THA DOGG POUND (March 2008) | Interview By: Nima Etminan

       Dubcnn connected with Daz Dillinger & Kurupt Young Gotti, known together as Tha Dogg Pound, to talk about their current projects. We speak on the forthcoming DPG album "100 Wayz" and its first single "Cheat" with Pharrell, Daz' solo "Only On The Left Side", and Kurupt's solo "History Of Violence" to name a few. Kurupt tells us about working on "Ego Trippin", and we also get some words on Kurupt's collaboration album with DJ Quik, a Pete Rock & Dogg Pound album, upcoming digital albums they're droppng, Roscoe's album, Y.A., Gail Gotti, Tangled Thoughts, Pentagon and much more.



As always we have both the transcript and the video for you to check and please feel free to send any feedback regarding the interview to: nima@dubcnn.com
 

Interview was done in March 2008.

Questions Asked By : Nima Etminan

Tha Dogg Pound Gave Dubcnn A Shoutout: Click Here

Full Interview In Audio: Here
 

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Related Media:

Tha Dogg Pound - Cheat (ft. Pharrell)

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Dubcnn: We're right here with Daz and Kurupt. What's going on with ya'll?

Daz: Ah man, working on this "100 Wayz" album. We're done with it, we're just getting it mixed right now.

Kurupt: And we just got off the road with Snoop Dogg, pushing that "Ego Trippin" album!


Dubcnn: Kurupt, that "Press Play" track on the Snoop album, tell us about that song, how did it get put together?

Kurupt: Well you know, me, DJ Quik and Terrace Martin was in the studio, they was working on [Snoop's] album, mixing down records. He pulled that one up and when I heard it, they was like "Kurupt, lay that chorus!" Me and Terrace went through a couple of ideas, and then I laid it out, ya dig? After listening to all the records on there, we were just feeling like we needed to have something for Snoopy on there kind of like "Next Episode", just banging like that! I didn't expect it to be as big as it became, but we were really just searching for that "Next Episode" vibe, where Snoop can really just stretch his wings out on there. Snoop loved it, and the rest is history, ya dig?


Dubcnn: Tell us about this "100 Wayz" album, what can we expect from that?

Daz: We got features on there like Krayzie Bone, new song called "Money Foldin", we got A Dubb on there, we got Snoop Dogg on there, Cassidy, the remix to "I'm From The Hood" off my solo album, but we did a remix to it and threw Cassidy on it for the Dogg Pound album.

Kurupt: Yes sir, yes sir! With Swizz Beatz on the beat! Swizz Beatz laced us with such a fire rocket, and Pete Rock gave us a couple of classics for the album. We're also working on a new album with Pete Rock, Pete Rock & the Dogg Pound, him and Daz are producing the whole album, ya heard me! For "100 Wayz", we didn't really mix it up with too many features, we just really wanted to hit them across the head with me and Daz. We put a lot of time and effort into this album, this wasn't just no fast album that we put together, we really sat and concentrated on concepts and things about this album to make it different.

Denaun Porter gave us a winner too, Denaun and Soopafly. The whole thing is self explanatory, it's 100 Wayz to do whatever you wanna do, and that's the whole basics for this album. We're just basically saying "Get out there, get on your hustle, it's 100 Wayz to get that cheese, it's 100 Wayz to do what you gotta do to get that money. You ain't always gotta go kill a nigga to get it. Get into these stocks and bonds man, get into this real estate."

Daz, he's running his real estate hustle so swell out there in Atlanta! His money don't just come from making music, he also got his real estate hustle cracking. My wife Gail, she's jumping into the real estate market too, we're flipping houses out here in California. It's so many different ways to get this cheese, you gotta wear many hats, and that's what this album is about.


Dubcnn: Is this coming out independently?

Kurupt: This is gonna be coming out through me and Daz, we're looking at different places where we wanna go with it, it's so many different people that's interested in doing business with us. We ain't really concentrated on where we're going with it yet, we're just mixing down the album right now, and we're gonna wait until it's all the way done first before we even think of where we're gonna go with it.


Dubcnn: What happened to the whole Cash Money situation?

Kurupt: That's not all the way out either. I saw Baby and them in New York when we was out there, I had a talk with Baby. It ain't really all the way out, everything is still on the table, everything is still looking beautiful. So that's why me and Daz decided to just make this album, finish it, rather than wait. So we're throwing this single out there, the first thing we're pushing from the album, it's called "Cheat", with Pharrell on it, me, Daz and Pharrell, it's stupid! It goes to everybody, it don't stick to one gender, just cheat! That's all these niggas do, go to these ladies, they be out there, everybody out there fuckin!


Dubcnn: Ya'll gonna be ruining relationships!

Kurupt: I gotta do one of those commercials, "Be out there fucking, cheat on your man, cheat on your girl, but make sure you stay STRAPPED!" *laughs* Put a condom on! Hahaa.


Dubcnn: I heard ya'll did a Yahoo! Live Set of Snoop's album with the Snoopadelics, Teeddy Riley, Quik and everybody there?

Kurupt: It was super big man, we had the whole team out there working! Daz was on his way out so he just missed it, but we had the whole team together, Teddy Riley there, Uncle Charlie Wilson came through, Raphael Saadiq, DJ Quik, and we had all the Snoopadelics in the building, I was there, it was a big event! Everybody was real lovely, Yahoo! really hooked it up, we got real draped up for this Yahoo! thing, Snoop talked to the crowd and answered questions from the crowd, it was lovely.


Dubcnn: What's the situation with that album that you said you were doing with DJ Quik?

Kurupt: The main thing me and Quik wanted to do first is finish up with the "Ego Trippin" album, and get that all the way right and have that album take off the way it is. Right now we're just supporting Snoopy, travelling, knocking out these shows and doing all the promotion that was needed to get this album started. Once it takes its own flight and we get our own little time off, then me and Quik are gonna go in there and really concentrate on the album. We already made one record for it, so we're just waiting to finishin this Snoop album...

Daz: And we got Quik on the [100 Wayz] album too!

Kurupt: Oh yeah we got Quik on there too, doing it real big!


Dubcnn: Aight! What about you Daz, what's up with your solo album, "Only On The Left Side"?

Daz: I'm droping that in May. But I got another album too that I keep in the can. But I've been really working on this movie, "Make It Rain", it's looking real good!


Dubcnn: Everytime I talk to you, it's 100 projects that you got going on, one here, one there. How do you keep track of all these projects?

Daz: I keep it all on the wall! I got a big ol' wall with all the covers and shit on it, but now everything is going digital, so that's what we've been really tackling on the digital side. I can drop twenty albums digitally! iTunes and Amazon...


Dubcnn: Let's get back to the Dogg Pound album though. You producing on it Daz?

Daz: Oh yeah, I produced it all!


Dubcnn: You said Pete Rock, Denaun, Soopafly, Swizz Beatz...

Daz: And the rest is by yours truly!

Kurupt: We gotta do it!


Dubcnn: How would you compare this record to the last one, "Dogg Chit"?

Daz: We was rushing the Dogg Chit, but this album right here is more of a smoother path.

Kurupt: This is more like that Dogg Food shit, we didn't just make records on this one. We sat down and said "What do we want to talk about on this record? Where are gonna take people right now?" It's 100 different subjects, let's just pick a few of these things and not just make gangsta rap records. Gangsta Rap ain't just about jacking and killing, it's about teaching, it's about the community, it's about standing on your own two feet, all that is embodied in gangsta rap. So this album ain't just a bunch of raps, it's a lot of records that we put our head into. It's a lot of teaching on there, like the title track "100 Wayz", me and Daz is spitting some real facts to them about this game, about how to get your cheese, it's so many different ways to go get this cheese, besides just murdering, jacking and killing!


Dubcnn: Can you name some of the highlights off the album?

Kurupt: "100 Wayz" is definitely one of the highlights on there. Daz really put his foot in that beat right there. I think they're really gonna grow fond of that record right there. "Money Foldin" is another one, that's one of my favorites right there. We got one called "Gotta Let U Know" that's just off the hook, it's about the relationship with a girl, you love her to death, but she's just tripping all the time, complaining and all the rest of that shit, and it's like "Just because I love you don't mean that I won't let your ass go!" *laughs* We got a couple on there... The one with Pharrell, "Cheat", that's a classic one right there! We got one called "I Don't Care", me and Daz is just flying on there.

Daz: Just drums and beats, old school.

Kurupt: Pete Rock gave us one called "Fire" that me and Daz on, that one's stupid.

Daz: Yeah cause you know I was in the South, so I had to get my mind back into Hip-Hop! That's why I just started making straight Hip-Hop beats and just taking my mindframe out of the ATL and took my mind to New York and West Coast, putting it together.

Kurupt: Me and Daz actually have been working on "100 Wayz" ever since we dropped "Dogg Chit". When we dropped "Dogg Chit", we was actually stacking up music and thinking of what our next album can be. At first we was flying with "West Coast Aftershock", and then I think me and Daz just got together one time, and were like "we're making records 100 wayz", and it just totally shifted the whole album. We've been working on this for quite some time.

Daz: We got another album that's gonna be hitting you through iTunes called "Let's Ride Tonight", it's a digital album of unreleased tracks that we did that never came out.

Kurupt: Me and Daz got a couple digital albums dropping, we got one that's dropping that's going straight to iTunes called "Pentagon Vol. 1", that's just all classic Pentagon shit, Y.A., Gail Gotti, we got some RedBones on there with Virginia Slim, a lot of Kurupt and a lot of Roscoe, just the entire squad on these things. I'm gonna be dropping these things annually, like every 2 months I'm gonna drop a new iTunes Pentagon record. I got the boys in the studio working on their Y.A. album, and i just did me a deal with Fontana for all the stuff that will be coming out from my Pentagon Ent label. You can look for a lot of things getting ready to drop! I'm also ready to work on my solo album, "History Of Violence", as soon as we finish up this Dogg Pound album and me and Daz hit the road a little bit to push this shit. We got a lot of things pushing man!


Dubcnn: I was just about to ask you about Roscoe, what's up with Scoe, when does he have something coming?

Kurupt: Roscoe is chilling right now, he's just working on his solo album, we're getting it ready. He's also got a West Coast Customs album that I'ma be dropping pretty soon, it's off the hook with Bad Azz on there just smoking them on the mic! Bad Azz ain't playing no games! We got a lot of things pushing man. Scoedie also just worked on a film project, and I just did me a movie called "Days Of Wrath" that's gonna be coming out soon with Laurence Fishburne, Rick Ross, it's real big!


Dubcnn: What about the Tangled Thoughts, I know ya'll just put out that Young De street album.

Kurupt: Yeah! Right now Tangled Thoughts are doing something with Damizza as we speak. I'm letting them fly right now, they're doing it pretty big with Damizza, and De is over there with B-Real doing it big, B-Real swooped him up, and Tek is doing all the music for my record label, he's working on his album as well as a couple other projects that Tek is flying on. Everybody is keeping busy, making it happen!


Dubcnn: I heard Gail was just out in Europe?

Kurupt: Yes, yes! She was out in Pragues doing it big, she's gonna be releasing her album overseas, and they're talking about bringing it to America as we speak.


Dubcnn: So let's get back to "100 Wayz", when are ya'll trying to put this out?

Kurupt: We're looking at the summer.

Daz: Yeah, summer, we're trying to get this single hot, it's already hot in the strip clubs.

Kurupt: Definitely.

Daz: Cheat!

Kurupt: All these muthafuckas out here cheating man, you gotta watch it! They be out there at these strip clubs dropping that money and then going home to their wifey! *laughs* The girl be in the strip club doing what they doing going to eat a little bit of dick, get some money and then go home to their husband! *laughs*

Daz: And then everybody can buy the instrumental and acapella and all that off iTunes. But on a serious note, "Cheat" is not just about that, with "Cheat" we're just having us a ball, we had a lot of fun making it, a lot of fun putting it together. This "100 Wayz" ain't an album that we just slapped together, we've been working on this for a year, we hope people like it!


Dubcnn: What's up with this Sensual Seduction DPG-Mix we just heard?

Daz: It's off the chain man!

Kurupt: I love "Sensual Seduction". When Snoop first played it for me I told him "Man cuzz, that's it right there! That's totally different than everything but it's so up your alley! You don't follow the line, and this record is gonna be super big for you." He was like "You really like that Kingpin?" I was like "Man that muthafucka BANGING cuzz!" So when Daz came we were like we're gonna do the remix, let's make the DPG-Mix! When he brought me the beat we just knocked that out in 15-20 minutes! Everytime we perform that we get the greatest response. I think Snoop is having the time of his life when he performs that song. It's off the hook! But the G-Mix is stupid man, we took it old school with them and we just hit them with some new fresh shit!


Dubcnn: Before we go, is there anything else that you'd like to let everybody know?

Daz: Ya'll just be checking out for that new solo album I'm dropping, I got some videos I'ma be dropping with that. Kurupt got another solo album dropping.

Kurupt: "History Of Violence", ya dig? Look out for me and Belly too, me and Belly we're about 10 songs in for our album that we're doing, me and my nigga Belly from Canada, Ottawa, what up Bel? Look out for that one. Gail's album as well, it's called "Worth The Wait", that will be dropping July 29th. Then the Dogg Pound album "100 Wayz", that's gonna be coming out at the end of the summer. The first single is out right now "Cheat" with Pharrell, and also that Ego Trippin' album, March 11th, coming at your ass! Make sure to go get that album if you ain't got it, "Ego Trippin", Big muthafuckin' Snoop Dogg, Dogg Pound, we're doing major shit. Soopafly is also finishing up that Westurn Union album, they got a mixtape they're doing with Crazy Toones! Look out for that, and look out for Daz' movie "Make It Rain", I'm telling you it's better than a lot of people are expecting it to be. He put a lot effort into this and the whole staff that he was working with out there, everybody put their all into it, "Make It Rain - The Movie". Oh boy!

Daz: And be looking out for my new album, "Dubcnn"! *laughs*


Dubcnn: Let's make it happen! *laughs* I'm with it!

Daz: We're running these muthafucka over like a train track you heard me?!