By Chesney Hearst, Senior Contributing Reporter
RIO DE JANEIRO, BRAZIL – On Friday, May 8th, Lapa’s Fundição Progresso will present the Hip-Hop Live Festival, with Brazilian groups 3030 and Cacife Clandestino and headliners, American hip-hop icons, Bone Thugs-N-Harmony. The American band will play songs in homage of their second album.
Bone Thugs-N-Harmony will first perform in São Paulo on the 7th before heading to Rio de Janeiro. Consisting of rappers Krayzie Bone (Anthony Henderson), Layzie Bone (Steven Howse), Bizzy Bone (Bryon Anthony McCane II), Wish Bone (Charles Scruggs) and Flesh-n-Bone (Stanley Howse), the São Paulo and Rio shows will mark the first time all five members have performed together in Brazil.
The group arrives in the country as part of an ongoing twenty-country world tour in celebration of the twentieth anniversary of their second and best-selling album, E. 1999 Eternal, which they are playing live in its entirety during tour stops.
Known for their fast-paced and harmonizing flow, Bone Thugs-N-Harmony was formed in Cleveland, Ohio in 1993. Caught at that time between the two dominant hip-hop/rap camps of East Coast and West Coast, Krayzie Bone, Layzie Bone, Wish Bone, and Bizzy Bone, then known as B.O.N.E. Enterpri$e, headed out to Los Angeles in search of fame. There, they eventually managed to catch the attention of rapper Eazy-E, and were signed under Ruthless Records.
With the later addition of Lazyzie Bone’s brother, Flesh-n-Bone, the group released their first album as Bone Thugs-N-Harmony, an EP entitled, Creepin on ah Come Up. With Eazy-E as executive producer, the EP and its singles, “Thuggish Ruggish Bone” and “Foe tha Love of $” brought the group national attention.
Following the death of Eazy-E in 1995, the group released their second album E. 1999 Eternal. It would go on to become their biggest selling album and to earn them two Grammy Award nominations in 1996 and a Grammy Award win in 1997 for “Best Rap Performance by a Duo or Group,” for the album’s single “Tha Crossroads.”
Dedicated to their mentor, Eazy-E, the single “Tha Crossroads” sold over two million copies worldwide and hit number one on the Billboard Hot 100 chart. In 2008, the single was named 33rd on VH1’s “100 Greatest Hip-Hop Songs” list.
However, last year Rolling Stone magazine ranked the single 97th on their “100 Greatest Hip-Hop Songs” list, prompting a post about the list from Lazyie Bone on Facebook.
He later explained to Cleveland.com during an interview last month; “I’m so used to people not giving us our props for being trendsetters and for creating a style and a lane for rappers and singers to merge together,” later adding, “The whole thing about it was Bone Thugs-n-Harmony changed the game.”
Still considered by many others to have been unique and influential innovators in the hip-hop genre, the group, despite some pauses and missing members at times, currently shows no sign of slowing down. In fact, the ongoing tour and promises of an upcoming album, may signal a new round of game changing moves from the group.
Opening for Bone Thugs-n-Harmony on Friday will be the Brazilian groups 3030 and Cacife Clandestino. Formed by rappers and the singer and violinist Bruno Chelles, 3030 combines the sounds rap, MPB, and RnB. Cacife Clandestino is a Rio de Janerio group, formed by Felp22, TerrorDosBeats and Cyon, that is known for its rap and hip-hop songs including “Elas Precisam Também” and “A Droga Que Eu Gosto.”
Additionally during the Hip Hop Live Festival on Friday, DJs Sadam, Tucho and Bruno Vinelli will spin. Gates will open at 10PM.
What: Hip-Hop Live Festival with Bone Thugs-N-Harmony
When: Friday, May 8th, 10PM
Where: Fundição Progresso, Rua dos Arcos 24, Lapa
Entrance: R$30-R$140