''Napalm'' is the seventh studio album by American rapper

Xzibit Alvin Nathaniel Joiner (born September 18, 1974), better known by his stage name Xzibit (pronounced "exhibit"), is an American rapper, actor, television presenter, and radio personality. Xzibit began his musical career after the release of his ...

. It was released on October 9, 2012 through

Open Bar Entertainment Open Bar Entertainment is an American record label founded in 1995 by Xzibit. History Xzibit stated "I started a label called Open Bar, being that I gotta take advantage of everything that's happening around me right now, I just feel like Likwit C ...

, making it his first album since 2006's '' Full Circle''. It features guest appearances from

Demrick Demerick Ferm, better known by his stage name Demrick, formerly known as Young De, is a rapper from Spokane, Washington, now living in Los Angeles. He has collaborated with Xzibit, Kurupt, Snoop Dogg, Too $hort, B-Real and Cypress Hill. He is a ...

, Slim the Mobster, The Game,

Wiz Khalifa Cameron Jibril Thomaz (born September 8, 1987), better known by his stage name Wiz Khalifa, is an American rapper, singer, songwriter, and actor. He released his debut album, ''Show and Prove'', in 2006 and signed to Warner Bros. Records in 200 ...

Bishop Lamont Philip Brandon Martin (born October 31, 1978), better known as Bishop Lamont, is an American rapper from Carson, California. He was signed to Dr. Dre's Aftermath Entertainment record label and released one project under the label, eventually le ...

B-Real Louis Mario Freese (born June 2, 1970), known by his stage name B-Real, is an American rapper. Since 1991, he has been one of two lead rappers in the hip hop group Cypress Hill, along with Sen Dog. He has also been a part of the rap metal band ...

, Brevi,

Crooked I Dominick Antron Wickliffe (born September 23, 1976), better known by his stage names Crooked I and Kxng Crooked, (stylised as KXNG Crooked and pronounced "King Crooked") is an American rapper from Long Beach, California. He is best known as a for ...

David Banner Lavell William Crump (born April 11, 1974), better known by his stage name David Banner, is an American rapper, record producer, and actor. Born in Brookhaven, Mississippi, Banner's family moved to Jackson, Mississippi, where he was raised. Ban ...

E-40 Earl Tywone Stevens Sr. (born November 15, 1967), better known by his stage name E-40, is an American rapper. He is a founding member of the rap group The Click, and the founder of Sick Wid It Records. He has released 26 studio albums to date, a ...

King T Roger McBride (born December 14, 1968), better known by his stage name King T (formerly known as King Tee), is an American West Coast Hip hop rapper from Compton, California. Emerging as one of Compton's earliest hip hop artists, he was signed ...

Prodigy Prodigy, Prodigies or The Prodigy may refer to: * Child prodigy, a child who produces meaningful output to the level of an adult expert performer ** Chess prodigy, a child who can beat experienced adult players at chess Arts, entertainment, and ...

RBX Eric Dwayne Collins (born October 8, 1969) better known by his stage name RBX (standing for "Reality Born Unknown"), is an American rapper and songwriter from Long Beach, California. Early life and education Contrary to popular belief, Collins i ...

Tha Alkaholiks Tha Alkaholiks, also known as Tha Liks, is an American hip hop trio from Los Angeles, California, United States. Since the early 1990s they have produced party music with a hardcore hip hop edge, powered by the beats of DJ and producer E-Swift ...

and Trena Joiner. The album debuted at number 150 on the ''Billboard'' 200 with first-week sales of 3,200 copies in the United States.

Background

After the commercial failure of his last studio album ''Full Circle'' in 2006, Xzibit was released from his contract with

Koch Records MNRK Music Group (pronounced "monarch", formerly known as Koch Records and eOne Music) is a New York City-based independent record label and music management company. It was formed in 2009 from the music assets of Koch Entertainment, which had ...

and mainly focused on his acting career. No new material for a new studio album surfaced until 2009, when he released the song " Hurt Locker", followed by "Phenom" in early 2010 for his new studio album, then titled ''MMX'' (2010 in

Roman numerals Roman numerals are a numeral system that originated in ancient Rome and remained the usual way of writing numbers throughout Europe well into the Late Middle Ages. Numbers are written with combinations of letters from the Latin alphabet, eac ...

). But since none of the singles made a commercial impact, the album was not released that year, prompting him to change the name to ''MMXI''. The album was renamed ''Restless 2'' in late 2011 and again renamed to its current title after the success of his collaboration "Napalm" with

Travis Barker Travis Landon Barker (born November 14, 1975) is an American musician who serves as the drummer for the rock band Blink-182. He has also performed as a frequent collaborator with hip hop artists, is a member of the rap rock group Transpla ...

for his mixtape '' Let the Drummer Get Wicked''.

Singles

The album's single "Phenom" was released on May 25, 2010 on iTunes, produced by Risingson and features vocals from rapper

Kurupt Ricardo Emmanuel Brown (born November 23, 1972), better known by his stage name Kurupt, is an American rapper and record producer who aided gangsta rap's rise via 1990s verses helping set lasting trends. He is one half of the rap duo Tha Dogg Po ...

with whom Xzibit had already worked on previous albums, and G-Unit rapper 40 Glocc. The album's lead single "Up Out The Way" was released on September 4, 2012, featuring fellow West Coast rapper

and was produced by

Rick Rock Ricardo Thomas, also known as Rick Rock, is an American record producer originally from Montgomery, Alabama and based in Fairfield, California. He is a founding member of the former rap group Cosmic Slop Shop and the Federation with fellow ra ...

. It was released on the radio

Power 106 KPWR (105.9 FM) – branded as ''Power 106'' – is a commercial radio station in Los Angeles, California, broadcasting to the Greater Los Angeles area. KPWR is owned and operated by Meruelo Group and airs a Rhythmic Hot AC format. KPWR's studi ...

, with Xzibit and

DJ Felli Fel James Andrew Corrine, better known by his stage name DJ Felli Fel, is an American club and radio DJ for Los Angeles's Power 106, record producer, and hype man. He is also a member of The Heavy Hitters DJs. His debut single, " Get Buck in Here ...

Critical reception

''Napalm'' was met with generally favorable reviews from

music critics Music journalism (or music criticism) is media criticism and reporting about music topics, including popular music, classical music, and traditional music. Journalists began writing about music in the eighteenth century, providing commentary on w ...

. At

Metacritic Metacritic is a website that review aggregator, aggregates reviews of films, TV shows, music albums, video games and formerly, books. For each product, the scores from each review are averaged (a weighted arithmetic mean, weighted average). M ...

, which assigns a normalized rating out of 100 to reviews from mainstream publications, the album received an

average In ordinary language, an average is a single number taken as representative of a list of numbers, usually the sum of the numbers divided by how many numbers are in the list (the arithmetic mean). For example, the average of the numbers 2, 3, 4, 7, ...

score of 66 based on six reviews. Matt Jost of RapReviews found the album "remarkably focused, not forsaking the established Xzibit sound but neither rehashing it". ''

HipHopDX ''HipHopDX'' is an online magazine of hip hop music criticism and news. The website's current president and publisher is Sharath Cherian and the Head Of Content is Jerry L. Barrow. ''HipHopDX'' is the flagship publication of Cheri Media Group. ...

'' writer said: "''Napalm'' finds X fluctuating between trying to recapture the sound he perfected when he was cavorting with the

Aftermath Aftermath may refer to: Companies * Aftermath (comics), an imprint of Devil's Due Publishing * Aftermath Entertainment, an American record label founded by Dr. Dre * Aftermath Media, an American multimedia company * Aftermath Services, an America ...

staff, and exploring elder statesmanship a la "Thank You" from 2006's '' Full Circle''. When he goes too far in pursuit of either extreme, ''Napalm'' falters".

AllMusic AllMusic (previously known as All Music Guide and AMG) is an American online music database. It catalogs more than three million album entries and 30 million tracks, as well as information on musicians and bands. Initiated in 1991, the databas ...

's Fred Thomas wrote: "What's delivered is another robust collection of business as usual, with the surprising diversions adding just enough dimension to the album to even it out". Ted Scheinman of ''

Slant Magazine ''Slant Magazine'' is an American online publication that features reviews of movies, music, TV, DVDs, theater, and video games, as well as interviews with actors, directors, and musicians. The site covers various film festivals like the New York ...

'' said: "''Napalm'' comes on in old-school fashion, with beats as mere vehicles for lyrics, and lyrics that work on a reassuring number of levels". In a mised review, Christopher Minaya of '' XXL'' called the work "a well-rounded LP full of illustrative and cohesive tracks, while surviving a few average hooks, such as on 'Gangsta Gangsta'". In a negative review, Richard Wink of ''

Drowned in Sound ''Drowned in Sound'', sometimes abbreviated to ''DiS'', is a UK-based music webzine financed by artist management company Silentway. Founded by editor Sean Adams, the site features reviews, news, interviews, and discussion forums. History ''D ...

'' stated: "''Napalm'' is a long ass 18 track slog, and the pointless thug boasts scattered throughout the album".

Track listing

Personnel

1500 or Nothin' 1500 or Nothin' is an American musical ensemble composed of record producers, songwriters, musicians and music videographers, formed in 2006, in Los Angeles, California. With headquarters located in Inglewood, California, 1500 or Nothin' is comp ...

– producers (tracks: 11, 19) * Albert Johnson – featured artist (track 4) *

Aliaune Thiam Aliaune Damala Badara Akon Thiam (; born April 16, 1973), known mononymously as Akon, is a Senegalese-American singer, record producer, and entrepreneur. He rose to prominence in 2004 following the release of " Locked Up" (featuring Styles P) ...

– producer (track 15) * Alvin Joiner – primary artist, executive producer *

Andre Young Andre Romelle Young (born February 18, 1965), known professionally as Dr. Dre, is an American rapper and record producer. He is the founder and CEO of Aftermath Entertainment and Beats Electronics, and previously co-founded, co-owned, and w ...

– producer (track 13) * Anthony Johnson – featured artist (tracks: 8, 15) * Bernard Edwards Jr. – producer (track 17) * Cameron Thomaz – featured artist (tracks: 6, 14) *Dan Gerbarg – mastering *David L. Drew – featured artist & producer (track 20) * Demerick Ferm – featured artist (tracks: 15, 17, 20) *DJ Chill – producer (track 5) * Dominick Wickliffe – featured artist (track 15) * Eart Stevens – featured artist (track 10) *Eliot Dubock – producer (track 1) *Eric Allan Dan – producer (track 6) * Eric Dwayne Collins – featured artist (track 3) *Eric Weaver – assistant mixing *Ferrell Wayne Miles – producer (tracks: 7, 18) *

Howie Weinberg Howie Weinberg is an American audio mastering engineer with over 2,257 mastering credits, three TEC Awards, 21 Grammy Awards, two Juno Awards, and one Mercury Prize. Career Weinberg mastered Herbie Hancock's 1983 album ''Future Shock''. Other m ...

– mastering *Jay Turner – engineering *

Jayceon Taylor Jayceon Terrell Taylor (born November 29, 1979), better known by his stage name the Game or simply Game, is an American rapper. Born in Compton, California, he initially released a series of mixtapes under the wing of fellow West Coast rapper ...

– featured artist (tracks: 3, 15) * Karl Amani Wailoo – producer (track 4) *Kory B. Garnett – featured artist (track 14) * Larry Griffin Jr. – producer (tracks: 8, 12) *

Lavell Crump Lavell William Crump (born April 11, 1974), better known by his stage name David Banner, is an American rapper, record producer, and actor. Born in Brookhaven, Mississippi, Banner's family moved to Jackson, Mississippi, where he was raised. Ban ...

– featured artist & producer (track 14) * Louis Freese – featured artist (tracks: 17, 20) * Mark Thomas Landon III – producer (track 8) *

Matt Alonzo Matt Alonzo (born April 16, 1985) is an American director, video editor and filmmaker. Early life and career Alonzo grew up in Carpinteria, California and studied at Brooks Institute. His big break came in 2008 when he filmed and edited a Lil ...

– photography *

Peter Mokran Peter Mokran is an American mixer, producer, engineer and musician. Early life Mokran was born and raised in Chicago, Illinois. Growing up, he studied classical guitar, while also learning engineering and programming as a teen.Paul Tingen“Sec ...

– mixing * Philip Martin – featured artist (track 17) * Ramon Ibanga Jr. – producer (track 16) * Ricardo Thomas – producer (tracks: 2, 3, 10) * Roger McBride – featured artist (track 13) *

Ronald Fair Ronald Lyman Fair (October 27, 1932 – February 2018) was an American writer and sculptor. He was known for his experimental and versatile literary forms, most prominently through the 1966 in literature, 1966 novel ''Hog Butcher'', set in 1960s ...

– strings arrangement (tracks: 7, 18) * Ret. Staff Sgt. Shilo Harris – featured artist (track 12) *

– featured artists (track 13) * Thomas Jamal McCray Jr. – producer (track 9) *Trena Joiner – featured artist (tracks: 7, 18)

Charts

Release history

References

External links

* {{Authority control 2012 albums Xzibit albums Albums produced by Akon Albums produced by Dr. Dre Albums produced by Illmind Albums produced by Focus... Albums produced by Rick Rock Albums produced by Saukrates Albums produced by Beat Butcha Albums produced by David Banner Albums produced by Symbolyc One Albums produced by 1500 or Nothin'