Krayzie Bone Appreciation Post: Bone, Mo' Thugs, TM1999 & More

Since BTnH is back together again as a 5-piece, I thought I'd show some love for one of its founding members & someone I consider to be one of the most slept-on artists in the whole rap game: Krayzie Bone.  I already did an article on Bizzy Bone here, one on the group as a whole here and one on Bizzy's sons Bloodline Harmony here.  (Yeah, I'm a tad obsessed).    

I'd like to focus specifically on the period from 1996-2000, a time when Kray was overflowing with creativity & on top of his game & the game in general, working like a dog & putting out consistently high-quality, influential work.  Perhaps new fans who aren't as familiar with his older stuff can learn something from it, or at least pick up a few new song recommendations.  ✊🏾

Krayzie's put out tons of great work since '99/2000, but this era for me was the highlight and only deepened my love for BTnH.  When the group started out I felt some of the other members had more promise, or at least were equally yoked with Kray.  But after his work on The Art of War, I knew he & Bizzy were the standouts for me due to their opposite yet complementary vocal tones, one high and the other low. Likewise their rap styles were the most unique, one full of fire & the other smooth & mellow.  

Krayzie survived a near-death health situation in 2023 & was hospitalized for 9 days on a ventilator due to his battle with sarcoidosis.  During that time fans really showed their love, creating vids of themselves rapping to his songs & participating in the "Pray 4 Kray" campaign started by Bizzy Bone.  It was a great reminder of how devoted the Bone cult truly is.  (Impressively multi-cultural too!)  But he still doesn't get the respect he deserves in the industry for being a highly influential, innovative artist.  His work not only stands the test of time but is easily up there with Snoop Dogg, Big Boi, Method Man, B-Real & other '90s rappers of the Golden Era.  His ability to switch from rapid-fire raps to his signature husky-voiced flow give him something no other rapper has been able to touch even to this day.

MO' THUG FAMILY SCRIPTURES  📜

In '96 Layzie and Krayzie Bone produced & featured on this album intended as a showcase for other artists from Cleveland.  It changed the game in the way famous rappers brought out their entire crew of gifted homies & doesn't get enough recognition for it to this day.  No Limit Soldiers, Ruff Ryders, Swishahouse & others followed this formula to great success and owe a great debt to Mo' Thugs in my opinion. 

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KB in '96

Krayzie sparkles on tracks like Murder Mo,' Thug Devotion & my personal favorite, Low Down with Souljah Boy (the original, not the tone-deaf teenager). In fact these are some of my all-time favorite verses from Krayzie due to his melodic but deadly vocals.  The album as a whole flows very smoothly & features artists with fast Bone-like rap styles including Graveyard Shift, Poetic Hustla'z & the aforementioned Souljah Boy so it's beloved for that reason, plus the production is ominous yet chill--the perfect 'stormy weather' or 'hanging in the alleyway/by the train tracks' album.  Those are the images I get when I listen to it anyway.   

THE ART OF WAR  ⚔  (1997)

The Mo' Thug thing was cool, but everyone was starving for a proper Bone album by '97.  After the massive high of E. 1999 Eternal & their hit single Tha Crossroads which won them a Grammy (not to mention the title track "East 1999" & timeless banger 1st of tha Month, people wondered if Bone would be able to keep up the momentum without their mentor Eazy-E who passed in early '95.  They were, thanks largely due to Krayzie Bone's infectious hook writing & singing on double album The Art of War.  Kray has several short feature songs on this album, including Neighborhood Slang, Hardtimes & Blaze It in addition to his full-length solo track All Real.  But his ability to craft catchy hooks really shone on songs like If I Could Teach The World, How Many of Us Have Them, U Ain't Bone & Evil Paradise.  

AoW-era Kray

This album featured the late 2Pac & dropped very shortly after his death (there was controversy about whether to include the song, which is full of gunshot sound effects & murder references).  Other features include Mr. Maje$ty of 7th Sign, Souljah Boy of Mo' Thugs & several other Mo' Thug All-Stars.  Subject matter included shutting down "haters" and "biters" like Do or Die, Crucial Conflict & Three 6 Mafia, all of whom bone felt were stealing their style.  While some fans felt this double album could've been a single, it still ranks among top BTnH albums of all time & definitely the most catchy due to Krayzie's genius hooks & short songs that break up the monotony.  

MO THUG FAMILY SCRIPTURES VOL. 2: FAMILY REUNION ✊🏾 (1998)

While this album wasn't coming quite as hard as the 1st, it featured some of the old groups from the 1st installment (Graveyard Shift, Souljah Boy, II Tru) as well as new faces like Layzie's wife Felecia, Thug Queen & white rapper Powder who featured on the smash hit Ghetto Cowboy.  This was a year before Eminem hit the scene at a time when white rappers were still a joke in the industry thanks to Vanilla Ice, so one could argue that Mo' Thugs really took a gamble here & was ahead of their time in this way.  Also featured were Flesh-n-Bone and Wish Bone, both of whom fit well on the Mo' Thug projects (especially Wish who never put out a solo album). The album even spawned some hits including All Good & Ghetto Cowboy.  But my #1 track has to be Urban Souljah by Graveyard Shift.  One half of the duo, rapper Tombstone, would die shortly after this album dropped, which was a huge loss. 

Oh, and Krayzie ripped Wu-Tang a new one with his bar about RZA's speech impediment on "Ain't Said No Names"!  

The progression of Mo' Thug

As with Bizzy's 7th Sign Records, I was never crazy (pun intended) about Krayzie's Thug Line/The Line/The Life venture & wish they would've stuck with Mo' Thugs a bit longer as these were some highly creative, unique groups & artists.  By splitting their focus they only got more distant from each other & the Cleveland sound, venturing off in some directions that were, at best, lukewarm successes & at other times, totally baffling (AC Killer?  Bone Brothers I-III?  Raiden Rush?  Raymurda?).   Mo' Thug was eventually left to Layzie Bone & abandoned by the label after low sales due to Kray's absence after this album.  He claims to have moved on due to Layzie's drinking & other general chaos within the project but I'm sure there are 2 sides to that story.

(Edit:  Yup, there are.  Both sides can be found on Youtube on "Holdin' Court's" podcast lmao).  

THUG MENTALITY 1999  💀  (1999)

Bone Thugs always planned to drop solo albums, which was hinted at on The Art of War with all the solo tracks.  Bizzy's 1st offering Heaven'z Movie sounded a bit unfinished but was relatively popular at the time & Layzie's L-Burna offering had a couple hits, but Krayzie's solo blew all the others out of the water & set the bar high for Bone solos... maybe a little too high. 

TM1999 era

While Kray's put out lots of great music since this album, nothing hits quite as hard as his 1st solo album.  He was still using his E. 1999 flow at this point, something that'd change on his next album Thug on da Line.  It truly marks the end of an era, both in terms of his rap style & the end of the 20th Century overall.  Plus the number of guest features, which included Mariah Carey, E-40, Stephen Marley, Snoop Dogg and The Doggpound among MANY others made this album a true masterpiece, one of the last of the '90s.  (Features generally annoy me on an album but this was done masterfully). I would argue that it's the greatest solo album by any member of a rap crew ever due to the way Krayzie raps, sings & blends his style seamlessly with the diverse guest artists from different genres. I actually prefer it to The Art of War, Mo' Thug 2 & BTnH Resurrection. 

Highlights include Heated Heavy, Drama, Street People, Smokin' Budda, Won't Ez Up Tonight, We Starvin' & Revolution.  He even worked a Willy Wonka sample into the album on I Still Believe feat. Mariah Carey as well as a Sammy Davis Jr. sample on Dummy Man (Skit)!  And then there was the massively creative Kneight Riduz, a painted-face horrorcore group comprised of Krayzie, Lareece, Sin of Graveyard Shift & Mo' Hart of Poetic Hustla'z. This was BEFORE Insane Clown Posse or Twiztid hit it big, mind you.  They had a song on TM1999's Disc 2/B-side.  Somehow they made it all work on this double album which was so long half the songs were missing from my cassette version.  (Who still listened to cassette tapes in the late '90s anyway?  This girl).

BTnH Resurrection 🌍  (2000)

For some disrespectful reason, Bone decided to hit the studio while Krayzie was still touring behind his solo album Thug Mentality 1999.  Maybe it was because the group's 5th member Flesh-n-Bone was headed to prison for a very long time & they wanted to let him speak his piece first.  Yet Krayzie was still able to squeeze into the studio & drop some jewels on this offering too--my favorites being his verses on Ecstasy, Can't Give It Up & Battlezone, the latter track a Top 10 of all time among many Bone fans. 

Millennium-era Kray

This album lacked the catchy hooks of The Art of War & did poorly on the Billboard charts, with several singles failing to chart.  Only one track, Resurrection (Paper, Paper) charted at all, and it came in at #52--a far cry from the group's reign at the top with songs like Tha Crossroads, Dayz of Our Livez & Look Into My Eyes.  The beats were also lacking on some tracks, but it was still an underground classic with the group's cult following (including me), achieving platinum status within a month. 

Like their 2013 offering World War III, this album would've likely come out better if it was heavier on the Krayzie Bone and he'd had more time to craft his hooks/verses.  By this point, the group had the distinction of being the only rappers to collaborate with Eazy-E, 2Pac & Biggie as well as Big Pun, all of whom were deceased by the year 2000.  Unfortunately this is also when they'd start experiencing serious internal strife, with Bizzy's increasing absences due to drinking & Flesh's long prison sentence leaving them a 3-piece for the better part of the 2000s.  Yet the 3 men still managed to hold it down, making it work in videos with Phil Collins on "Home" in 2003 and Akon on "I Tried" (2006).  The album from which the latter song came, Strength & Loyalty, won them an American Music Award in 2007.  That same year, Krayzie Bone won a Grammy for "Ridin'" with Chamillionaire.   

Editor's Picks for All-Time fave Krayzie Bone Tracks & Verses:  Mo' Murda, Smokin' Budda, Low Down, Dummy Man, Won't Ez Up Tonight, Body Rott, Battlezone, Mr. Bill Collector, Sons of Assassins, Look Into My Eyes (both versions!), Rebel Music, Hi-D-Ho, Smoking Lovely aka Smoke wit me, A Wise Fool & Slippin'.

What's your favorite Krayzie Bone album or song?  LMK in the comment section below.  Bone thugs 4 LYFE!   ✊🏽 ✊🏻 ✊🏽 ✊🏿 ✊🏾

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