*** Kurupt

KURUPTION

(Antra/A&M)

There was little reason to think this workaday rapper would ever survive the diaspora that followed the downfall of Death Row Records, the West Coast gangsta rap label that gave Kurupt and his former partner Daz their brief moment of glory as the Dogg Pound. But not only has this Philadelphia native emerged with his very own vanity label at A&M, he has pieced together a double CD that seeks to prove his bi-coastal roots by touching upon practically every West and East Coast style out there. The casual mastery of this sweeping, unrelenting tour not only renders questions of imagination and originality moot, it ends up sounding like the best gangsta rap move of the year. As has been the case since the earliest days of heavy metal, those who care about content as well as form might look elsewhere -- for starters, Kurupt's crass vituperations make Snoop Dogg sound as genteel as David Niven. Still, if our prejudices ever disintegrate the way our moral standards have, there may come a day when all pop fans will consider this genre exercise as "classic'' as Led Zeppelin II.

-- Franklin Soults