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Kurupt

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Kurupt the Kingpin aka Young Gotti (born Ricardo Brown on November 23, 1972) is a gangsta rapper.

Contents

Early life & career

Kurupt was born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania and later moved to Hawthorne, California as a teen to live with his father. He lived in Hawthorne and later moved to South Central on his own. At a club one night, before either had any career, Kurupt found himself battling Snoop Dogg on the mic. Snoop was impressed with his skills and Kurupt felt the same about Snoop. In an interview, Kurupt said they agreed that if one of the two achieved fame they would help other out. Sure enough, Snoop Doggy Dogg was eventually discovered by Suge Knight and signed to Death Row Records; soon after, Kurupt was also signed to the label.

As Kurupt was signed to Death Row, so was Snoop's cousin Daz Dillinger; the two formed a duo called Tha Dogg Pound. The pair had well-received appearances on the first two major Death Row releases, The Chronic and Doggystyle, and due to the successes of the albums their debut Dogg Food was widely anticipated and did well both critically and on the charts. "Let's Play House" was the most popular song from that album.

Mid '90s–present

After the signing of 2Pac to Death Row in September 1995, 'Pac sparked the "rap war" between Death Row and Bad Boy Entertainment. Kurupt and Daz became embroiled in it through their single "New York, New York" from their album Dogg Food and C-N-N's response, "L.A., L.A."" When 2Pac was later murdered, Kurupt was one of the many artists to leave Death Row. He signed with Antra Records and released his debut solo album titled Kuruption! in 1998. It was a double-disc album, one made for the West Coast and one made for the East Coast--probably due to Kurupt having ties to the East Coast, being born in Philadelphia. His second solo album was released on Antra in 1999 titled Tha Streetz Iz A Mutha. Many of his fans consider this to be his best album, though it did relatively poorly; his label released the record the same day as Dr. Dre's "2001", which no doubt put a damper on sales.

After Streetz, Kurupt moved back to Death Row, igniting a feud with Daz and Snoop Dogg that would last for six years. There he faded to the background, working on the album that would be pushed back numerous times; fans heard from him only on guest appearances or disses to his former DPG-mates. When Against tha Grain was finally released in 2005 to poor reviews and sales, he had just recently attended a West Coast peace-conference organized by Snoop, effectively ending his beefs with them. In the process, he left Death Row for Snoop Dogg's Doggystyle Records and began recording another album with Daz. Currently in the works for Kurupt are the Dogg Pound reunion album Cali Iz Active, an "underground" solo release under the name Young Gotti (called Same Day, Different Shit) and a "mainstream" solo release on Doggystyle.

The Riflemen & The HRSMN

During his second stint on Death Row, Kurupt formed two separate groups:

The Riflemen, consisting of:

And,

The HRSMN, consisting of:

Though the former never released even a single and now seems defunct, the HRSMN have put out two mixtapes (one featuring songs by all the artists together, one just a loose compilation of contributions by each rapper). In interviews they have stated they are ready to begin working on finding a label for the project and releasing it, and though each one is busy with his own albums, they have each guested on each others' projects. [link]

Discography

Solo albums

Collaborative albums

With Daz as "Tha Dogg Pound" With The HRSMN

Appears on

(not including freestyles and spur-of-the-moment radio show songs)

Filmography

Acting

Composer

Appearances

Miscellanea

External links

 

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