Man vs Machine in Bloomington, MN

Four albums deep,
Xzibit
's presence on the microphone rivals that of the better MCs of the latter day. However, on
Man vs Machine
,
seems to have lost some of the edge on his lyrical blade, which once tested in underground fires more than a half-decade before he hit the mainstream in 1999. The man who brought listeners
"Paparazzi,"
"Foundation"
(from his 1996 debut,
At the Speed of Life
), and
"What U See Is What U Get"
(from the 1998 release
40 Dayz & 40 Nightz
) managed to avoid the sophomore slump, but instead found the junior jinx with the disappointing 2000 release of
Restless
, even with
Dr. Dre
in his corner. While
X
is still in cahoots with the good
Dre
here, unfortunately
is a continuation of his lackluster spiral rather than the masterpiece that
fans thought to be inevitable when he linked up with the likes of
Snoop Dogg
, and
Eminem
in the Y2K. Things start off with dark zest on the cleverly worded and sinisterly composed
"Release Date,"
produced not by
, but by East Coaster
Rockwilder
.
chimes in with lyrics for the awkward and clunky
"Symphony in X Major"
and beats for the delightfully raunchy
"Choke Me, Spank Me"
and the slightly above-workaday
"Losin' Your Mind"
featuring
. Also, taking a somewhat shameful page out of
P. Diddy
's book, producer
Jelly Roll
turns to early-'80s
Toto
(
"Africa"
) for inspiration on the painfully inane
"Heart of Man."
Things pick up some on the
camp's retort to a
Jermaine Dupri
dis on the
-produced
"My Name"
(featuring some patented
Slim Shady
punch lines and a G-hook from
Nate Dogg
) and the cross-continental banger
"BK to LA"
featuring Brownsville sluggers
M.O.P.
The heartfelt ode to his mother (
"Missin' U"
) notwithstanding, after the floss and gloss of this release is peeled away, there's a lot more of
the MC caught in the machine of the
hip-hop
industry than there is of
the gifted man. ~ M.F. DiBella