Kurupt has revealed that 2Pac‘s death served as proof that the Death Row Records environment was too dangerous — and the reason he decided to leave the label.
In a new interview with The Art Of Dialogue, the Dogg Pound rapper shared that, by the time he followed Dr. Dre‘s lead and requested to be let out of his contract, all of Death Row’s artists had become weary of how much life at the label mirrored street life.
“Everywhere we was going we had to keep our eyes open, 10 toes on the ground,” he recalled. “We had to stay heated and make sure that we protected ourselves. And then to go to Death Row and feel the same way as when we in the streets: we all kinda got burnt on that.”
He went on to explain that, while his group mates Snoop Dogg, Daz Dillinger and Soopafly were still signed to Death Row after Dre left, he simply couldn’t get past the fact that not even Suge Knight‘s presence could assure their safety.
“We all was a little tired of walking on egg shells,” Kurupt continued. “Because if we gon be here and it feels the same was as being on the streets, then whats the difference? If a n-gga gotta come to the studio heated, what’s the difference.
“Dr. Dre set up the woo-wop, like, ‘It can be done, you can leave,'” he added. “When I saw Dr. Dre do that, then 2Pac died, that was the final straw for me. N-ggas is getting shot even with Suge. Now THAT is it.”
Despite the criminal element that seemed to follow Death Row at its peak, Kurupt said in a separate clip from his appearance on The Art Of Dialogue that Snoop and Daz did their best to keep 2Pac away from the Los Angeles gang culture they had all grown up in.
“Crippin’ and Bloodin’ is real! This ain’t no joke,” he explained. “This shit ain’t to play with, this ain’t something you just kick around. Once you in, you in for life; you gotta ride it out homie. And 2Pac is militant! He’s not a gang member.”
Kurupt added: “He’s from a Black Panther background, a whole ‘nother background. It’s just not healthy for him. A lot of us gangbang ’cause we wanted to; and a lot of us gangbang ’cause we had to. We lived there; we had to protect our community, you know.”
Upon leaving Death Row, Kurupt went on to launch his own imprint, Antra Records, at A&M Records, through which he released two solo project. But he remained part of Suge Knight’s roster as one half of Tha Dogg Pound with Daz Dillinger.
Once Daz finally stepped away from the infamous label, the duo changed their name to Dogg Pound Gangstas (D.P.G.) after Knight claimed ownership of their original name and any music they had recorded prior to their departure.
Kurupt would rejoin Death Row in 2002 and eventually become its vice president. He released his fourth studio album, Against the Grain, on the label in 2005.
RIP Baby Lane
RIP $l!M€. Rest easy, bitch n****
Slime ain’t dead tho, he just posted.
Brain dead.. there’s room for rent upstairs.
When you say rent do you mean coherent? Because he seems quite coherent to me.
Are you Captain Obvious or Commander DickRider. Cuz it looks like you coherently placed his nuts in your mouth too.
You assume because I use simple logic that I like nuts in my mouth? You must be a homosexual with such things on your mind.
I want to apologize for always being a little bitch. Captain Obvious, you can take my nuts out your mouth.
So now youre pretending to post as slime? Who really has whose nuts in their mouth. You are a strange individual.
You came to someone else’s defense and got called out on it as a dickrider. Simple logic here is next time mind your business and nobody will say you have someone else’s nuts in your mouth, obviously.
How did I defend Slime? By saying he was alive? How does that equate to defense?
Call what you want cause one thing I do know you not the creator father God yall don’t got power like that so what you say about me hold no value in my life but y’all need to let people rest in peace none of y’all get big money by bumping yo gumms about some evil mess that happened two decades ago let it t go live yo life wit yo families cause best believe the ones who of had no works of Father God in there hearts when all this happen to Tupac will get there Harvest most everybody in this world knows you plant good seeds you reap good harvest you plant bad seeds you reap bad seeds in other words you reap what you sow it inevitable no matter what anybody got to say I don’t care what gang or what level or rank anyone is this is something that was designed to be this way period what you put in is what you gone get back in return straight up Let them rest oh yeah brother and sister let’s stop doing evil to one another y’all fulfilling the Willie Lynch letter everytime you go against your own kind and culture you doing no different from when the kkk was killing brothaz stop think about it it may just save you from death jail and hell God bless y’all and your families
Suge and Death Row wasn’t shit without Dr. Dre. That Makaveli album was poorly mixed and the beats were straight up pots and pans. Don’t even get me started with Doggfather.
Dre didn’t mix All Eyes on Me…. And he produced 2 songs on All Eyes Me. Daz did just as many beats as Dre did.
Another nigga saying Pac should have stayed away from gang culture, Pac was the only gangster on that label, check hos crime record before anyone else tries to play smart!
The thing is all these niggas thats claiming they’re bloods or crips like Snoop, Daz and Kurupt are the same niggas that went hiding when it was time ride for dath row, only Pac had the guts and died because his teammates went hiding when shit got heated between east and west.
And now Kurupt just many other niggas riding that train “Pac should have stayed away from gang culture” saying that shit just hide his own insecurities, afraid somone gonna call him a fake nigga. And Pac NEVER said he a gangsta, he was a soldier just like he claimed and betrayed by his teammates who are FAKE GANGSTERS. Gang culture didn’t get Pac killed, his fake wannabe gangsta teammates did!
Word up man…Outlawz assed out and made amends with JR Mafia…and Dogg Pound had Puffy on their album for gods sake. Those fools claim to be all about warring but when it came time to throw down they didn’t really want it. Now Snoop be handin out Death Row chains to rich whites every month. Brothaz in the street died for them shits B. It’s enough to make you sick…
@ Jamal, “Gang culture didn’t get Pac killed, his fake wannabe gangsta teammates did!” ——–} ummm, so you’re saying Pac getting killed had NOTHING to do with him starting/participating in a beatdown of a known gang member in a highly visible place like a casino after a boxing match? And you’re saying that if Snoop, Daz, Kurupt + others were around that this wouldnt have happened?! Pac wasn’t soft, its clear the guy had a heart well beyond his size… but as the TALENT, the ARTIST, he should NOT have been involved in this. If Suge and his team wanted to handle business retaliating for a previous jumping/DR chain snatching, he shoulda kept Pac FAR away from that situation and dealt with it in a smarter way.
RIP Baby Lane
RIP Baby Lane
Suge is the greatest artist of our generation. Generational musical talent. Most talented musician. No one more talented. Free Suge
Suge is a fuck boy
Everybody get what they sow they shall reap pray for him keep it pushing love one when you do that he will feel it ten times harder than whatever you can think say or do when you put it in are creator father God hands please believe it bless u my king when we gon get right is the million dollar question