*The Australian-born expression “no worries” did not fly with rap star Xzibit recently after his stint on an evening talk show went horribly wrong.
On his Myspace page under the heading “Rove the Racist,” Xzibit says he wanted to perform solo on the show hosted by Aussie TV personality Rove McManus. But when a stage hand approached him with a producer’s idea to duet with fellow guest, Canadian crooner Michael Buble, Xzibit reportedly stormed off the set before cameras began rolling.
"The gopher of the show came to me with some idea of a 'rap off' with a lounge singer named Micheal Booblay [sic],” Xzibit wrote. “I tried to meet them halfway by letting them know my songs are not to be butchered.
"Long story short, we get it all worked out and then the gopher comes back and says, 'We only have 42 seconds for the entire thing, our demographics on our show won't allow one minute of rapping.'" Xzibit claims the assistant added: "You know we came a long way just having you on the program."
The show’s production company, Roving Enterprises, fired back against Xzibit’s allegations with the following statement:
"Xzibit's representatives knew the nature of the proposed segment involving Michael Buble and Xzibit rapping to one of Xzibit's songs. They had agreed to perform on that basis, but once at the studio on Sunday, Xzibit made it clear that he was not going to perform the segment as agreed.
“Xzibit and his representatives proposed performing a solo piece, which we could not accommodate as we already had a confirmed music guest, and as a general practice we do not have two music acts on one show." In a follow-up message on his MySpace page, Xzibit insists he wasn't accusing the show's actual host McManus of racism, but has been upset by one of his employees.”
In response, X-to-the-Z backtracked on his accusations of McManus being racist.
He says: "I was never introduced to Rove himself, so me saying he's racist may have been taken like a direct insult, but that is the name of his show so I had nothing else to refer to but Rove when describing where I was. Maybe Rove isn't a racist, just ignorant to what his staff is doing in his behalf."