I wasn’t going to post this up because it’s so old (and by “old,” I mean a few weeks old–you know how blogs be moving at the speed of sound). But holy crap, this is just too ridiculous. After listening to it 8 times in a row just now (no joke), I really had to.

Last year, Kurupt seemed to be in chill mode for the most part. Not that he wasn’t putting in work. He actually managed to release three projects in the same year: a solo EP, Bacon & Eggs; a collaboration with younger brother Roscoe, Tha Tekneek Files; and the excellent collab with DJ Quik, BlaQKout. But throughout much of this work, Kurupt seemed content to just ride with the beats. There were only small glimpses of the monstrous rapper that would bend the beat to his will, the one that Eminem once lauded as his 7th favorite rapper. Well, here he is again.

What’s great about “Murder Fitness” is how much fun Kurupt sounds like he’s having, how much joy he seems to take simply from the act of rapping. It harkens back to the late ’90s indie rap boom when rappers could be both super-scientifical and gangster and a lot of them didn’t feel the need to rap about anything in particular, they just liked putting words together and making it sound real fucking pretty. That’s what “Murder Fitness” is: a display of putting words together and making it sound real fucking pretty. Half the time, you don’t even catch lyrics but the way they roll off his mouth, the way he springs to the next idea simply because it sounds like the last one, the way he kinda knows he’s just bullshitting like he might be spitting at the barbershop or something, is dope.

The track is produced by Terrace Martin, a leftover off his upcoming album, Demo. I also hear it could see the light of day on Kurupt’s own album, Streetlights.

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Download: Kurupt – Murder Fitness feat. Terrace Martin