Kurupt

Ricardo Brown entered the rap world after his birth in Philadelphia on November 23, 1972, when he relocated to Hawthorne, California, formed a close bond with Snoop Dogg, and signed to Death Row Records. Early exposure arrived via guest spots on Dr. Dre’s The Chronic in 1992 and several later Death Row projects, most prominently Snoop Dogg’s Doggystyle the next year.

He soon paired with Daz Dillinger to create Tha Dogg Pound, a duo whose formation grew directly out of Snoop’s surging popularity. Their joint debut, Dogg Food, landed in 1995 and delivered commercial traction through the singles “Let’s Play House” and “New York, New York,” again with Snoop’s participation.

Kurupt’s first solo statement, the double-disc Kuruption!, appeared in 1998 on the A&M-affiliated Antra label yet registered only modest sales. A more streamlined follow-up, Tha Streetz Is a Mutha, arrived the following year and likewise failed to expand his audience.

Space Boogie: Smoke Oddessey, issued in 2001, pursued mainstream crossover by folding in pop-rap touches and high-profile guests such as Fred Durst and Everlast, but remained largely confined to his core listeners. At the same time he reunited with Daz for Dillinger & Young Gotti, an independently released D.P.G. Recordz project that favored a harder, underground aesthetic, while Death Row issued the archival collection 2002, drawn from Tha Dogg Pound’s mid-nineties sessions.

Kurupt rejoined the inactive Death Row roster in 2002, aiding Suge Knight’s effort to resurrect the label; the first result of that partnership was Against tha Grain, released in 2004.