Bone Thugs-N-Harmony

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, unfortunately. As was in vogue at the time, the group members pursued respective solo careers and also a Mo Thugs Family spinoff group; none of these ventures was 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 double-disc Art of War (1997) sold poorly.

A second round of solo albums sold even more poorly, and Bone became somewhat of a has-been. Occasional reunions such as BTNHResurrection (2000) and Thug World Order (2002) produced occasional moments of glory, but these were brief and few and far between. In 2005 the band reunited again minus Bizzy Bone. In September of that year the Internet-only release Bone 4 Life appeared. Then in 2006, it was announced that Bone had signed to Swizz Beatz's Full Surface Records, which was distributed by Interscope. Their first album for the label, Strength & Loyalty, appeared in the spring of 2007 with guest spots from the Game, Mariah Carey, Akon, Bow Wow, and Twista.


1991: “B.O.N.E. Enterpri$e” forms, consisting of Krayzie Bone, Layzie Bone, Wish Bone Flesh-N-Bone & Bizzy Bone. Bone Thugs-N-Harmony releases Faces of Death under the name Bone Enterpri$e.

1993: Bone Thugs-N-Harmony audition live backstage for Eazy-E. He signs them to Ruthless Records on the spot.
June 1994: Bone Thugs-N-Harmony release their first real album Creepin On Ah Come Up which went on to be 4x Platinum Certified.

1995: Bone Thugs-N-Harmony release E.1999 Eternal which debut at #1 on top of the pop charts. The album is ranked as one of the greatest hip-hop albums of all time, and to this day, showing up in the Top 10 of the Billboard Top R&B/Hip-Hop Catalog Albums chart on a regular basis. This album goes 6x Platinum. Their biggest hit "Tha Crossroads" went to win a Grammy. Eazy-E passes away from AIDS.

1997: Bone Thugs-N-Harmony release their double disc album The Art of War. This disc goes 4x Platinum.

1998: Bone Thugs-N-Harmony release The Collection Volume 1.

2000: Bone Thugs-N-Harmony release BTNHResurrection which stops all rumors that they are broken up. This disc goes 2x Platinum. Bone Thugs-N-Harmony release The Collection Volume Two.

2002: Bone Thugs-N-Harmony release Thug World Order

2003: Bone Thugs-N-Harmony off Ruthless Records.

2004: Ruthless Records releases Bone Thugs-N-Harmony Greatest Hits and Greatest Videos DVD. Greatest Hits goes 2x Platinum.

2006: May of 2006, Bone Thugs ink a monumental deal with Interscope Record