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.
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.[1]
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".[6]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.[7] 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.[8] On February 2, 2005, it was certified Gold by the Recording Industry Association of America for sales of over 500,000 units.[9] According to Nielsen Soundscan data as of October 2006, the album has sold approximately 283,000 copies in the US.[10]
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.
"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 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.
