Rap veterans Bone Thugs-n-Harmony are best known for “Tha Crossroads,” their 1996 tribute to late mentor and label head Eazy-E (Eric Wright), but it’s the gilded sidewalks of Hollywood where they’ll soon be immortalized in the annals of pop culture history. The Cleveland-based rap group will receive a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame at a ceremony July 8.
After 35 years in the industry, to claim that the star brings the Bone Thugs “full circle” is more than a convenient turn of phrase. It closes a loop in the group’s apocryphal origin story, when Ohio natives Bizzy Bone (Bryon Anthony McCane II), Flesh-n-Bone (Stanley Howse), Krayzie Bone (Anthony Henderson), Layzie Bone (Howse’s younger brother Steven) and Wish Bone (Charles Scruggs Jr.) scraped together enough money to buy one-way bus tickets to Los Angeles in the hopes of auditioning in person for Eazy-E. When they arrive, they discovered that the former N.W.A. frontman was at that moment on tour — in Cleveland. Although some details of their pursuit of fame are true, Flesh-n-Bone says that the actual events that led to their distribution deal with E’s Ruthless Records are less mythic than a couple of ships (or buses) passing in the night.
“It was an eggs-in-the-basket type situation, but we actually did connect with him in California,” Flesh tells Variety. “We was staying at our friends’ house and we were reaching out to the office there at Ruthless. [Eazy] actually called us back, so we all just shared verses over the phone with him right there in California. He told us that when he was on tour, we was going to link up with him in Cleveland to open up for him at that show.” Ironically, the lesser-known conclusion to this story legitimizes their work-harder-not-smarter entry into the music industry.
“He was going to book us plane tickets to get back to L.A. and start working,” remembers Wish. “We was like, ‘No, fuck that. We’re going to get back on the Greyhound where we can get our shit together.’ ”
Merging the “Thugs-n-Harmony” moniker Eazy gave them with the name of B.O.N.E. Enterpri$e, a group they’d formed in Cleveland to perform at local talent shows, Bone Thugs-n-Harmony debuted their 1994 EP, “Creepin on ah Come Up,” at exactly the moment that the lines between singing and rapping were just beginning to blur. Wish cites the Whispers and fellow Ohio natives the O’Jays as among their earliest influences for the harmonies that would come to define their sound, before they took pages from trailblazing artists like the Sugarhill Gang, Big Daddy Kane and, of course, E’s N.W.A. for their rapid-fire lyrical cadence.
“We came from the era with Scarface, the Geto Boys, KRS-One,” says Wish, “where those storytellers and those real hip-hoppers were really doing something for the culture.”
The group members insist that they were prepared to start rapping any moment they met someone who could offer them a recording contract. “We walked to Tone Loc’s house to rap for his manager,” Krayzie recalls. But Flesh credits Eazy-E, “the sixth Bone member,” for helping them find their footing in the music industry at a pivotal time, both for the group and himself. “He was really dedicated to Bone Thugs-N-Harmony, and it was at the height of a lot of the troubles that he was experiencing with the breakup of N.W.A. and that stuff he was going through with Death Row Records,” Flesh says.
“He used to brag to his people about us being the next big phenomenon, like, ‘These dudes are the Beatles of hip hop.’ And everything he predicted about us came true,” he adds.
Not just a hyperbolic comparison, in 1996 “Tha Crossroads” became the fastest single to rise to the top of the Billboard national single chart since the Beatles released “Can’t Buy Me Love” in 1964. It’s one thing for a hungry young artist to manifest their success, but the accomplishment even stunned the group at the time. “To see us breaking records of people like that, in a whole other genre of music, was really crazy for us,” says Wish. “For us to be mentioned in the same conversation as guys like that was just unreal.”
Over the next few years, they collaborated with several of the biggest stars in the music world, including 2Pac (“Thug Luv”), Notorious B.I.G. (“Notorious Thugs”) and Mariah Carey (“Breakdown”). Yet looking back, they insist they didn’t measure success by the yardstick of chart placements or industry certifications. “When I say we really made it, it’s not the money, nothing like that, but when we first went overseas and saw people that didn’t speak English, but could sing our songs, it was like, wow, we’re somebody for real now, because we’re over here in places we probably would’ve never been without our music, and these people know us and love us,” says Wish.
Over 24 years, Bone Thugs-n-Harmony released 10 studio albums, two EPs and two mix tapes, winning a Grammy Award for “Tha Crossroads” and two other nominations in addition to accolades from the American Music Awards, Billboard and MTV. If their days of giving the Beatles a run for their money are behind them, they still thrill at the impact that their music, and their style, makes today on artists across the industry. “Every time you turn the radio, anytime you turn a video on, we see what we created,” says Krayzie. “There is not a new artist that has come out that is not using an element of Bone Thugs-N-Harmony … anybody harmonizing, rapping fast, people know where that came from.”
Adds Flesh, “It is a known fact that inside record companies, A&Rs was tailoring their artists to go in the studio and come out with something like Bone Thugs-N-Harmony. ‘I need you to go in there and make me another “1st of tha Month.”’ It’s a huge phenomenon that I don’t think we get flowers for.”
Though the Bone Thugs don’t have prior experiences visiting the Walk of Fame (after all, Ruthless Records was founded not in Hollywood but Compton), receiving their star feels like a step towards remediating that lack of recognition. They aren’t taking it for granted. “This is a beautiful blessing and honor — a huge milestone in our career,” Flesh says. “I think we’ve come a long way.”
“This is a type of honor for people that really made a difference in whatever genre it is, movies, TV, whatever,” observes Wish. “This is what we got, and thank God that we did make it through music — because without this, I don’t know what the fuck we’d be doing.”
The quintet has made a number of lineup changes over the 35 years they’ve been recording, but a handful of singles issued over the last year featured all five original members, hinting at a proper comeback for Bone Thugs-n-Harmony. “The best is yet to be seen,” insists Flesh. “Especially after receiving such a privileged honor as receiving a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame, I think we’re going to continue to do great things for the culture and continue to influence people and surprise the world.”
Leave a Reply