Kurupt was born Ricardo Brown in Philadelphia, Pa. He moved to Long Beach, California, where he met and befriended such rappers as Snoop Dogg and Daz Dillinger. He worked as a rapper on "Death Row Records" (Label run by Marion 'Suge' Knight), releasing one album with Daz Dillinger titled "Tha Dogg Pound" (selling 4 million copies to date) and appeared on such West Coast classics as "All Eyes On Me", "Doggystyle" and "The Chronic" (all released on "Death Row Records"). He later went to a new label, based out of his hometown of Philly, titled "Antra Entertainment". He released 3 albums on this label, all outselling each other as they were released. While running into financial difficulties, and trying to support his family, he went back to "Death Row Records" (now "Tha Row"), where he sits as the Executive Vice Pres. of the company and makes movies in his spare time. He was once engaged to Foxy Brown and Natina Reed, member of Blaque), before she gave birth to their son named Trey (b. 2002) and he lives with his fiancée, Gail Gotti, who is a female artist.