Kurupt On The Number One Thing Tupac Changed At Death Row Records
Kurupt appeared on VLAD TV where he spoke about Tupac joining Death Row records made everyone step up their work ethic in the studio.
Signing with Death Row in 1993, Ricardo Brown, stage name Kurupt, was part of the early roster of the notorious hip-hop record label. Alongside Daz Dillinger, Kurupt and Daz would form the Dogg Pound. Although their debut album, Dogg Food, peaked at Number One on the Billboard 200, Tupac gave them invaluable advice. When Tupac signed with Death Row in 1995, he was constantly working in the studio. It’s reported that ‘Pac would do two or three songs from start to finish in one day! His work ethic would rub off on all the artists who witnessed him in the studio.
“A lot of the focus changed. The way we looked at being in the studio. The way we looked at our recording habits. How we record. The way we record. The way we value being in the studio all changed,” Kurupt said. “When Tupac came this ain’t what it is, it’s what you make it to be. I was like damn, this is pretty deep. Ain’t nobody talk to us like this.”
Before ‘Pac signed with Death Row records, artists would take a full day to complete one song. Tupac witness this first hand and made it known to everybody that he thought they were wasting time. According to Kurupt, Tupac “sat him down personally” to discuss his and Daz studio work ethic.
“If ya’ll in there for 12 hours and ya’ll ain’t make about 12 records, you’re bullshi**ing,” Kurupt explained. I was like, ‘Damn. Eight records?’ He was like, ‘You ain’t got to complete them. You just lay one verse on this one, lay the hook on this one and then you go to this other one, lay a verse and a hook. Then Daz he’s making the beats so he ain’t got to rap on it yet. Then Kurupt all you got to do is lay your sh*t to each one of them. Daz will get to them.'”
Although Kurupt stated Snoop Dogg‘s work ethic was on Tupac’s level, the Dogg Father said otherwise back in 2020. Snoop would go on to share to his 74 million followers on IG, the biggest lesson Tupac taught him.
“I think what I learned from 2Pac was basically a different type of work ethic,” Snoop replied. “I always had a good work ethic about myself as far as being timely and being on point and being a professional, but he just showed me how to be a little more faster at it as far as getting to the meat of it all and not really just listening to it all the time, and not absorbing it but more just doing it and keep doing it and doing it. Let the engineer mix it and master it, not fall in love with it, but fall in love with the craft of being able to do it and continue to do it.”
He continued, “But I feel like that was something that was passed on to me and now, I’m showing it through my work ethic as far as different things I do and the way I diversify myself. [I’m gonna] pass that on to the young generation to show them that you can do the same thing I’m doing ’cause that’s an old man if I’m doing it.”