Xzibit claims his former label boss, Steve Rifkind, demanded Dr. Dre pay $11 million to release him from his contract so he could join Aftermath Records.
Xzibit chatted with Red Bull before dropping his new album, Kingmaker, discussing his entire career journey. During the talk, he looked back on how his friendship and working relationship with Dr. Dre began and nearly led to an Aftermath Records deal — if his Loud Records boss hadn’t stood in the way.
“He asked for an $11 million buyout,” Xzibit revealed. “He just didn’t want to let me go.” That’s a crazy high figure, so the deal fell through.
Instead, Dre stepped up as executive producer on two of Xzibit’s albums. “He told me that no matter what he was doing or where I landed, he was gonna make sure he was there for me,” Xzibit shared.
Elsewhere in the chat, Xzibit talked about how Pimp My Ride transformed his life. “Nobody knew Pimp My Ride was gonna be Pimp My Ride until that shit came out,” he said. “I had soccer moms coming up and pinching my cheeks and telling me how much they loved me. It turned me into a global brand. I was in people’s homes. I was in people’s lives. People still come up to me to this day and tell me I was a big part of their childhood.”
Xzibit recently spilled the beans on why he left Pimp My Ride — revealing it happened because executives wouldn’t meet his contract demands.
“You really want the truth about why Pimp My Ride only lasted six seasons?… Some people don’t want their childhood ruined,” he said. “It ended because my contract was up and I didn’t want to renew it. I was on my way out the door at 20th Century Fox after filming the last episode, and it was like, ‘Yo, all good things must come to an end.’ I’m good. I’m very good. I’m shaking hands and I’m like, ‘Okay guys, contract’s up, I don’t want to renew. I’m out.”
Xzibit also shared that show executives needed him to film an episode after securing a partnership with Fantastic Four; the issue was he was about to head out on tour. “I was like, ‘I’m on my way to Europe. I ain’t filming no fucking Fantastic Four episode,'” said Xzibit. Soon after, executives called offering to cover his travel on a private jet and even double his hosting fee. Xzibit wasn’t impressed.
What the show’s officials didn’t know was that the advertising department had already told Xzibit how much money Fantastic Four was paying the studio. That knowledge fueled Xzibit’s one demand.
“I had just heard the fucking number.’ I said, ‘Hey, okay, give me a million dollars. I’ll do it,'” he recalled. “They’re like, ‘Oh, Xzibit. You know that’s not in the budget, we don’t have it.'”
