Members (birth names and dates guarded from public knowledge) include vocalists Layzie Bone, Krayzie Bone, Wish Bone, Bizzy Bone, and Flesh-N-Bone (part-time member), all born in Cleveland OH.Īfter growing up together on Cleveland ’s Northeast side and selling crack cocaine for income, group decided to pursue musical career met Eric “Eazy-E ” Wright, former member of rap group N.W.A. Having finally landed their mentor, Bone Thugs-N-Harmony arrived on the rap scene. Wholly taken up with the new act, Eazy-E put aside his own projects long enough to serve as executive producer for their first recordings. The audition in a dressing room convinced Eazy-E, who quickly signed the group to Ruthless. So the group rustled up the money for the return ticket and found their way backstage at the theater. Nothing came of the call except the news that Eazy-E was, in fact, on his way to Cleveland for a show. When finally they had Eazy-E himself on the phone, the group pulled together an impromptu “audition, ” each Bone rapping his piece and passing the phone to the next. They left on Novemfor a three-day Greyhound trek and spent four months on the city streets, putting in frequent calls to Ruthless Records. ”ĭetermined to reach Eazy-E, the quintet scrounged together the money for one-way bus tickets to Los Angeles. He was telling our stories, and we trusted him. was the first time we heard anybody rapping about how we were living. “We knew he was the man, ” Wish told Cuda. ’s landmark 1989 release Straight Outta Compton had left its mark on the young men, impressing them with the “truth ” of its songs. They focused most of their energy, however, on Eric “Eazy-E ” Wright, veteran of the legendary rap group N.W.A. Like so many aspiring rappers around the country, they put in calls to executives at record companies, hoping to find someone who would listen. ” But now they decided to turn the hobby into a vocation, which meant finding a producer. ” The group already had some experience rapping together, as Wish told Jenkins: “We ’d be sellin ’ drugs under the streetlights and doin ’ our little raps. After that, he concluded: “I realized I had to do something with my life, and that ’s when I pursued rap. “I was shot in the head, ” he told Peter Castro in an article for People. The group ’s move from drug sales to music was motivated, according to Layzie, by his and Flesh ’s encounter with the primary hazard of the drug trade -violence. They lived together, sharing all of their resources, as early as their mid-teens. ” Even in this early incarnation, the five already functioned as a tight-knit group, referring to themselves collectively as the Band-Aid Boys. ” Even Wish ’s mother concurred, telling Sacha Jenkins in a 1996 Vibe interview that they “weren ’t out there stickin ’ nobody up, but they was doin ’ what they had to do. In an interview with USA Today ’s Edna Gundersen, Layzie explained the necessity driving that choice: “We sold dope to get us through the young years. All five experienced poverty first-hand in their own homes and, in their teen years, set about making a living through the most lucrative route available to them: selling crack cocaine. Clair-East 99th Street block of Cleveland ’s Northeast Side, one of the city ’s poorest neighborhoods. Journalists speculate that they are now in their mid-twenties. In the Bone standard of family, however, they are all brothers. Layzie Bone and Flesh-N-Bone -the crew ’s one part-time member -are birth brothers, while Wish Bone is their cousin, Bizzy Bone a stepbrother, and Krayzie a friend from early childhood. ” The five young men who make up the band keep their birth names and dates secret, instead presenting themselves to the world with the common surname Bone, which they adopted in 1992 to express their fraternity. Hip hop fans nationwide have embraced the group with such passion that, according to Heidi Sigmund Cuda of the Los Angeles Times, they “put Cleveland on the rap map. With that sound the group has crossed genres, logging hit releases on rap, pop, and R&B charts. Rappers Bone Thugs-N-Harmony offer a preview of their musicintheirname: hardcore rap and rhythm -the “thug ” element -combined with the smooth harmonies of contemporary R&B.
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