During an interview with Vlad TV, Hawthorne, California rapper Kurupt spoke on his intentions for Tha Dogg Pound’s “New York, New York” music video prior to the group being shot at while filming the visual. According to Kurupt, he saw the record as an ode to New York and was “hurt” when he was shot at for trying to pay homage to the city with “New York, New York.”
Kurupt even referred to New York as “the Mecca of this mic” before adding that all they wanted was for those in New York to give them their props as emcees.
“It wasn’t tense until they shot at us…We was hurt,” Kurupt said. “We thought New York would love us for that record. [It’s] a Melle Mel record. It’s ‘New York, New York.’ I put battle raps on there. And we thought they would love it. Cause it was like New York is the epicenter. It’s the Mecca of this mic. And I put that mic shit on there, man. And we thought we did—We like ‘We in there. Oh we in.’ All we gave a fuck about was winning over New York and them saying ‘You guys are good.’ That’s all we gave a fuck about…I just wanted to be known as a great emcee. And they shot at us, cuz. That’s why we kicked everything the fuck over.”
Tha Dogg Pound lyricist continued to speak on the concept for the “New York, New York” video as he recalled wanting Nas, Big L, and the Notorious B.I.G. in the visual. Kurupt later explained that no one knew who was responsible for the shooting and simply credited the incident to “the streets.”
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“The whole concept of the visual video was to get all the New York rappers in with us,” he said. “And have a good time. We were in Times Square. We wanted Nas there and Biggie. And everybody that was rocking at the time, we wanted ‘em right there. Big L I think was still alive. Big L, we seen him in the mall, ‘Come on through man. This record is dedicated from the West Coast to you guys who opened up these doors for us.’ They didn’t see it like that. And they shot at us. Well, they didn’t. But the streets did.”
“New York, New York” was released in 1995 and featured Kurupt, Snoop Dogg, and Daz Dillinger. The song was featured on Tha Dogg Pound’s debut album, Dogg Food.
Kurupt’s interview with Vlad TV can be found below.
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