Xzibit says there's a $1,000,000 reason why he refused to return to Pimp My Ride

Xzibit revealed why he left Pimp My Ride after six seasons, and why he wouldn’t be tempted back to present the show. 

The show landed on MTV in 2004 and ran until 2007.

Presented by Xzibit, Pimp My Ride had a simple, if not slightly bizarre premise: taking banged-up old cars and giving them the sort of makeover that would make even Big Shaq think ‘steady on, that’s a bit much’. 

After six seasons and more than 70 episodes, Pimp My Ride left our screens for good – and former presenter Xzibit has revealed why. 

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Xzibit revealed why he left Pimp My Ride after six seasons

Sharing MTV’s schedule with the likes of Cribs, The Real World, and Punk’d, Pimp My Ride was a huge success and spawned a handful of spin-offs in other countries, including UK and Brazilian versions. 

In the show, members of the public had their old, battered cars restored and transformed into something completely unique. 

The work on the show was carried out by West Coast Customs, but it’s Xzibit that most folks associate with the series. 

In an interview with Metro, the rapper and TV star said Pimp My Ride changed his life and turned into a ‘global brand’. 

However, after six seasons, he decided to leave the show. 

When asked why, he explained that he simply had had enough and decided it was time to go. 

“It ended because my contract was up and I didn’t want to renew it,” he explained.

But the story doesn’t end there. 

After he told the team he wouldn’t be renewing his contract, the rapper began gearing up for an overseas tour. 

Just before he was due to fly out, he got a call from his former bosses asking him if he would do one last episode – a special promotional show tied in with the release of the Fantastic Four. 

Xzibit said that wouldn’t be possible, as he was getting ready to fly out of the US, so they offered to fly him via private jet. 

However, the rapper says someone in the ad team had told him how much the network was being paid for the collaboration, and it was big bucks. 

“I said, ‘Hey, okay, give me a million dollars. I’ll do it,’” he recalled. “They’re like, ‘Oh, Xzibit. You know that’s not in the budget, we don’t have it.’”

Unhappy with the answer, the rapper refused to take part. 

What happened to the vehicles that appeared on the show?

So now we know what happened to the show, but how about the cars that appeared on it?

Thankfully, a bunch of people who appeared on the show took to Reddit to reveal what happened when the cameras stopped rolling. 

One man said he tried to sell his before the show aired and was told by MTV to take its listing down, while another said some of the coolest parts of his car, like the ‘pop-up champagne’, had to be removed because they were unsafe or illegal.

Someone else said his car only ran for a month after the show before its engine packed in.

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