Xzibit has kept himself busy between acting and hosting Dr. Dre’s The Pharmacy Beats 1 Radio show.
Mr. X to the Z sat down with Soren Baker to discuss the types of roles he is offered in acting. He appears on the most recent season of Empire as street mogul Leslie ‘Shyne’ Johnson, who is the rival to Terrence Howard’s character, Lucious Lyon.
“There is a lot of stereotypical roles that get introduced to us,” the platinum rapper says, “but it is up to us to kinda sift through them and kinda look objectively at each opportunity. It has to have some kinda real impact in order for it to be appealing to me. It was good to be able to have a music career as well as a film, television career. The film and television side is starting to really blossom, so I’m very blessed.”
In regards to working on The Pharmacy with Dr. Dre, Xzibit says that the Aftermath leader seeks to have a balanced show. X says that he enjoys featuring a wide variety of artists on the worldwide platform.
“It’s very dope because week to week we get to showcase some of the best deejays in Los Angeles, a lot of, lot of, lot of love for the surrounding artists and producers, deejays and musicians,” he says. “They all come and contribute to The Pharmacy, so it’s a great place to be working, under the Apple.”
It has been four years since Xzibit’s last studio album, 2014’s Napalm. He has stayed involved in music through the Serial Killers group with B-Real and Demrick and was featured on Dr. Dre’s Compton soundtrack. He says he will eventually put out another solo album, but doesn’t want to force it.
“I really wanna work on it,” he says, “be inspired put something worth putting out, out, so I’m taking my time with it.”
How does Xzibit balance it all?
“I just piss excellence everywhere I go,” he says.