Writer: Mr. Otis | Photographer: Devin Dehaven
I to the Z, Xzibit, or just X for short. Detroit native Alvin Joiner will answer to them all. He’s been turning out underground hip-hop classics for more than a decade under those names, but most people know him for his automotive antics as the host of one of MTV’s most prolific, popular, and positive reality shows, Pimp My Ride.

    Before all the hip-hop hype and twenty-two-inch chromes, X was like a lot of kids these days: moving around, at odds with his folks and the law, and just trying to figure out what in the world he was gonna do with his life.

    Now that he’s breaking into his third decade with a new movie role and album—and having spent the last decade as a father—he’s got some words to the wise.

RISEN Magazine: What’s your best memory of being a kid in Detroit?
Xzibit: Oh, there’s several memories. Running up and down the street. Riding my Big Wheel. There were snowdrifts when I was walking to school that were taller than me. Just fond memories, man. Things that people in the Midwest really hold onto. All those fads and the way they dress, and the way they talk, it’s just different.

RM: How did you start writing down rhymes and raps?
X: My parents hated rap music. When I was 13 and I first started writing, it was because my parents would confiscate all of my [rap music]. They thought it was bad for me. So the next best thing to listening to it was writing it. I started writing my own raps and saying them at lunchtime. That’s how I started.

RM: You moved down to New Mexico at
some point.
X: Right, I was in New Mexico at that time. My mother passed when I was 9 and my dad got remarried and that’s where we went to live.

RM: Who did you bounce things off of in New Mexico? Were the kids into hip-hop there?
X: Well, you know, there were cats who were into it. Mostly they had moved there from somewhere else. Same circumstances. And we got to listen to whatever fell through. It was on cassettes at the time—there really wasn’t any hip-hop station—so you had to get mixtapes and what not. There were cats there, but it was nothing like a metropolis. I had to leave in order to get into a scene.

RM: Is that why you took off to Los Angeles?
X: No. I went out to Los Angeles because I definitely wanted to make music, but I didn’t come here [to get into a scene]. I was in Albuquerque and I was getting into a lot of trouble and just needed to change scenery.

RM: You thought you could get out of trouble by going to Los Angeles?
X: Well, I thought I would just try it. You can stay where you are and be like those guys who were the s—t in high school but stay around that town for their whole damn life. You can be that guy, or you can venture out and try something else. I wasn’t going to college and I wanted to take a shot. So I came here. I knew I didn’t want to do anything illegal anymore.

RM: Why did you draw that line for yourself?
X: Well, I came to a couple of close calls during my time on the street; where I really knew I was being protected for some reason. So I wasn't gonna try to push my luck any more than I had to. So it was just a conscious decision. I was tired of getting the same results every time I tried to move forward by doing something illegal.
    You know, I move a lot by faith. I have a good relationship with my creator, so I trust in Him. I feel like, if this is Your will and this is what You wanna do, then I trust You. And I’ve been blessed a hundred times over.

RM: Did you come to that faith as a result of some catastrophe? Did you make a deal with God?
X: No, that’s when you’re not listening. See, you always know when a person isn’t really based on faith when the only reason he says “oh my God” is when something drastic happens to them.
    I try to humble myself and pray every day. I realize that I’m here for a reason, so I’m just enjoying myself while I’m here.

RM: Did that come to you when you were young, or is it something you’ve developed in looking back?
X: It’s just as I mature, man. My son had a lot to do with that. I had my son when I was 19 or 20 years old. So I came to Los Angeles when I was 17, shortly after that I met my son’s mother. We had [the baby, and] when that guy came my life was over. It was all about him. You’ve got to make a lot of conscious decisions and a lot of self-improvements going into that responsibility. My fatherhood is everything to me.
    So going through that transformation as a father led to a lot of the decision-making that brought me to this place.

RM: I once heard you say that Shaq could walk into the room and your son would be distracted for maybe 30 seconds, but he would always come back to you in the end. Do you think every dad has that kind of importance to their kids?
X: If you make it important. If you’re very aggressive and intense with the relationship that you have with your children, of course they’re gonna respect that, because you