Xzibit’s ex-wife alleges in a new lawsuit that the rapper and Pimp My Ride host violated the automatic restraining order governing their contentious divorce when he allegedly agreed to sell their joint stake in the Brass Knuckles cannabis business, including three valuable trademarks, without her consent. She claims the purported pact called for a payment topping $724,000 — proceeds that were never split with her.
Plaintiff Krista Joiner was married to Xzibit from 2014 until she filed for divorce on Feb. 22, 2021. She is now seeking a federal trial in Los Angeles to determine rightful ownership of the three trademarks, even as the former couple speeds toward a separate trial in state court over the division of their assets. With the marital property trial scheduled to begin in April, Joiner alleges that Xzibit, whose legal name is Alvin Joiner, has blocked her emails and text messages, has not seen their teenage son for nearly a year, and is now “traveling the world on luxury vacations,” despite having told her that there would be “no more Kardashian lifestyle,” according to the lawsuit.
“It has been Alvin Joiner’s stated mission to run Krista Joiner into the ground financially,” the new lawsuit alleges. Krista claims the rapper wants to strip her of all assets “as a means of exacting his sense of rough justice.” (Reps for the Xzibit, including his divorce attorney, did not immediately respond to a request for comment sent Tuesday.)
According to the new 24-page lawsuit, the estranged former couple co-founded the Brass Knuckles cannabis brand in 2016, with Krista acting as the behind-the-scenes business brains, and Xzibt filling the role of public frontman, parlaying his “known history as a marijuana user and rapper.” Krista claims she personally designed the company’s structure, hired and managed employees, and retained lawyers to register the necessary trademarks. She claims Xzibit contributed little to the operations side, bashing him as a “part-time actor with a cancelled show who smoked marijuana constantly, and who had filed for bankruptcy twice in order to avoid foreclosure on his modest home.”
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When the brand launched in May 2016, it was an instant success, earning $600,000 in sales in the first six weeks, the lawsuit claims. The couple used their newfound wealth to purchase a Ferrari, a Bentley, and a Rolls-Royce, the complaint states, and by the end of 2017, the company allegedly was valued at $65 million. Recorded sales in 2018 reportedly hit $39 million, the filing states.
By mid-2020, the couple was developing a second brand called Napalm, and six months later, Krista learned that Xzibit “had been carrying on a long-term adulterous affair,” the lawsuit claims. Krista says efforts to reconcile failed, so she filed for divorce, triggering the restraining order on their joint assets.
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According to Krista, Xzibit unilaterally agreed in 2023 to sell their intellectual property rights in Brass Knuckles, including the three trademarks, for $724,445 that would flow only to him. She claims he entered the agreement after previously assigning the trademarks to a company named Hero Brands. The lawsuit alleges the buyer behind the six-figure purchase agreement is the same investor who owns Hero Brands.
Krista claims Xzbit’s is determined to “exact revenge” on her, and she wants the court to help her sort out what happened with the trademarks. “To this day, Krista Joiner has not consented to the sale of the Brass Knuckles brand, nor has she been asked by anyone for her consent to any sale or assignment of her community property interest, including her interest in the marks,” her lawsuit states.
