Weapons of Mass Destruction (album)

Weapons of Mass Destruction is the fifth studio album by American rapper Xzibit. It was released on December 14, 2004, through Open Bar Entertainment, Columbia Records and Sony Urban Music. Recording sessions took place at Encore Studios in Burbank, Soundcastle Studios and Khalil's Home Studio in Los Angeles, N House Studios in Studio City, Hit Factory in Miami and Teklab Studios in Cincinnati. Production was handled by DJ Khalil, Jelly Roll, Hi-Tek, DJ Battlecat, Denaun Porter, Mystro, Rick Rock, Sir Jinx, Thayod Ausar and Timbaland, with additional producer J. R. Rotem. It features guest appearances from Strong Arm Steady, Jelly Roll, Busta Rhymes and Keri Hilson, and contributions from Butch Cassidy, Dion Jenkins, Dontae Winslow, Mashica Winslow, Suga Free, Tone Trezure, Truth Hurts and Dee Ray.

The album was supported with three singles: "Muthafucka", "Hey Now (Mean Muggin)" and "Criminal Set", as well as accompanying music videos for the latter two.

Critical reception
Weapons of Mass Destruction was met with mixed or average reviews from music critics. At Metacritic, which assigns a normalized rating out of 100 to reviews from mainstream publications, the album received an average score of 57, based on eight reviews.

Steve Juon of RapReviews found "the only thing really disappointing about Weapons of Mass Destruction is that Xzibit seems to have once again forsaken his Alkaholiks homies". Vibe critic called the album "brimming with energy and depth", while Blender reviewer stated: "Xzibit reinvents himself as a rapper invigorated by current events". An E! Online editor found that "sometimes it sounds like he's trying too hard".

In mixed reviews, Dotmusic critic wrote: "ethical incontinence notwithstanding, Xzibit is an undeniably charismatic vocalist, with a gift for pure, jolting, testosterone-packed aggression that leads to some rather magnificent moments". Christian Hoard of Rolling Stone found it "dragged down by too much unremarkably brawny fare" and marked "Cold World" as a key song. Chuck Mindenhall of Entertainment Weekly resumed: "ultimately as unrewarding as it is conflicted".

In NME negative review, it says: "the beats are from the worst Ice Cube album ever made and the rhymes are sub-Coolio".

Commercial performance
In the United States, the album debuted at number 43 on the Billboard 200, number 19 on the Top R&B/Hip-Hop Albums and number 11 on the Top Rap Albums with approximately 81,000 copies sold in its first week of released. On February 2, 2005, it was certified Gold by the Recording Industry Association of America for sales of over 500,000 units. According to Nielsen Soundscan data as of October 2006, the album has sold approximately 283,000 copies in the US.

The album made it to number 27 in both Germany and Switzerland, number 42 in Australia, number 62 in the Netherlands, number 69 in Austria, number 71 in Flemish Region of Belgium and number 77 in France. In the United Kingdom, the album peaked at number 85 on the UK Albums Chart, number 84 on the Scottish Albums Chart and number 14 on the UK Hip Hop and R&B Albums Chart.

Track listing

 * Notes
 * all tracks stylised in lowercase.
 * "State of the Union" is omitted from several versions of the album.
 * "LAX" (also stylised as "Lax" or "L.A.X." in different versions) was used in the soundtrack for the 2004 video game Need for Speed: Underground 2.
 * "Muthafucka", re-titled as "Mutha*****" in clean versions, was used in Tony Scott's 2005 film Domino and an edited version called "Mother Mother" was used in the 2004 video game Def Jam: Fight for NY.
 * "Hey Now (Mean Muggin)" was used in the soundtrack for the 2004 video game NFL Street 2.
 * "Klack" was used in the soundtrack for the 2005 video game Juiced.


 * Sample credits
 * Track 7 contains samples from "It Can't Make Any Difference to Me" written by Lane Tietgen and performed by Dave Mason.
 * Track 8 contains samples from "Amerikkka's Most Wanted", written by O'Shea Jackson, Eric Sadler and Keith Shocklee and performed by Ice Cube.
 * Track 15 contains interpolations from "Keeps Me Satisfied" written by Richard Tufo.
 * Track 16 contains excerpts from "Changin'" written by Lynn Mack, James McClellan and Jerry Peters and performed by Sharon Ridley, and interpolations from "Turn to Stone" written by Joe Walsh and Terry Trabandt.

Personnel

 * Alvin "Xzibit" Joiner – vocals, executive producer
 * David "JellyRoll" Drew – vocals (tracks: 3-5), producer (tracks: 3, 4)
 * Marvin "Krondon" Jones – vocals (tracks: 4, 6, 8, 11, 15)
 * Shari "Truth Hurts" Watson – vocals (track 4)
 * Jason "Phil da Agony" Smith – vocals (tracks: 6, 11)
 * Dontae Winslow – vocals (track 7), horns (track 15)
 * Mashica Winslow – vocals (track 7)
 * Keri Hilson – vocals (track 9)
 * Latonya "Tone Trezure" Givens – vocals (track 10)
 * Charles "Mitchy Slick" Mitchell – vocals (tracks: 10, 11, 15)
 * Dejuan "Suga Free" Walker – vocals (track 11)
 * Danny "Butch Cassidy" Means – vocals (track 11)
 * Dee Ray – vocals (track 12)
 * Trevor "Busta Rhymes" Smith – vocals (track 13)
 * Dion Jenkins – vocals (track 14)
 * John "Ras Kass" Austin – voice (track 16)
 * Joshua Craig Podolsky – guitar (track 2)
 * "Uncle" Johnny Rogers – keyboards and arrangement (track 2)
 * Daniel Seeff – guitar & bass (tracks: 7, 15)
 * "DJ Khalil" Abdul-Rahman – keyboards (track 11), producer (tracks: 6, 7, 11, 15)
 * Jonathan "J.R." Rotem – additional keyboards (track 11), additional producer (track 10)
 * The Divine Order Horns – horns (track 15)
 * Dan Silver – guitar (track 16), additional sound effects (track 1)
 * Eric "Thayod" Banks – producer (tracks: 1, 16)
 * Anthony "Sir Jinx" Wheaton – producer & recording (track 2), sequencing
 * Mystro – producer (track 2)
 * Ricardo "Rick Rock" Thomas – producer (track 5)
 * Kevin "DJ Battlecat" Gilliam – producer (track 8)
 * Timothy "Timbaland" Mosley – producer (track 9)
 * Denaun "Kon Artis" Porter – producer (track 10)
 * Tony "Hi-Tek" Cottrell – producer (tracks: 13, 14)
 * Sean Tallman – recording (tracks: 2-5, 7, 8, 10, 11, 13-16)
 * Richard "Segal" Huredia – recording (tracks: 2, 5, 6, 8, 10, 11, 14)
 * Demacio Castellon – recording (track 9)
 * Serban Ghenea – mixing
 * Francis Forde – engineering assistant (tracks: 2, 4, 5, 8, 10, 13, 14)
 * Thomas Rounds – engineering assistant (tracks: 2, 3, 7, 11, 15, 16)
 * Jeremy MacKenzie – engineering assistant (tracks: 5, 6, 8, 10)
 * Chris Gehringer – mastering
 * Geneva Randolph – production coordinator (track 9)
 * Bill Pettaway – production coordinator (track 9)
 * Mike Evans – production coordinator (track 9)
 * Chris Feldmann – art direction, design
 * Patrick Fong – design
 * Jonathan Mannion – photography
 * Mark Machado – logo
 * Dino Delvaille – A&R
 * Jermaine "Janky" Salmond – film director