Bone Thugs-N-Harmony embodies the term perseverance.
The group’s travels on the hip-hop highway for the past 15 years have been filled with more potholes than Route 1.
Among member arrests and incarcerations, the 1995 death of mentor Eazy E and record label altercations, the group has only garnered few mentions as one of hip-hop’s elite. And that last negative point is undeserved, as the quintet is arguably one of the most influential acts in the game.
Check the repertoire: Bone Thugs’ debut, E. 1999 Eternal, spawned the hits “1st of tha Month” and the Grammy Award-winning “Tha Crossroads.”
But more importantly, the album introduced a coast-centric hip-hop nation to a Midwest swing and melodic rapid-fire flows. Even Biggie Smalls, one of Brooklyn, N.Y.’s finest emcees, embraced the then-distinct style on the track “Notorious Thugs.”
Without Bone Thugs’ precedent, artists such as Nelly may have never seen platinum success.
Although the group doesn’t reclaim its mid-1990s glory days with its latest and sixth album, Uni5: The World’s Enemy, Bone Thugs do manage to sound fairly relevant and not washed up. So props to them, as that’s an accomplishment most hip-hop veterans have failed to achieve (see the Nas track “Where Are They Now” for the full list of has-beens).
Bone Thugs come out throwing musical and lyrical bows on “Rebirth,” their Aretha Franklin-like demand for some respect. They know artists bite their style because members harmoniously chant “Everybody want to sound like Bone … rap like Bone.”
The seven-minute epic song really picks up by the third verse, thanks to the group’s signature multi-layered harmonies and tongue-twisting rhymes that make listeners press the rewind button.
“See Me Shine” and “Only God Can Judge Me” also address how the group has made it through hard times.
“See Me Shine” attempts to be uplifting with horns, crashing symbols and a gospel-esque outro. “Only God Can Judge Me” is a bit more morbid, with lyrics about smoked-out gangsters thinking about the afterlife over the sounds of rolling snares and a screwed-and-chopped vocal sample. The title has been a classic “I don’t give a f—” mantra since 2Pac made a song using the same phrase.
Group members Krayzie Bone, Wish Bone, Flesh-N-Bone, Layzie Bone and Bizzy Bone are the kings of church-for-thugs songs. They continue to ponder their legacies, life and death on “My Life,” a track enhanced by Layzie’s slightly raspy, soulful soprano voice, and on “Gone.”
“Gone” has a terrible beat that jacks the electronica-inspired hip-hop of Kanye West’s 808s & Heartbreak, but it is catchy enough to be a big radio hit. It’s no “Tha Crossroads,” but like reality TV trash, the song has an inexplicable draw.
One of the problems with the album is that it is not at all innovative. Even the best songs sound familiar and slightly cliched.
The LP’s other flaws are evident in tracks such as “Everytime” and “Wanna Be.”
The former’s beat is better fit for a Richard Simmons workout than a Bone Thugs record. The latter is a melodramatic tune about women’s struggles, the kind that became way overdone after Nas released “Black Girl Lost” in 1996.
Uni5: The World’s Enemy is far from groundbreaking. A good parallel is Grant Hill’s NBA season with the Phoenix Suns this year: After promises of greatness were interrupted by relentless injuries, Hill is just happy to have some playing time on a more-than-decent team.
Bone Thugs should be lauded for managing to keep the crew together (well, aside from Bizzy reportedly pulling out of an upcoming national tour), staying out of trouble (aside from Flesh-N-Bone being arrested in March on charges of assaulting his mother more than a decade ago) and releasing an album with quality tracks.
And like Hill’s recent playoff series win — the first in his career — perhaps Bone Thugs can make a true comeback by going gold.
RATING: 3 out of 4 stars
rush@umdbk.com
