Amid the heightened awareness surrounding anti-Asian racism in the wake of COVID-19, there have been many calls to address the underlying discrimination against people of Asian descent face in North America. In the midst of the controversy, Xzibit found himself receiving tons of backlash after he was accused of perpetrating an anti-Asian with the name of his cannabis line, Napalm.
X later addressed the situation and apologized for any sort of insensitivity that was perceived from the brand’s name. Additionally, he offered a more comprehensive explanation of the title and how it falls in line with the titles of his albums. “The word Napalm is definitely synonymous with war and being used as a weapon,” he explained. “If you know anything about me and my body of work, you know I got albums called Weapons Of Mass Destruction and Man Vs Machine.” He also released an album in 2021 called Napalm which is where the inspiration of the album came from.
TMZ’s report appeared to have got it wrong, though. It was reported that his products have been removed from the shelf of a dispensary after the accusations of anti-Asian racism. “As I look at this thing it breaks my heart to be dealing with these small groups of people attempting to paint me with a broad brush,” he explained, citing his work on Pimp My Ride made the term ‘pimp’ become synonymous to car restoration. Additionally, he said that the accusations of racism are a “reach” that contrasts and undermines his positive contributions to society, as well as his creative license.
“I’ve been getting calls all morning and the tmz story is misleading at best,” he added. “To be clear 1 dispensary took our products off of their ‘digital shelf’ which means they probably still have it on the dispensary shelf. Either way this one sided bullshit is not who I am or who I ever will be.”
The cannabis industry and fellow rappers chimed in to show their support for Xzibit as he combatted these accusations. B-Real, both a pivotal member of the cannabis community and groundbreaking MC, chimed in the comment section, writing, “We support you brother. We know you don’t play part in that sort of fuckery. But you will come out on top regardless.”
All Money In’s J. Stone also commented where he pointed out the double standard in the situation. “Ok so now we gotta take all slavery movies down or any movie where they called us N***as. Straight the fucc up. They wanna nit pick at the small shit but everything they do is racist towards us. Smh,” he wrote.
Check out their comments below.
