Xzibit’s hip-hop music festival has been cancelled.

The Pimp My Ride star, along with D12 and Obie Trice, won't be coming to Aotearoa after all.

A major mid-winter music festival featuring hip-hop heavyweights Xzibit, D12 and Obie Trice has been cancelled just weeks out from the event, another sign that New Zealand’s previously booming live entertainment scene is slowing down.

Xzibit, D12 and Obie Trice were scheduled to perform two dates in Christchurch and Auckland across the long Matariki weekend at a festival dubbed The 3: Twenty Anniversary Tour.

But tickets for those shows, on June 28 at Wolfbrook Arena and June 29 at Trusts Arena, have been pulled from sale. Both events have quietly been cancelled: promoters haven’t yet announced it on their social media accounts.

Just one short message has been posted to the Trusts Arena events page: “We are sorry to inform you that due to unforeseen circumstances the New Zealand leg of the 3twenty Tour featuring Xzibit, D12 and Obie will be cancelled.”

A run of shows featuring the same three artists will still go ahead in Australia, a sign that those “unforeseen circumstances” may relate to sluggish ticket sales in New Zealand.

If so, it’s another sign that Aotearoa’s feverish live entertainment scene – fresh from a booming summer that saw a record-breaking number of festival events take place, alongside a huge run of stadium and arena-sized shows – is finally slowing down.

One of summer’s final festivals, Morningside Live Block Party, was cancelled just weeks before it was due to be held, and two-day Hawke’s Bay event Nest Fest went into liquidation after its January event underperformed.

As well, major international touring acts like Olivia Rodrigo and Billie Eilish have begun bypassing New Zealand in favour of playing extra shows in Australia. The Weeknd, Blink-182, Morrissey and TLC have all cancelled performances here in recent months.

But this cancellation is also something of a surprise: nostalgia-fuelled hip-hop festivals have proven to be popular, with four Juicy Fest events packing in punters across January. In 2025, Juicy Fest returns with Ludacris as headliner.

And this time last year, the same promoters delivered Ice Cube and Cypress Hill (but not The Game; never The Game) at an event I would describe as absolutely humming.

It’s also disappointing news for fans of Xzibit, the Pimp My Ride host who enjoys something of a cult status here: in 2016, he clearly relished playing to a frothing crowd at Raggamuffin in the same venue he was due to perform at later this month.

The cancelled shows were scheduled to coincide with the 20th anniversary of seminal albums from all three artists: Xzibit’s Man vs. Machine, D12’s D12 World and Obie Trice’s Cheers. Out of all of those, ‘Got Some Teeth’ would be the one that would get me out onto the dancefloor acting like it was 2003 all over again.

Refunds to ticketholders, if there were any, should be on their way. Promoters haven’t yet responded to Boiler Room’s request for comment, but I’ll update this story if and when they do.

Thanks for reading Boiler Room. If you’re enjoying this newsletter, please consider supporting me by using the button below. That way, you’ll get two to three instalments from me every week. All killer, no filler, promise!