Bone Thugs-n-Harmony
photo: kmilo from ny/tx · cc by 2.0 ↗Five singer-rappers out of Cleveland — Krayzie Bone, Layzie Bone, Wish Bone, Bizzy Bone, and Flesh-n-Bone — formed Bone Thugs-n-Harmony in 1991, fusing gospel-rooted harmonizing with rapid-fire "chopper" rap after Eazy-E signed them to Ruthless Records in 1993. Their multiplatinum 1995 album E. 1999 Eternal and its Grammy-winning single "Tha Crossroads" turned melodic, sung-rap group vocals into a mainstream hip-hop staple that later rap generations kept chasing.
Eazy-E discovered and signed Bone Thugs-n-Harmony to Ruthless Records in 1993, and the grittier, streetwise edge of their earliest material carries some of the gangsta-rap directness of the label that launched them.
listen forPlay Eazy-E's "Boyz-n-the-Hood" next to Bone Thugs' "Thuggish Ruggish Bone": both are blunt, street-level narration wrapped around a hard, simple gangsta-rap groove, before Bone Thugs' harmonies fully took over their sound.
Krayzie Bone has said the group's ear for melody traces back to watching Michael Jackson perform on the Motown 25 television special as a kid; that pop-vocal instinct is what let Bone Thugs graft actual singing onto rap in a way few of their peers attempted.
listen forCompare Jackson's "Billie Jean" to Bone Thugs' "1st of tha Month": both hinge on a hypnotic, melodic vocal hook that's as central to the song as any lyric.
Twista and the Dayton Family were popularizing rapid-fire "chopper" rapping in the Midwest just as Bone Thugs came up, and that fast, tongue-twisting flow is a direct antecedent of Bone Thugs' own machine-gun verses.
listen forSet Twista's "Runnin' Off at da Mouth" against Bone Thugs' "Crept and We Came": both pile syllables on top of each other at a breakneck, tongue-twisting pace few other rap scenes were attempting at the time.