First and foremost Kurupt is an American hip-hop artist, but he is also an actor, an entrepreneur, and formerly an Executive Vice President of Death Row Records. In addition to his career as a solo rap artist he is one half of the rap duo Tha Dogg Pound.
Kurupt was born Ricardo Emmanuel Brown on 23 November 1972 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, US. Brown grew up in Hawthorne, California, US and though he got his career start in the West Coast, he often considers himself an affiliate of the Philadelphia rap scene. Brown met and befriended Snoop Dogg while he was living in Hawthorne. This relationship led to his signing on Death Row Records.
Brown made his rapping debut on Dr. Dre’s landmark album “The Chronic”. He contributed verses to three of the album’s tracks: “Lyrical Gangbang”, “Stranded on Death Row”, and “Bitches Ain’t Shit”. Other contributors on the album included Lady of Rage, Snoop Dogg, Nate Dogg, RBX, and Daz Dillinger, the latter of which formed the rap duo Tha Dogg Pound with Kurupt. The Dogg Pound extensively assisted Snopp Dogg on his studio debut “Doggystyle”, being featured on two of the tracks and contributing a song of their own “For All My Niggaz & Bitches”.
On 31 October 1995 Tha Dogg pound released their studio debut “Dogg Food”. The album was considered one of the most critically and commercially successful albums to come out through Death Row (of course with the exception of Snoop, Dre, and Tupac releases). It went on the sell over 2 million units and unsurprisingly featured a handful of Death Row’s artists such as The Lady of Rage, Tray Deee, Dr. Dre, and Snoop Dogg.
Many artist started to leave Death Row Records partially due to CEO Suge Knight’s overbearing demands. Even more left after Tupac’s murder in 1996, one of the first to leave was Kurupt. Kurupt went on to sign a record contract with A&M and later developed his own imprint known as Antra records. In 1998 Kurupt released his studio debut “Kuruption!”. Though Daz Dillinger made only a small appearance on Kurupt’s studio debut he did play a big role in producing Kurupt’s 1999 follow up “Tha Streetz Iz a Mutha”.
Kurupt made a brief detour in his solo career to form the rap collective The HRSMN alongside Rass Kass, Killah Priest (Wu-Tang Clan), and Canibus. Though the group showed much promise they only released a spattering of tracks. Shortly there after Kurrupt revived his partnership with Daz and released their 3rd studio album “Dillinger & Young Gotti” in 2001; however, for this release the group’s name was changed to DGP (Dogg Pound Gangstaz) considering Death Row owned the rights to the duo’s original name.
Also that year Kurupt put out his 3rd studio album “Space Boogie: Smoke Oddessey”. This was Kurupt’s last release on Antra before starting his second term on Death Row. Kurupt’s re-assimilation to Death Row Records has been attributed as the cause of him severing his ties with Daz, who was still on bad terms with the label. Kurupt assumed the role of the label’s vice president and began mentoring other artists on the roster in addition to producing his own albums. His next studio LP “Against the Grain” came out on 23 August 2005. two years later Kurupt released his 10 track EP, which was also entitled “Against the Grain” and likewise featured some of the same songs.
Kurupt and Daz reconciled their differences and in 2005 reformed Tha Dogg Pound for the second time. They started putting out releases profusely in the mid 2000’s: “Dillinger & Young Gotti II: The Saga Continuez” (2005), “Cali iz Active” (2006), “Dogg Chit” (2007). In 2008 Kurupt put out his first joint album release with his brother Roscoe entitled “The Frank and Jess Story”. In 2010 he issued his 6th studio album “Streetlights”.
Kurupt still continues to collaborate with his old friends like Snoop Dogg and Daz, but also makes guest appearances on the album’s of many up and coming independent artists. Kurupt is recognized as one of the most highly influential rappers on the West Coast and has been cited as a major source of inspiration by acclaimed hip-hop artists such as Kendrick Lamar and Eminem.
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