How Conor McGregor signed Xzibit, Bone Thugs-N-Harmony and Obie Trice
Conor McGregor, during his prime, was arguably the greatest MMA fighter in the world, but he has become notorious for quite a bit more than his athleticism in recent years, as in his Irish home country, he has politically emerged as a far-right figure, known for expressing a vehemently anti-immigration outlook and for aligning himself with figures like Donald Trump and Elon Musk.
He even contested the 2025 Irish presidential election, but his bid quickly proved unsuccessful, so he withdrew, and McGregor has also been accused of committing assault on multiple occasions.
In 2024, the Irish High Court ruled that he had assaulted and raped a woman six years earlier, for which he was required to pay more than €248,000 in damages plus a reported €1,500,000 towards the victim’s legal costs. He lost an appeal on the verdict during the summer of 2025.
It is an understatement, then, to say that McGregor is today considered to be a controversial figure, but that has not meant an end to his career or place in the public eye. He is set to make a return to MMA this summer, when he is scheduled to take on Max Holloway, and his business career has ticked along.
McGregor has launched alcoholic drink brands, operates a pub, and, while he has also been involved with ventures into the fashion and sports industries, most surprising, perhaps, is his involvement with the music industry.
In 2024, McGregor announced that he and two business partners were launching a new record label, Greenback Records, which would be based in Ireland to release music of various genres, but notably, there was a hip-hop streak to the project.
Several veteran rappers were attracted to Greenback, including Obie Trice, Xzibit and Bone Thugs-N-Harmony. As a matter of fact, Bone Thugs member Krayzie Bone has even publicly credited McGregor with helping to encourage the group to get back together following years of being apart.
Speaking to All Hip Hop, Krayzie conceded that the group were going to reunite anyway, but that the “Conor McGregor situation just made it happen faster”. Greenbank “put the offer on the table”, and everything looked good to them, so they signed.
McGregor’s life in the public eye has taken some strange and frequently bleak turns through the years, but his emergence as a music exec is perhaps the most unexpected twist of all. Putting good offers to these big rap names of yore is evidently a strategy for boosting the appeal of the Greenbank label.