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Bone Thugs N Harmony, Straight out of Cleveland
The Bone Thugs N Harmony posse got its start back in the early 1990s in Cleveland of all places. Where the heck is Cleveland? Whether you are kidding or if you serious don't know where Cleveland is on the map of the United States, it is located in the state known as Ohio basically in the middle of nowhere!
Kidding aside, they are perhaps best known for their association with rap icon and fallen soldier Eazy-E, an original member of the megagroup NWA. They got some play before meeting Eazy on the first Bone Thugs N Harmony album, called "Faces of Death," which they actually created under the group name BONE Enterprise. But they didn't make it big really until their paths crossed with Eazy.
Eazy Does It
But it was not easy to hook up with Eazy. Bone Thugs N Harmony members Bizzy Bone, Krayzie Bone, Wish Bone, and Layzie Bone (like I said, original, right?) first tried to get Eazy's attention by traveling all the way out to Los Angeles to try to meet with the NWA member. They got a phone audition with him. That didn't work out obviously.
But then the group heard that Eazy would be in Cleveland (again, in Ohio) so they got back home and got backstage with Eazy at his concert. There, they won him over and Bone Thugs N Harmony got signed right then and there to Ruthless Records.
Eazy didn't make a mistake with Bone Thugs N Harmony. The first Bone Thugs N Harmony album came out in 1994, under the name "Creepin on ah Come Up." The album would eventually go triple platinum, when such Bone Thugs N Harmony songs as "Foe tha Love of $" and "Thuggish Ruggish Bone" caught on not only with gangsta rap audiences but commercial audiences as well.No Bone of Contention
The group stuck together through the 1990s and into the 2000s, producing even bigger Bone Thugs N Harmony records and songs, such as 1997's "The Art of War," which went quadruple platinum. Their "E 1999 Eternal" sold 10 million copies supposedly around the world, making it the most popular Bone Thugs N Harmony ever.
Since then, the group has left Ruthless Records, and even original member Bizzy Bone has left the group. The had successful albums without their original member, as Krayzie Bone and other members put out their latest Bone Thugs N Harmony record in 2007, called "Strength & Loyalty."
