Man Vs. Machine

10/10/2002 9:00 PM, Yahoo! Music
Dan Leroy

Xzibit has long been the MC voted most likely to succeed, but while his third outing, 2000's Restless, brought him into the big time saleswise, the gruff-voiced Golden State warrior is still a vessel of unfulfilled promise.

Man Vs. Machine backs his bark with compelling and musical beats from both coasts, many creeping along in the chronic-dusted style of his mentor Dr. Dre (whose operatic "Symphony In X Major" is a highlight). However, apart from "Missin' U," a wide-ranging remembrance of his late mother, Xzibit's rhymes lack bite. "Release Date" is a prison scenario he's explored with more imagination before, while the Jermaine Dupri disembowelment "Say My Name" merely chews up an easy target, with help from Eminem. What's worse is passing off the pimpadelic fantasy "Choke Me, Spank Me (Pull My Hair)," which inexplicably features X to the Z squeaking out high-pitched verses, as progress.

After four albums of waiting for Xzibit to claim elite status on the mic, it's hard to avoid thinking that what you hear here is as good as it gets.