We had other producers on the album as well but we definitely wanted to make sure we that U-Neek vibe and flavour back in there as well.”īut despite numerous reviews heralding the MCs for maintaining their unfaltering flow on this album, Krayzie admits it was U-Neek’s standard of beat-making that wasn’t up to par. “When we got started on this we always had the idea of involving Neek on the project. They reverted back to working with long time cohorts DJ U-Neek and LT Hutton to season it and as Henderson explains, it was an important move to cook up the new album with DJ U-Neek for those original beats sliced right off the thuggish-ruggish bone.
The entire project was produced by label mate and sixth member of the crew DJ U-Neek who continued to work their ‘97 album The Art Of War, 2000’s BTNHResurrection and has become the catalyst to the Bone Thugs formula made famous at Ruthless Records in the aftermath of NWA.Īfter the 2007 album Strength & Loyalty (under Swizz Beats’ direction) the Thugs moved out of an uncomfortable situation within Interscope Records and headed up their own imprint, Bone Thugs-N-Harmony Worldwide.
By ‘94 their debut studio EP Creepin’ On Ah Come Up was followed sharply by their highest-selling studio LP, 1995’s E 1999 Eternal containing their smash hit Grammy-awarded single, ‘Crossroads’. They formed in 1991 and saw their first underground album Faces Of Death released two years later along with a recording contract with Eazy-E’s Ruthless Records. One of the first to break out of the US Midwest, Bone Thugs-N-Harmony are pioneers of a unique style of rapid-fire raps delivered through harmonised vocals, knwon as the “Cleveland Sound”. The groups dynamic is still on tender hooks, but at this stage the fab five should unite before us on various stages across the nation this month. Both Bizzy Bone and Flesh-N-Bone have been through tumultuous times of late with Flesh having been incarcerated for a lengthy term and Bizzy almost preferring to stay disconnected, insisting that he remain a guest to the skeletal core of Bone Thugs-N-Harmony. Last time Bone Thugs appeared in Australia they were saddled amidst a cavalcade of West Coast juggernauts in Ice Cube, WC, Snoop Dogg and Tha Dogg Pound, but only three members of the group were involved. We tryin’ to get everything together, it’s a very positive vibe going on at the moment.” “Everything is cool man, we taking it one day at a time.
“We’ve got a few issues but hopefully everything will work out and we can get on this tour,” Henderson says reassuringly of the continuation of the Bone Thugs saga. With the braids cut off and weed off the menu in 2010, the Cleveland mainstays of harmonised hip hop are back together for now. It’s been ten years at least since the five original members of Bone Thugs-N-Harmony have assembled on one album, and accompanying Uni5: The World’s Enemy is an Australia tour for Krayzie, Layzie, Wish, Bizzy and Flesh-N-Bone. HOME AT THEIR OWN LABEL AND TAKING THINGS DAY-TO-DAY, ANTHONY ‘KRAYZIE BONE’ HENDERSON OPINES FRANKLY WITH RIP NICHOLSON ABOUT THE NEW ALBUM OF, AND CHEMISTRY WITHIN, BONE THUGS-N-HARMONY.īone Thugs-N-Harmony (Krayzie Bone) interviewed for Rip2Shredz // Hiphop.sh // Street Press Australia