Tha Dogg Pound

Tha Dogg Pound
Also known as	D.P.G. (short for Dogg Pound Ganstaz)
Origin	Long Beach, California
Genres	West Coast hip hop, Rap
Occupation(s)	Rapping, producing
Years active	1991-2002 2005-present
Labels	Gangsta Advisory Records D.P.G. Recordz Doggystyle Records Death Row Records(1991-1996)
Members	Daz Dillinger Kurupt
Website	www.dpgrecordz.com MySpace

Tha Dogg Pound is a rap group made up of Dat Nigga Daz & Kurupt. They were signed to Death Row Records in their early careers and were key to the label's success. The group made their 1992 rap debut on Dr. Dre's The Chronic, on various songs. They also appeared on Snoop Dogg's debut album Doggystyle, and the Death Row soundtracks Murder Was The Case and Above The Rim. Their debut album Dogg Food was released in 1995. It was another addition to the controversy of hardcore hip hop due to the sexual and violent lyrics and went on to sell two million albums.

Kurupt and Daz went on to release solo albums starting in 1998. They had both eventually left the crumbling Death Row Records in 1999 after Daz left due to long-lasting internal struggles on the label after friend and labelmate Tupac Shakur's murder in 1996. Kurupt started Antra Records, while Daz and Soopafly started D.P.G. Recordz. In 2002 a feud arose between the two when Kurupt decided to sign back with Death Row Records, upsetting everyone involved with the group. His awaited Death Row release Against Tha Grain had been postponed several times while Kurupt was on the label, later being released in August 2006, after he was off. In January 2005, Daz made another solo album release titled Tha Dogg Pound Gangsta LP. Tha Dogg Pound then got back together as a group and released Dillinger & Young Gotti II in November 2005. In 2006 Snoop Dogg decided to get involved and the three released their official reunion album Cali Iz Active.

An extended family, referred to as D.P.G.C. (short for Dogg Pound Gangsta Clique), is made up of Tha Dogg Pound, Snoop Dogg, Soopafly, Warren G, Nate Dogg, Bad Azz, Lil' ½ Dead, RBX, Lady of Rage, Butch Cassidy and Tha Eastsidaz. The Dogg Pound Gangstaz are commonly featured on each other's albums and projects.

History

Death Row Years (1991-1998)

Before the The Chronic album came out, Kurupt & Daz were solo artists, however having heard the chemistry the two had whilst recording the album, Dr. Dre suggested they make a group. The two went on to feature on Doggystyle and various features and soundtracks as a Tha Dogg Pound.

Between 1993-1994, the group assisted Hammer on his album The Funky Headhunter (ie. the song "Sleepin' on a Master Plan"), along with Suge Knight and the Whole 9.

In 1995, they released their debut album Dogg Food under Death Row Records. The album debuted #1 on the Billboard 200 and went on to reach 2x platinum status. In the October that followed, towards the end of the same year, Tupac Shakur had been bailed out of jail by Death Row's Suge Knight in exchange for releasing his following four albums on Death Row Records. Shakur was immediately introduced into the Death Row family and became good friends with Tha Dogg Pound especially.

In 1996, Tha Dogg Pound were featured on 2Pac's legendary, and widely acclaimed Death Row Records debut album All Eyez on Me with Daz Dillinger producing the hit songs "2 Of Amerikaz Most Wanted", "Ambitionz Az A Ridah", and "I Ain't Mad At Cha" among other tracks which solidified his status as a talented and successful producer. In early September of the same year, Shakur was murdered in Las Vegas, Nevada. Kurupt and Daz were deeply affected by this and struggled to release anything after Shakur's passing. 7 years later in a 2003 interview, Daz stated that he now believed Suge Knight was responsible for Shakur's murder.

Kurupt and Daz leave Death Row (1999-2001)

In 1997 Kurupt left Death Row but remained in Tha Dogg Pound. Kurupt released two solo albums in 1998 (Kuruption!) and 1999 (Tha Streetz Iz a Mutha) that had Daz and the rest of DPG on them. However, in 1998 Daz was making noise of his own over at Death Row and released his only Death Row album (Retaliation, Revenge and Get Back) which went gold. Afterwards he made his own label called Mobstyle Muzik, in which he had his first taste of the independent scene. Mobstyle's first release Poppa Snoop Presents Mobstyle Muzik Volume 1 failed and Daz returned to Death Row. He later started up DPG Recordz along with Christopher "Big C-Style" Bowden through Death Row Records.

Daz also eventually parted ways with Death Row in late 1999 and released his first independent album R.A.W. in 2000. That was followed by the D.P.G. album from Tha Dogg Pound entitled Dillinger & Young Gotti. After Tha Dogg Pound's full departure from Death Row, Suge Knight claimed ownership of the name "Tha Dogg Pound" and any tracks recorded prior to them leaving. To avoid a legal battle at the time Daz changed their marketing name to D.P.G. short for Dogg Pound Gangstaz. In 2001, Suge Knight released a Dogg Pound album entitled "2002" which consisted of unreleased Dogg Pound tracks. Daz has been quoted as saying this album was "bullshit", and even claimed to have raided Death Row Records vaults during one of Suge Knight's incarcerations and stole back as many DPG songs as he could find. Most of which were Soopafly's songs and featured on his 2001 solo album Dat Whoopty Woop.

Beef & Separation

External Beef

Over the years Tha Dogg Pound had beef with Bone Thugs-N-Harmony, due to Death Row Records being embroiled in a feud with Eazy-E's Ruthless Records. Tha Dogg Pound made a diss towards The Bone Thugs, on the song Dogg Pound Gangstaz, with Kurupt's line "Ain't got no love for no hoes in harmony." In response Layzie Bone shot back on the track Shotz to tha Double Glock with the line "Dogg Pound hoes it's on." "Krayzie Bone says "Gotta find these 'Row Hoes" in the song "Mo' Murda" off the East 99 album. The feud ended when Snoop Dogg and Kurupt were featured on Krayzie Bone's album Thug Mentality 1999 in the song The War Iz On. Kurupt was feature on Flesh-N-Bone's song Kurupted Flesh on the 5th Dog Let Loose. Krayzie Bone also features on Daz Dillinger's 2008 solo album Only on the Left Side on the song Meal Ticket.

Tha Dogg Pound were also involved in a feud with B.G. Knocc Out & Dresta. In response to Eazy-E's Real Muthaphukkin G's and Kokane & Cold 187um's "Don't Bite The Funk", Tha Dogg Pound along with Snoop Dogg made a track called What Would You Do with such lines as: "Fuck B.G. Knocc Out and every nigga down with him." Later B.G. Knocc Out & Dresta retaliated with the song D.P.G. Killa, on their debut album Real Brothas. They have since squashed the beef and released a song called Blaze it up, as a bonus track on Tha Dogg Pound's Dogg Chit album.

Internal Beef (2002-2004)

In late 2002, Kurupt shocked the entire DPGC and fans alike, when he wound up signing back to Death Row Records as vice president under Suge Knight. Daz, Soopafly, Snoop Dogg, and the rest of DPGC viewed this as betrayal and took many shots and dissed Kurupt harshly for making the move. Kurupt did the same claiming they all were wrong to have turned their backs on Death Row. They declared war between both camps and that he was not the one who changed, rather them.

The rap duo heavily dissed each other from 2003 to late 2004, both recording diss albums against each other. Daz took aim at Kurupt and Death Row with his single U Ain't Shit featuring Bad Azz and another song I Don't Give a Fucc which is sung over the beat to 50 Cent's In Da Club. Kurupt responded heavily with his Originals album which featured many disses throughout nearly every song, most notably the bonus track Eat a Dicc (Fucc Daz).

Reunion & Cali Iz Active (2005-2006)

It was like that until early 2005 when Kurupt and Daz made a truce. The struggling Death Row failed to promote Kurupt's album "Against Tha Grain" and the duo began to feel remorse for one another. Kurupt left Death Row apparently along with their former "Tha Dogg Pound" alias and reunited with Daz. The duo started rapping together again and even made a new album together entitled "Dillinger & Young Gotti II: Tha Saga Continuez." After The Western Conference in 2005 the two of them agreed to revitalize the DPGC by working together once again on an album with Snoop Dogg, Soopafly, Nate Dogg, Warren G, RBX, Lady of Rage and Lil' ½ Dead with Snoop taking over the producing and distributing tasks for it.

Tha Dogg Pound then released a joint venture reunion comeback project the next year in 2006 called Cali Iz Active under the aegis of Snoop Dogg's Doggystyle Records with the main single "Cali Iz Active" featuring Snoop Dogg and a wide range of new producers throughout the album. The album wasn't received with much acclaim and the various producers did not seem to fit the Daz and Kurupt style leaving fans reminiscent of the G-funk sound that Cali Iz Active lacked.

Dogg Chit & New Projects (2007-Present)

Several months later their next album entitled Dogg Chit was released independently on March 27, 2007; with the single Vibe also featuring Snoop Dogg. This album goes back to their G-funk roots with a reminiscent style similar to Dogg Food and features Daz Dillinger back as the main producer on almost every song. The album cover is very similar to the Dogg Food album cover, and the album was successfully received by DPG fans and G-funk fans as a solid Dogg Pound album.

In August 2007 it was announced that Tha Dogg Pound had signed to Birdman's Cash Money Records. Their next album was expected to be entitled Westcoast Aftershocc but has since been postponed in favor of the 100 Wayz album due to, in short, Cash Money not being able to raise the required money for the project. The contract had since been apparently ended but in a later interview Kurupt stated the deal is still on the table but only postponed. Daz Dillinger did however leak the singles entitled "Ch-Ching" and "Mystic River" which would have promoted the new deal and album. The deal with Cash Money and the Westcoast Aftershocc album is still on the table but is on hold as the duo pursues other projects. The single "Ch-Ching" was later released along with other unreleased tracks on Tha Dogg Pound's online iTunes album entitled Let's Ryde 2Night EP. Mystic River is now likely to be the main single off of Kurupt's upcoming new solo album History of Violence. Westcoast Aftershocc is in production for a 2009 release on Cash Money Records.

100 Wayz features Pharrell on the club single Cheat released in early 2008. Daz will be producing most of the album but also features producers such as Pete Rock, Swizz Beatz and Hi-Tek. Cheat was followed up with the street singles They Don't Want It featuring Soopafly and Get My Drink On & My Smoke On to promote the album heading into the summer. 100 Wayz was expected to be released in the summer of 2008 but has since been delayed as Tha Dogg Pound seeks an optimal distribution deal for the album. Tha Dogg Pound recently released their latest single and video Y'all Know What I'm Doin featuring Turf Talk with a brand new album cover. A release date for the album was aimed at January 2009 but has since been delayed due to a dispute with Koch Records' president, Alan Grunblatt. As a result, 100 Wayz has been put on hold indefinitely.

Tha Dogg Pound will now release a different album independently entitled That Was Then, This Is Now which includes several songs that were intended for 100 Wayz as well as additional new material. The latest single from the album features Krayzie Bone on a track called Money Fold'n. In addition, Tha Dogg Pound also has another iTunes exclusive album coming out that was announced during the summer of 2009 called Dillinger & Young Gotti III - Get Paid as well as a collaboration album with Pete Rock under the current title of Pete Rock & Tha Dogg Pound.

Members

• Daz Dillinger
• Kurupt

Other/Associated Members

• Snoop Dogg
• Nate Dogg (deceased)
• Soopafly
• Warren G
• Tray Deee
• Bad Azz
• Lil' C-Style
• Goldie Loc
• E-White
• Lady of Rage
• RBX
• Xzibit
• Lil' ½ Dead
• Techniec
• Roscoe
• Big Pimpin'
• The Twinz
• Mr. Malik
• Butch Cassidy

Discography

Main article: Tha Dogg Pound discography

Studio albums

• 1995: Dogg Food
• 2001: Dillinger & Young Gotti
• 2005: Dillinger & Young Gotti II: Tha Saga Continuez...
• 2006: Cali Iz Active
• 2007: Dogg Chit
• 2009: That Was Then, This Is Now
• 2010: 100 Wayz
• 2011: Westcoast Aftershocc

Compilation albums

• 2001: 2002
• 2004: The Last of Tha Pound
• 2010: Keep on Ridin

Collaboration albums

• 2011 Stay of Execution - with RBX and Lady of Rage as The N'Matez

EPs

• 2008: Let's Ryde 2Night EP

Awards

Grammy Award nominations

Tha Dogg Pound has been nominated for one Grammy Award but has not yet won an award as of 2010.

Category	Genre	Song	Year	Result
Grammy Award for Best Rap Performance By A Duo Or Group	Rap	"What Would You Do"	1996	Nominated

External links

• New Dogg Pound, "Dogg Chit", Album On The Way
• Dogg Pound Bebo