen to quite a lot of rap. Reflecting on why, I think it comes from the interest in wielding the English language. At home, the adults speak English with each other; it became the “adult” language. So, I started using English to express myself as an adult.

Also, though the written word has more power when you put your thoughts in writing, you must process them differently. Ultimately, sometimes words have no other meaning than existing, and sometimes they have the power to fix a broken world. You could say that about art at large, and that’s why culture is both vane and essential to human existence. Additionally, the artist can use their platform and voices to make a change if they so want to, as covered in Just Culture #4.

We’re getting ahead of ourselves when all I came here to say was X to Z, Xzibit dropped a new single;

And he had me at the end of the interlude: A Coward dies a thousand deaths, but a man only dies ones. That line, with the song's title being “Play this at my funeral,” is as strong a comeback as Johnny Cash's when he dropped Hurt.

“A Coward dies a thousand deaths, and a man only dies ones.” - Xzibit, Play this at my funeral

I’ve written about other rap game legends in Just Thoughts #22—Cultural Appropriation, reviewing white rap artists and their styles. X remains a historical voice with his album Restless, generating a few million streams on Spotify monthly.

including the iconic song “X”

I can’t name who can drop as many one-liners in one song that packs as much punch as Xzibit does. Albeit, he dropped that one album and didn’t come close to anything as good, except for maybe My Name with Eminem and Nate Dogg, which is another classic.

Admittedly, his lyrics are riddled with Toxic Masculinity, and his earlier discography is highly sexist. However, another line that has stuck with me since my high school days, when I first picked up rap and albums from Eminem, 50 Cent, Busta Rhymes, Snoop Dog, Dr. Dre, DMX, and Xzibit: “Behind every strong man there is an even stronger woman.”

For all the rap I’ve been featuring, fear not; I listen to all kinds of music, keeping a playlist for every season of the year to keep a record if one wants to take a trip down memory lane.