Bone Thugs-n-Harmony

RJ here, hanging out at the studio at Four Seasons in LA with Bone Thugs-n-Harmony. We got Wish, we got Lazy, we got Krayzie. Now, 20 years in the game. You guys are still going strong. I mean, that's crazy. Everyone else fades away. One-hit wonders, you know, maybe one, two albums. You guys are like, what, album eight now?

Man, man, we just do what we do music for the love of music. You know what I'm saying? Like, we truly love what we do and our music come from our heart.

30 million albums. I mean, that's crazy. How many people can say they sold 30 million albums? Not too many. Not too many. Not too many. How do you just not get tired of the grind after doing this? What motivates you?

I mean, you know, I think we was blessed to do this, you know what I'm saying? Is that God gave us that gift to speak to people and that's why we always got a message within our music. I mean, it's a blessing, all all in and out, but we love being here, you know what I mean?

And it's amazing that, I mean, you guys have a style that when you hear it, you automatically know it's you guys. And obviously, a lot of people try to copy that. Is that flattering to you? Does that piss you off?

I mean, before like, when when we were younger, we used to get pissed off. I mean, I used to want to kick some ass, you know what I'm saying? But, um, now that we're older, we look at it as flattering. Not many people can come in and like have such an impact on music to where you change not only the sound of hip hop, but you change the sound of R&B as well.

Now, you guys have worked with a lot of crazy names. I'm gonna throw some names out, just tell me the first thing that comes to mind when I mention these names of of artists you collaborated with. Phil Collins.

Man, legend, legend for real.

Akon.

My dog. My dog. Yeah.

Mariah.

Oh, man. Musical, beautiful voice, legend.

Tupac.

Super magic right there. Yeah, motivational, you know what I'm saying? Thug life.

Biggie.

Another legend. Gone too soon. Nurses.

And then, of course, Eazy.

Godfather, gangsta rap. And and another one who created his own lane. You know?

Now, I want to understand the names. Like, Krayzie, why did you, why did you choose to call yourself Krayzie?

I know, man, I don't know, you know me and me and Lazy was just sitting up, you know, like sitting in the house one day, and you know, he he had came up with the the whole Bone concept, like it being the family names. And I'm like, I'm gonna be Krayzie Bone. And he said, I'm gonna be Lazy Bone.

All right. So, play on names, I wanted to know who would be what. Triple X. Who would be Triple X?

That's Wish. No, I'm, man. I take his park. You be sparking it. Anybody revive? I revived the game.

All right. Now, we we got to talk about this new album. So, I mean, "Crossroads," obviously, that was a song, everybody just, it's the anthem. They've got a new song that that has that vibe and of all your music. I haven't heard that before.

This is one of them real melodic songs, you know what I'm saying? It put you in that song with that that vibe with the melody. But, what it is about that song, a lot of people mistake it like for a "Crossroads," because we saying "Meet Me in the Sky," but what it really, the whole significance of that song is really saying like, we flying above the player haters. Bone Thugs-n-Harmony is on a whole 'nother level that people can't reach.

And lastly, like, you know, Eazy was your mentor growing up. Sure he gave you guys a lot of good advice. You know, it is Young Hollywood. Like, what's something you guys learned in your struggle that maybe they can avoid or any advice or tips or something just how to sort of break through.

Man, you got you got to realize that uh just 'cause you from the ghetto or whatever, don't mean you got to be a rap star, you know what I mean? We need to get back into the books, you know what I'm saying? We need more doctors, we need more lawyers, litigators, you know what I mean? Governors. We need more of that. So, I would say, you know, stick to your guns, get in the books more, you know what I'm saying? And just and and and um, you know, educate yourself. Understand that it's two parts to the word show business. You know what I mean? You it's there for show, but if you don't understand the business, you can quickly lose it as soon as you get it. You know, we can we can sit here and tell people like all day, you know, but like to me like a lot of people won't listen to it, you know, they're gonna dive in head first. So, you just got to, you know, like sometimes the best teacher is experience. You just got to know like you just got to know like like when to learn from it.

A lot of people give advice and people don't want to hear it, but I mean, you're looking at at a group 20 years, they're going strong. I mean, that's just that does not happen.