No. 45: Kurupt

Kurupt somehow feels both over- and under-appreciated to me. I'm not sure why.

Ricardo Brown first came to our attention as a barely 20-year-old prodigy on The Chronic. While Snoop Doggy Dogg was clearly the headlining act in Dre's ensemble cast, Kurupt more than held his own during his appearances on the classic album and did the same in guest spots on Doggystyle and the Above The Rim soundtrack, where we were formally introduced to Tha Dogg Pound (Kurupt and Daz). Despite being born in Philly, Kurupt essentially adopted Cali as his home (much like New York and Baltimore native 2Pac would do after signing with Death Row).

Eat a bowl of shit, bitch.

His rhymes during that period ran the full gamut from super-simplistic misogyny ("Ain't No Fun") to fairly complex ("Smooth"), but Kurupt has usually managed to deliver quotables either way, earning a reputation as one of the best lyricists on the West Coast (which never cared much about lyrics during the G-Funk '90s, but that's beside the point).

After joining the mass exodus from Death Row in the late 1990s, Kurupt finally made his solo debut with the double LP Kuruption! in 1998 and followed with Tha Streetz Iz A Mutha one year later. Both were typically solid efforts that achieved minimal success commercially but provided plenty of entertaining moments, including "Your Girlfriend Is A Hoe."

Since then, Kurupt has kept quietly busy, maintaining on-again, off-again relationships with both Daz and what's left of the Death Row label while teasing the world with the promise of a full-length release from supergroup HRSMN (short for Four Horsemen) — Kurupt, Canibus, Killah Priest and Ras Kass.

Whether or not that quartet ever gets that act together, Kurupt's place in hip-hop history is secure.