Graced with a quick, sometimes sung delivery, Bone
Thugs-N-Harmony burst out of the Midwest in the mid-'90s with a pair of massive
hits ("Thuggish Ruggish Bone" and
"Tha Crossroads") along with a great album (E 1999 Eternal) and then quickly
unraveled. Eazy-E signed the group -- initially comprised of Krayzie Bone, Wish
Bone, Flesh-N-Bone, Layzie Bone, and Bizzy Bone -- to Ruthless Records and
released a debut EP, Creepin on ah Come Up (1994). The EP boasted "Thuggish
Ruggish Bone," a conventional G-funk song with an unconventional array of Bone
Thug rappers that became an overnight summer anthem, especially throughout the
Midwest.
Amid the fervor, the Cleveland rap group entered the studio
immediately and emerged with a remarkable album, E 1999 Eternal (1995). The
album topped the charts and spawned a pair of popular singles, "1st of the
Month" and "Tha Crossroads," the latter a Grammy Award recipient. It was all
downhill from here for Bone, though. As was in vogue at the time, the group
members pursued respective solo careers and also a Mo Thugs Family spin-off
group, none of these ventures fruitful. At this point, the onetime cohesive
group, who specialized in interwoven, harmonious singing as well as rapping,
became conflicted and failed to collaborate well, particularly after their
ambitious Art of War album (1997) sold poorly.
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