Backspin: Bone Thugs-N-Harmony — E. 1999 Eternal (1995)

The Cleveland crew brought harmony to gangsta rap’s brutality, forever changing hip-hop’s soundscape. (82.5/100)

No group embodies the unlikely envelopment of gangsta rap into the pop music lexicon as thoroughly as Bone Thugs-N-Harmony. Few albums paint a picture more bleak, nihilistic, and downright murderous than the Cleveland quintet’s first full-length project, 1995’s E. 1999 Eternal. Bone shoots, robs, smokes, and extorts their way through 17 tracks of unremitting mayhem, but they do it with a nuanced musicality that makes it go down like fine Kentucky bourbon. It might burn a bit, but that’s all part of the thrill. Ultimately it’s a delightfully sweet concoction.

Press play on E. 1999 Eternal, and you’re instantly greeted by the boom of distant thunder and a chilling whisper welcoming you to the dark side. It’s followed by the the cries of a child quickly spun into reverse and accompanied by the screams of a woman. This isn’t gangsta rap, it’s gangsta gothic, setting the tone for a house of urban horrors. A crescendo of terror gives way to an ominous piano riff accompanied by the menacingly melodic vocals of Krazie Bone, serenading us with a lullaby of “execution double nine style, steady fillin’ them bodies underground.”

Krazie quickly overlapped by the tender tenor of Bizzy Bone, who swiftly swoops in to croon the first proper verse.

It’ll be all about that yayo bank roll Better make that money man, dead wrong Put it on the low, but I beat up hoes And I peel ’em and bang Gotta get them demons off me Creepin’ up softly, seepin’ up through my soul And sleepin’ ain’t good to go now when I’m alone I don’t doze, I never watch the door Bet I won’t be slippin’, sleepin’ Lovin’ the thugs I bails with, but a trail of 12-gauge shells Bloody me smell 1–8–7 and the 2–11 12-gauge and the AK-47 spray Lil’ Ripsta kill ’em now Put ’em off in the grave, daily With a slug stuck all up in ya Well, I roll with realer n****s Pop pop drop to the sound and to ground Lit ’em up to kill ya

The cognitive dissonance between mellifluous vocals and unrepentant savagery is mesmerizing, accentuated by plodding drums and stretched synth notes. DJ U-Neek’s production immediately differentiates itself from the more traditional G-Funk sounds that powered Bone’s debut EP, Creepin’ On a Come Up, the previous year.

A pair of title tracks follow, continuing the the leisurely table setting by further establishing the elements that make Bone unique — namely their use of vocals as instrumentation. “East 1999” cranks up the tempo and the aggression, allowing each member a full verse to establish their distinctive style and persona. The verses are punctuated by descending piano keys that make if feel like we’re falling through a trap door to yet another level of hell.

Where “East 1999” primarily highlights the staccato rhythms of the Thugs’ deliveries, their sharp syllables blending into the track like a second layer of percussion, “Eternal” dips deep into their melodic bag of tracks - namely the haunting harmonies for which they’re named. Most of the members seem to calibrate the elastic notes that punctuate their vocals with the celestial wind instrumentation providing the track’s far eastern melody rather than the spare percussion. The drums actually drop out of the mix entirely for extended periods. The members play off of each other like seasoned doo-wop crooners.

The outline drawn, Bone begins adding color on the storytelling epic, “Down ’71 (The Getaway).” The narrative centers around the crew busting Bizzy out of jail after he’s arrested for gunning down a crooked cop. The story itself plays like a fever nightmare version of Public Enemy’s “Black Steel in the Hour of Chaos” with triple the gunplay and none of the righteousness. Though the weight of the drums and density of the bassline make it one of East 1999’s hardest sonic sides, the sing-song deliveries and Bizzy’s helium pitched vocal tone add a fantastical quality that casts the murder spree as demented fairy tale. That’s perhaps what allowed Bone to escape the affected wrath rained down upon the likes of Ice-T and their mentor, Eazy-E, over cop killing anthems with significantly lower body counts.

“Down 71”’s strength is actually the greatest deficiency of the album as a whole — specificity. After using the early tracks to meticulously establish their world, Bone never really put it to much narrative or conceptual use. Rather than using their soulful vocal style to delve into the heart and soul of their ravaged community, the MCs seem largely content to season U-Neek’s hypnotically atmospheric beats with generic bursts of gunplay, drug commerce, and weed smoke.

They do it well. Individually, there’s hardly a track that doesn’t warrant a rightward twist of the volume knob if it drops into a shuffle. But collectively, much of the album’s second half simply blends together into a melodiously nihilistic blur. The mercilessness of “No Land for the Heartless” bleeds into thr savagery of “No Shorts, No Losses.” And of course adversaries will “Die Die Die” from “Shots to Tha Double Glock.”

“Mo’murda” stands out as the exception that proves the rule, giving the album a hollow head shot in the arms as it rounds into its home stretch. It’s an electric synthesis of everything that makes Bone such a unique entity in hip-hop. The airy synths simultaneously descend from the heights of heaven and rise from the depths of hell to converge inside the open spaces of the airy beat. Finger snaps in lieu of a consistent snare add an intimacy that makes the immaculate soundscape feel like a seance. The MCs indeed make murder feel other worldly, floating bloody couplets with melodic aplomb.

Still, it’s when they veer slightly from the template that Bone Thugs-N-Harmony become truly transcendent. Hilariously Immortalized by Chris Rock as music’s first ever “welfare carol,” “1st of Tha Month” is, in actuality, far more than an anthem for living on the dole. It’s a vivid rendering of the happiest day of the month, offering a brief respite from the album’s darkness and brutality, just as the day the whole block has a pocket full of government green provides a monthly escape from the struggle and indignity of urban poverty. Bone’s harmonies prove every bit as apt at conveying jubilation as menace, and the exultant production raises the track to the level of a bonafide hood anthem.

Even more iconic is “Tha Crossroads,” a haunting meditation on mortality that tenderly eulogizes the group’s mentor, Eazy-E, who passed from AIDS prior to the album’s release. The impeccably arranged vocals elevate the song to an ethereal plane that transcends the specifics of the lyrics and transform “Tha Crossroads” into a tribute to all of those lost to the urban violence evoked throughout the album. Krazie Bone lays it bare with vocal support from the crew:

Now follow me, roll stroll Whether it’s Hell or it’s Heaven Come let’s go take a visit to the people that’s long gone, they rest: Wally, Eazy, Terry, Boo And still keepin’ up with they family Exactly how many days we got lastin’? While you laughin’ we’re passin’ passin’ away God, rest our souls ’Cause I know I might meet you up at the crossroads Y’all know, y’all forever got love from them Bone Thugs, baby

Decades later, “Tha Crossroads” remains a seminal track in hip-hop. The genre is rife with song’s for dead homies, but Bone Thugs’ vocal dexterity creates a mood that has yet to be replicated.

It’s that very vocal acumen that lands Bone in the pantheon of iconic hip-hop groups, even though the staying power E. 1999 Eternal as an album failed to match that of its singles. It’s still Bone’s definitive album in that it allowed them the space to truly stretch the limits of the melodious vocal style pioneered on Creepin’ On a Come Up.

Those vocal innovations not only provided the midwest with a signature sound, with which acts like Crucial Conflict and Do or Die followed Bone to gold and platinum success, they fundamentally expanded concept of what constituted rapping. Bone Thugs’ mastery of melody is still present in the modern iteration of trap music, while their more percussive rhythmic flourishes were more subtly perceptible in crunk. The impact even expanded to the world of R&B, as hood minded R&B singers began incorporating Bone’s unique mix of R&B style arrangements with rhythmic note renderings.

That would be more than enough to land E. 1999 Eternal a spot in the hip-hop canon. That it still sounds as hypnotically merciless today as it did in ’95 is simply a harmonious thug bonus.

By the Numbers

Production: 8.5 Lyrics (how the words are put together): 8 Delivery & Flow: 9.5 Content (Substance): 6.5 Cohesiveness: 8.5 Consistency: 8 Originality: 9.5 Listenability: 8 Impact/Influence: 10 Longevity: 6

Total — 82.5

This score reflects the re-issue most commonly available on digital and streaming services. This version includes “Tha Crossroads,” a re-imagining of “Crossroads” from the original pressing. “Tha Crossroads” was the version serviced to radio and video outlets.

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