Posted by MTV had a goldmine on its hands with the innovative television series Pimp My Ride. Hosted by Xzibit, the show ran for six seasons beginning in 2004 and, with the help of West Coast Customs and Galpin Auto Sports, transformed dozens of hoopties into luxury vehicles.
The show was a bona fide success and splintered off into several adaptations such as Pimp My Ride UK, Pimp My Ride International (in central Europe) and other adaptations in Brazil, Indonesia and the Baltic countries. But in 2009, things apparently started to head south when the show was cancelled and Xzibit was forced to file for bankruptcy.
On Tuesday (June 28), Xzibit posted two documents from ViacomCBS to his Instagram page and proceeded to drag the company over all kinds of allegations, while revealing the franchise had made over $16 million for ViacomCBS since it was launched.
“While I’m at it, hey @viacom_intl why is it you’ve made millions off the show #PimpMyRide I carried on my back and and found ways to cut me out? Like saying I would get percentages of all merch sold let alone streaming(which wasn’t even in the contract) and putting in the fine print ‘with my name and likeness’ then proceed to take my ‘name and likeness’ off of ALL the merchandise including dvd sales after season 1?
“To top that you guys went back and EDITED all of my music out of ALL entire seasons in order to avoid paying me for my publishing. Let’s talk about worldwide syndication!!!! Wow. Hey, guys, my number is still the same. Hit me up. Or…… Can anybody hit me with a law firm who isn’t afraid of Viacom to get me right? Robert M. Bakish President of Paramount Global @mtv.”
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Xzibit has historically danced around the subject when it’s been brought up in the past. In a 2018 interview with HipHopDX, he shot down any possibility of a Pimp My Ride reboot — and now it’s clear why.
“I don’t think I would be available for that. God bless ’em man, you know what I’m saying?” he said at the time. “I know they probably will with another host or whatever. People come up and talk to me about that all the time, man.
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“I’m glad it had such a dope impact across the board with so many different people, you know. I think it’s dope man, but, it’s like ‘eh, I don’t know. I like what I’m doin’ now.”
But, there’s a sense Xzibit is ready to move forward. Earlier this week, he told TMZ he’s at least willing to have a conversation with ViacomCBS and still has “respect” for the company but noted the Pimp My Ride situation is definitely a “sore spot.”