Xzibit likes to stick with what he knows. In this case, it is cannabis.
The rapper and entrepreneur has a new podcast titled, "Lasagna Ganja." Co-hosted by Tammy "The Cannabis Cutie" Pettigrew, the series debuted Thursday.
"I called it the Lasagna Ganja podcast because there's layers to everything that we do with cannabis and culture," Xzibit told CNN. "I felt like if I was gonna do a podcast, I wanted to talk about something I'm very knowledgeable about."
The artist said he hopes to reverse some of the stigma and misinformation about the cannabis industry.
"This plant cannot kill you the same way that an opioid can kill you, or that alcohol poisoning can kill you," Pettigrew said. "There are some negative side effects, but the positives outweigh the negative."
Xzibit said he's had two cannabis companies and is expanding into other states and dispensaries. He acknowledged that the industry is not very diverse right now and said people need both the capital and patience to be successful.
"It's not a cash cow. It is not something that people just get rich quick," he said, adding that there are plenty of jobs in the industry beyond being and owning a dispensary. "You have to be patient, you have to be consistent, and you have to be diligent."
Pettigrew said she'd like to see more people of color benefiting from the growth in the legal cannabis industry.
"We need people to design growth facilities, sustainability," she added. "There's so many lanes and avenues that people of color can get into without touching the plant and without having to go through so much red tape.
Of course to some it makes perfect sense that Xzibit would be supportive of cannabis as it seems to go hand and hand with hip hop.
"It's not just hip hop," he said. "You think of Willie Nelson, you think of Cheech and Chong and all these other voices that were advocates for cannabis before hip hop. Hip Hip just celebrated its 50th anniversary and cannabis has been around a lot longer than 50 years."
"Lasagna Ganja" is available wherever podcasts are streaming.
