Next to Bizzy Bone, Layzie Bone is arguably the most candid member of Bone Thugs-n-Harmony. Immediately after picking up the phone, his charismatic personality takes over and the conversation flows with ease. Topics range from his new solo album Wanted Dead Or Alive — a nod to the 1986 Bon Jovi song of the same name — and a potential Bone Thugs biopic to the infamous Migos controversy and LL Cool J.
“I thought I was LL Cool J, at one point,” he tells HipHopDX with a laugh. “I love him. I liked how he moved. I mean, just his aggressiveness. When he made ‘I Need Love,’ I was in seventh grade. I wanted to just fall in love. That didn’t work out, but you know.”
It’s almost hard to believe Bone Thugs has been around for almost three decades, but their colorful industry tales are a staunch reminder of their longevity. Krayzie Bone, Layzie Bone, Bizzy Bone, Flesh-N-Bone and Wish Bone have immersed themselves in the culture since taking a bus from Cleveland to Los Angeles in an effort to track down N.W.A legend Eazy-E. Ultimately, Eazy ended up signing the five-piece collective to Ruthless Records in late 1993 and the rest is history.
Looking back on his career, Layzie recalled a funny incident that happened after landing in New York City to record “Notorious Thugs” with Biggie, not something many Hip Hop artists can say they’ve done. With longtime manager Steve Lobel in tow, Bone Thugs made their way to The Record Plant studio.
“Showing up to the studio, we was in a limousine,” he says. “We came from St. Clair in a limousine going to see Biggie Smalls and Puffy in the studio. Everybody was there — I’m talkin’ Stevie J, because Stevie J did the beat, everybody from Bad Boy — except for Lil Kim, I ain’t see her that day — everybody from our camp, Ruthless Records, because we was in the house. So you got to imagine B.G. Knocc Out, all our security and Bone Thug-n-Harmony. We was having a ball up in that piece, right?”
Layzie continues, “So the song was being made. It only took about five hours, too. We did our part. I was asleep in the limo. They woke me up. I did my shit just out of my sleep. Everybody thought they’d freestyle and all this type shit. Well, let me see you freestyle more than 16, 20 bars at a time.
“Anyway, Big was like, ‘I’m going to take this home, man’ and he stole my weed! He put my weed in his pocket. I’m like, ‘That’s a whole ounce, Big.’ He said, ‘Y’all got some good ass weed, yo.’ I’m like, ‘Man, give my muthafuckin’ weed back, Big.’ He’s like, ‘This yours?’ So, he gave me my weed back. We broke it in half, actually, and then this nigga went home, took this song and died before he got to hear his verse.”
Royce Da 5'9 Uses Layzie Bone's Black-On-Black Crime Meme As A Teachable Moment
The track ended up on Biggie’s sophomore album Life After Death, which was released 16 days after his March 9, 1997 murder.
“We ain’t know he was going to kick it off like that,” Layzie adds.
The song itself was littered with references to the perceived animosity between B.I.G. and Tupac Shakur. Biggie clearly refers to ‘Pac in the line “so called beef with you-know-who” and calls the alleged feud “bullshit.” Meanwhile, Bone Thugs throw a few barbs at Three 6 Mafia, Twista, Crucial Conflict and Do or Die.
Bone Thugs-n-Harmony’s seminal album E. 1999 Eternal turns 25 on Saturday (July 25). The 17-track project was released in 1995 and served as their first official album under the Ruthless Records imprint.
Check back later this week for Part II of HipHopDX’s interview with Layzie Bone where he’ll discuss the Migos “beef,” the aforementioned biopic and more.
Notorious Thugs is 1 of the best rap songs ever.
Bone was on fucking fire in the late 90s.
Body Rott still bumps in my ride
Layzie and Bizzy’s verse!!!!!!! I read Bizzy’s lyrics, very deep brother.
Bizzy verses usually are the problem is a lot of people can rarely understand him or make out what he’s saying. He has some really dope lyrics.
One of the best Biggie verses ever on that Notorious Thugs. Hip hop ain’t the same today smh
It’s Bone…Ya kina have to
its bone n biggie biggie…its bone n biggie biggie…if memory serves me correctly this was track 1 on the second disc….anyways, crucial conflict, do or die n a few others came after Bone, but Twista was definitely before Bone got known..with that past paced style of spittin so iono why they threw shots at Twista, if anyone its Twista who made that shit kinda poppin in the midwest back in teh days…bone is still a unique hiphop collective for sure…RIP to BIG
Twista might have been doing it before Bone but no one had ever heard of twista until after Bone thugs blew up. Twista might have been known locally, but not regionally or nationally. Bone Thugs overall style is way different than twista. They both have rapid fast flow, but certain members in Bone like Krayzie and Bizzy have ranges in their voice that twista doesn’t have. Twista is very dope but talent wise Krayzie and bizzy are on a another level than twista and the rest of the members in Bone.
All those artist diss Bone first. Do or die member even said in a interview that twista was pushing to diss Bone while they were collbabing they said they didn’t want to because they had no static with Bone but gave in to the request. Twista, do or die, 3-6 all diss bone first. Bone had no reasons to diss them they were the number selling rap group in the 90’s era in prob the most or 2nd most popular right there with Wu. The only group that didn’t diss bone first was Crucial conflict but bone took a shot at them on Art of war so they had to come back. I was a fan of all those groups I hated they were dissing each other I always skip the songs with the disses.
‘Man, give my muthafuckin’ weed back, Big.’ BONE THUGS BIGGIE LEGENDS! Notorious Thugs Layzie verse on that was incredible LEGENDS
Bone and Biggie one of the most legendary hip hop collabs ever. Bone Thugs collab with Pac and Big in the same year.
That album cover is horrific but the music is actually nice. Good work by layzie bone. I wish Krayzie would get back to being consistent. Krayzie my favorite out of bone thugs n harmony but he is bad at picking beats and he holds on to songs too long. Layzie is no where near as good as krayzie but layzie has put out 3 full length albums in a year. All krayzie does is make announcements for albums that never drop. I want the hear that weed album and the R&B style album.
Younger fans don’t understand that until Biggie did that, you never heard a popular eastcoast rapper do another type of style. I remember breaking his lyrics down for days with my niggas, we couldn’t believe he was able to flip their shit like that…
Creeping on tha come up 4x platinum, East 1999 Eternal 7x platinum, The art of war 4x platinum, The collection volume one 2x platinum, the collection volume 2 platinum, Resurrection Platinum, Thug World Order Platinum, Flesh N Bone the least none member solo album Thugs Platinum, Bizzy Bone solo Heavenz Movie Platinum, Krayzie Bone solo Thug mentality Platinum. In between those albums they dropped a few compilation albums that went double platinum. 12 straight platinum projects. Bone Thugs-N-Harmony 90’s dominance
Wanted dead or alive is a solid album, I thought layzie previous album wasn’t that good the production sounded outdated some of the songs sounded 15 years old. Annihilation was a good album not better than wanted dead or alive but good. I still think there are a few missteps. Sometimes their are features where their shouldn’t be. Like on the track alright which is a good song but would’ve been great without the featured artist on there, layzie verse was really dope but he only had one verse he should have either took that other ft verse off and added another verse himself or added someone like Krayzie bone or bizzy, flesh to it. The other ft were placed pretty well I love Dame Dollar verse and that song he’s on. The features for smoke and thru it all were good to. Album cover was not good though lol probably layz worst album cover ever. Overall I’m feeling this album
Legends!!!