Key Takeaways
- Snoop Dogg has re-signed Kurupt to Death Row Records to "bring him back home," protect him, and restore his status as a respected solo artist after three decades in West Coast rap.
- Kurupt’s new album Tales From the Hood, produced entirely by longtime collaborator Battlecat, marks his first true solo album on Death Row and features Snoop Dogg, BJ the Chicago Kid, D Smoke, Soopafly, Jane Handcock, and more.
- Snoop frames the project as giving Kurupt "the home he deserves" at the label that discovered him, noting that it's his first official Death Row album, and past releases like 2005’s Against Tha Grain under the Tha Row rebrand don’t count.
Snoop Dogg has always been about uplifting the West Coast and its icons, which is why his move to sign Kurupt to Death Row Records made all the sense in the world.
On Friday (July 31), Kurupt dropped his new album, Tales From the Hood, a collaborative effort with longtime friend and producer Battlecat, which features several appearances from the Doggfather himself alongside the likes of BJ the Chicago Kid, D Smoke, Soopafly, and Jane Handcock. You can stream it here.
Released via Death Row Records — in partnership with gamma. — the 11-track effort brings Kurupt back to the label where he started his career with The Dogg Pound. In fact, he might be the only artist able to lay claim to being signed to all three iterations of the label: the original Death Row, Tha Row, and now Snoop's Death Row Records.
Speaking to Complex about Young Gotti's return to the label, Snoop said the intention behind bringing him "home" was about protection and making sure he knew he always had family at Death Row.
"Seeing my homeboy moving around solo and doing his thing, [the move to sign him was about] just protecting him and making sure that he understood that he had a family over here, and the door was always open," Snoop said, before elaborating further.
"It was about bringing him back for a purpose, to put the culture back in order, and then also put his career back in a place where people could respect him as a solo artist and respect him as an artist who's been through three decades of making great music."
Speaking of the music, the legendary rapper and mogul talked briefly about pairing Kurupt with Battlecat for their latest effort. "[Kurupt] always wanted to work with me, and I always wanted to work with him, but now we didn't have any middlemen," he said. "I was like, 'It's not just me. It's about the family.’ And knowing that Battlecat is his extended family, and my extended family, I knew production-wise, he needed to be produced."
While Kurupt was signed to Death Row in the '90s as part of Tha Dogg Pound, he never released a solo album during this time. After the death of 2Pac in 1996, Kurupt left the label, signing with A&M Records and co-founding Antra Records, upon which he released his debut album, Kuruption!.
Praising Kurupt as "a mild-mannered lyrical assassin," Snoop wanted to give him the Death Row moment he deserved after years of blood, sweat and tears repping the label on and off throughout his career.
"I wanted to give him the home that he deserves and put him back in a place where it's the label that discovered him, and the label is still around and still doing good things; so it made sense for him to come back," Snoop Dogg told Complex.
"He don't have a solo album on Death Row. He's been a part of a lot of projects from the early '90s to now, but this is his actual first solo album on Death Row Records. So it's an accomplishment. It's a feat, and it's something that we’re happy for, for him and the label, and just for the culture in general."
Notably, Kurupt did release one album through Death Row Records: 2005's Against Tha Grain. By that time, however, the legendary label had rebranded as Tha Row, and Kurupt had already departed for a second time before the album was issued in partnership with Koch Records. So for many, including Snoop, it doesn’t count.
Kurupt and Battlecat's Tales From the Hood is out now via Death Row Records/gamma. Stream it here and check out the tracklist below.
1. "Intro"
2. "Sneak Attacc" Featt. Snoop Dogg & Charlie Bereal
3. "Me N Tha Boyz" Feat. Snoop Dogg
4. "Special" Feat. Jane Handcock & Blaqthoven
5. "Mystic River"
6. "Wat U Do to Me" Feat. Snoop Dogg. D Smoke & Charlie Bereal
7. "Love Letter" Feat. JANE HANDCOCK
8. "West Coast Muzik" Feat. Butch Cassidy
9. "Mindstate" Feat. Ill Camille, BJ The Chicago Kid & Charlie Bereal
10. "I Don't Luv Her" Feat. BJ The Chicago Kid, Soopafly & Akeem Ali
11. "Gunna" Feat. RBX
