Against the Grain is the fourth solo studio album by American rapper
Kurupt. It was released on August 23, 2005, through Death Row Records, making it his first and, to date, only solo album for the label.
Production was handled by Mark Sparks, Doug Mayhem,
Sir Jinx, Baby-C-Style, Blaqthoven, Diverse, Joshua Andrews, Ric Rude, Screwface and Tha Row Hitters, with
Suge Knight serving as executive producer. It features
guest appearances from Eastwood, Tri Star, Young Tone,
2Pac,
Dave Hollister, Domination,
M.O.P., Potion,
Roscoe,
Spider Loc,
The Dayton Family and Val C.
The album went almost unnoticed due to the lack of promotion by
Koch Records, which distributes all of Tha Row's albums. It debuted at number 60 on the
Billboard 200 albums and number 20 on the
Top R&B/Hip-Hop Albums chart in the United States. It also made it to number 146 on the
French Albums chart. The cut tracks were later released on a 2007 bootleg compilation titled Against tha Grain E.P.. The album was reissued in February 2010, under the title Down and Dirty with a slightly altered tracklist. The song "Calico" previously appeared on the Dayton Family album Family Feud.
Background
Kurupt was signed with
Death Row Records as one-half of
Tha Dogg Pound together with
Daz Dillinger. The duo released the only studio album for the label, Dogg Food in 1995, before Kurupt left the label in late 1997. In early 2002 he re-aligned with Death Row, which sparked the feud with his former labelmates, such as Daz,
Snoop Dogg and
Soopafly. The album was delay from its planned 2004 release and was released in August 2005, when Kurupt left Death Row for the second time. It was Death Row's first freshly recorded album in over four years. It was the final original album released by the label during its original run, before being revived with BODR by
Snoop Dogg 17 years later.
Against the Grain is the fourth solo studio album by American rapper
Kurupt. It was released on August 23, 2005, through Death Row Records, making it his first and, to date, only solo album for the label.
Production was handled by Mark Sparks, Doug Mayhem,
Sir Jinx, Baby-C-Style, Blaqthoven, Diverse, Joshua Andrews, Ric Rude, Screwface and Tha Row Hitters, with
Suge Knight serving as executive producer. It features
guest appearances from Eastwood, Tri Star, Young Tone,
2Pac,
Dave Hollister, Domination,
M.O.P., Potion,
Roscoe,
Spider Loc,
The Dayton Family and Val C.
The album went almost unnoticed due to the lack of promotion by
Koch Records, which distributes all of Tha Row's albums. It debuted at number 60 on the
Billboard 200 albums and number 20 on the
Top R&B/Hip-Hop Albums chart in the United States. It also made it to number 146 on the
French Albums chart. The cut tracks were later released on a 2007 bootleg compilation titled Against tha Grain E.P.. The album was reissued in February 2010, under the title Down and Dirty with a slightly altered tracklist. The song "Calico" previously appeared on the Dayton Family album Family Feud.
Background
Kurupt was signed with
Death Row Records as one-half of
Tha Dogg Pound together with
Daz Dillinger. The duo released the only studio album for the label, Dogg Food in 1995, before Kurupt left the label in late 1997. In early 2002 he re-aligned with Death Row, which sparked the feud with his former labelmates, such as Daz,
Snoop Dogg and
Soopafly. The album was delay from its planned 2004 release and was released in August 2005, when Kurupt left Death Row for the second time. It was Death Row's first freshly recorded album in over four years. It was the final original album released by the label during its original run, before being revived with BODR by
Snoop Dogg 17 years later.