On Oct. 6, 1998, Kurupt dropped his solo debut, Kuruption. The double disc, which was labeled East Coast and West Coast respectively, represented both of the lyrical emcee's roots — his hometown of Philly, and his LA stomping grounds, where he moved when he was a teenager.
Already, Kurupt was respected as one of the most lyrically gifted rappers in Hip-Hop, a status he earned during his time with Death Row, including his features on major projects like Dr. Dre's The Chronic, Snoop Dogg's Doggystyle, and 2Pac's All Eyez On Me, as well as his own record with Tha Dogg Pound alongside producer/rapper Daz Dillinger, 1995's Dogg Food.
By the time Kuruption was released, fans were eager to hear the emcee deliver. He smartly connected with legendary producer Battlecat for the album's lead single, "We Can Freak It," which has since become a west coast Hip-Hop standard, with its rubbery bassline, catchy hook, and loose rhyming by Kurupt who rightly proclaimed "it sounds like Battlecat's been upstairs with Zapp."
"Battlecat was one of the first producers to ever produce a record for Kurupt," Kurupt said in a 2018 interview. "I wanted that authentic sound that I had before I even went to Death Row, and I also wanted to take people to where I really started. So, Battlecat was actually the first producer that I went to when I started working on Kuruption. It was classic because as a kid Battlecat was one of the first ones I worked with, so we had a history and a rhythm together, taking it back to where Kurupt came from."
