U-Neek produced the entire album with co-production from Kenny McCloud, Tony-C, and Bone at times. One reason for the great success of this album was the chemistry that Bone seemed to have with DJ U-Neek at the time. Some portions of the album feature the backwards playing music, and there are a few webpages dedicated to decoding all of the elements of the album. For example, there’s Cleveland Blvd., North Eazy St., and even Wrightwoods Drive. Within the album credits is an extended backwards cryptic message and a fictional map with street names that reflect important elements of Bone’s career up to that point. The album itself had many of the same themes of the prior albums including violence and the occult, but with this release they took it to a higher level with weed appreciation songs and diving deeper into the occult side of things. I apologize for the bad pun, but it was hard to resist. The public seemed to be enthralled with the idea of rapid fire lyrics with a dash of harmonization for flavor, and they ate it up, leaving nothing but bones behind. Prior to BTNH, the biggest rap act out of the city was probably MC Brains of “Oochie Coochie” fame. Cleveland has always had its fair share of people that were accepted in other fields of entertainment, but there had never been any rap acts with the street edge of Bone Thugs. Hailing from the same city that the Thugs claimed as their own, we looked to them almost as folk heroes. The song proved to be a massive hit for the crew and I can even recall the group being interviewed on Yo! MTV Raps by Fab 5 Freddy as he jokingly asked “Where’s Chicken Bone?” However, it was no joking matter when the album hit the street, well at least not my street. The album’s first single (no pun intended) was “1st Of Tha Month”, which was a feel-good ode to the distribution of welfare checks.

His death left many wondering about the future of the group, but just a short four months later, BTNH would release what many (including this reviewer) consider to be their magnum opus, “E. However, in March of 1995, disaster would strike as their mentor, Eazy-E would die as a result of complications from AIDS. Bone remained a fixture through the second half of 1994. “Thuggish Ruggish Bone” helped to thrust the Cleveland natives into the national spotlight, and eventually their debut EP, “Creepin On Ah Come Up” hit multi-platinum status.

I doubt he ever dreamed that his castigating words against gangsta rap would become one of the most famous song introductions in rap history. Here at RapReviews, we’re not against rap (obviously), we’re not against rappers (again, obviously), and we’re not against those thugs, well at least not THESE thugs.

Bone thugs n harmony east 1999 download