Tags and topics realted to this article include Xzibit.

For most hip-hop key players, commercial sidelines often seem as essential as their music: take Puff Daddy's clothing range, Lil' John's Crunk drink and Ice Cube's film roles. For the West Coast rapper Xzibit, his parallel career as a television presenter is even more important than that. Presenting shows for MTV could well have saved his musical career.

Whatever else Xzibit was doing, his fifth album would have come out anyway. It is just unlikely we would have been sat in a hotel room on London's Park Lane if he had not made such a success of presenting reality television show Pimp My Ride, similar to Changing Rooms but with cars instead of houses, and earth-shaking bass speakers instead of MDF.

From there, the artist known to his parents as Alvin Joyner has gone on to co-host - with Sarah "Buffy" Michelle Gellar - this year's MTV Europe Awards. Indeed, the previous evening Xzibit was all wide grins and bonhomie as he introduced Franz Ferdinand and the Beastie Boys to the continent's music fans. Now, less than 24-hours later, a more withdrawn Xzibit has slumped into an armchair.

For an artist that emerged from the boastful world of gangsta rap, Xzibit is surprisingly self-effacing. Talking about being chosen to host the awards, he says: "I don't think they could afford Jay-Z, and Snoop [Dogg] couldn't get through customs, so I guess I was the next best thing."

The rapper can promote his latest record to a wider potential audience than ever before - with barely a full day in the UK before he heads back to the States. You can almost feel the effort, as he begins to crack jokes and talk earnestly about the meaning behind his lines.

Weapons of Mass Destruction reveals a very different side to the fun guy you see on telly. On screen he is all boyish enthusiasm for plush seats and in-car fridges, here the rapper broods and seethes in a way that reflects a turbulent period in his life. The label that had signed him, Loud Records, went bust and the artist was in limbo before being picked up by Sony. The rapper's ambition to set up his own label, as a platform for West Coast rappers, was scuppered.

Xzibit was originally under the wing of hip-hop's most influential producer and talent-spotter, Dr Dre, so the rapper was expected to reach the same heights as Snoop Dogg and Eminem. Indeed, he achieved platinum sale

Find out more about Xzibit. Other items you may find on Xzibit include updates, news, multimedia, chat, links and more. Click here...

EnjoymentIndept.