The disruptive Kurupt song Kendrick Lamar sees as a defining West Coast moment
Kendrick Lamar is a man of fine and varied taste—that is discernible within any of his albums, which draw on so many different styles and eras of music. He does not limit himself to any particular scene, but it’s fair to suggest that, as a Compton native, he certainly has a particular soft spot for West Coast rap.
And, in an interview he gave back when he was promoting 2012’s Good Kid, M.A.A.D City, he pointed towards one specific track that he considers to be a defining moment of West Coast rap. It’s Kurupt’s song ‘Callin’ Out Names,’ the last track on his album Tha Streetz Iz a Mutha.
“‘Callin’ Out Names,’” Kendrick said to Complex, laughing, “that’s when [Kurupt] was going at everybody. I thought that was a real defining moment for what the West Coast do. The West Coast is very sensitive [laughs]. We’re very sensitive about situations and we backing it up fast. And Kurupt was busting on that.”
‘Callin’ Out Names’ was actually, according to its creator, a vehicle for Kurupt to settle some very personal scores. He was once engaged to Foxy Brown, but, as he saw it, she betrayed him with none other than DMX, with whom she collaborated on her track ‘Dog & A Fox,’ which featured on her 1999 album Chyna Doll. In 2018, Kurupt claimed on the Breakfast Club radio show that she had stolen the idea for the song from him, and that, originally, he was meant to feature on it alongside her. But then she turned to DMX, who, in addition to everything else, she was rumoured to be romantically involved with.
Kurupt, naturally enough, didn’t take kindly to these rumours, and it was in response to them that he wrote ‘Callin’ Out Names,’ which dissed both DMX and Foxy. The track was extremely personal, aimed at those two individuals in particular, but many listeners didn’t quite realise that at the time. In fact, they thought the song represented a diss on East Coast rap in general, which, during those violent days of the East-West feud, was actually quite dangerous.
During a conversation with HipHopDX in 2013, Kurupt insisted he had never intended ‘Callin’ Out Names’ to be taken as a broad attack on the East Coast. “My thing was personal,” he said. “I was engaged to Foxy Brown. DMX and Foxy did their little thing, and I got offended. As you can hear it, Kurupt said it. Not the East, not the West. None of this got anything to do with it. It’s between me and these particular individuals that I felt disrespected me at the time.”
Before the song made it into the world, Snoop Dogg could see the potential danger in it. “Before I released it,” Kurupt recalled, “I went to Dogg, and Dogg was like, ‘Don’t do it, Kurupt. Things are just settling down, and it’s not going to be a good look.’ I said, ‘Okay, cool.’ I did it anyway. I was real upset. But one of the main things I made a clear point is that this had nothing to do with the East or West coast, and not that this is me against the world. That’s my point.”
Snoop couldn’t convince Kurupt not to release the song, but, luckily, things worked out in the end. The song closed out Tha Streetz Iz a Mutha, and it left its mark on one Kendrick Lamar, who would carry the West Coast sound even further throughout his own career. That’s a fine legacy for a track to have.