The Layzie Bone Episode

their heads and then blame it on us. Don't get it twisted on code and we danceing for no buttament biscuits. It's Willie d y'all scar faces in the building. Collective Louis are the ghetto boys, reloaded with another episode of information and instructions to help you navigate through this wild, crazy, beautiful world in the studio. Bone bone, bone, bone bone, lazy bone is in the building. Fast, yes, yes, hey, King, let's go on to see you. Man. It's always good

to see. It's always an honor to being your presence man, you know, double o G Yeah, I appreciate you. Right now. You're out on the road with your group and TLC y'all doing days? How many dates have y'all done so far? We've been rapped about twelve twelve days so far, about seven mot ago, right, yeah, and then what and then it's uh, I'm doing solo dates. So I got solo dates coming up. We also got a gang of bone dates not at the world opened up. We we're ready

for Okay, all right, that sounds good man. You know, Boom concert is always exciting because you know, you got all you guys on the stage and everybody's doing their own thing. It's always a lot. It's like a bunch of moving pieces, so to speak. So everybody it's like you're looking over here. You know, you're doing your thing over here, flishes over here doing this thing, busy over doing this, that wish overre doing this thing. You got crazy over here doing this thing. Yeah, it's gumbo, man,

it's earned it up in the pot. Look, man, I want you to like explain like your relationship with each member of the group, starting with your brother flesh, right, what's that relationship like? Well, you know my big brother man, you know we uh we tied it in we tightest net booty and you can't you can't you can't separate the house boys. You know what I'm saying that Booty, you know, it's just separable. Yeah. But you know my big brother man, you know he uh, he really responsible

for teaching me my responsibilities in life. Taught me how to count money, you know what I mean, taught me how not to throw it away. You know. So my brother is just like we've been inseparable since first grade. We went to first grade together and you know, everything we did, my mom saying if you go outside, he go outside. So one of those relationships the first grade together because you yeah, you have the same same mother, mother and father. Yes, and y'all the same grade together. Yeah.

So no, that flesh flesh Bone got held back in the first grade. Now that was because we was moving. We had my mother went to Colorado or something like that and came back to Cleveland and they held him back and I was starting school. Yes, I have to ask that very I know they're not twins, yes not. We only were only a year apart though, you know what I'm saying, So, you know, closest brothers could possibly be. You know, Busy Bone the baby of the group. He

was the last one to come along. You know what I'm saying. And uh, I met him through my mother as well, because my mother had a friendship with his dad, you know what I'm saying, And we uh end up taking him in and that's my little brother, you know what I'm saying. So ever since I was sixteen when he entered into my life, I think he was fourteen, and he's been baby bro every since. You know what I'm saying. Crazy Bone was my is my best friend,

my my road dog, you know what I mean. The reason why I took rap serious in the first place, and um met him in the seventh grade. We had a group called band Aid boys, you know what I'm saying, in uh talent shows and gone shows and we was in the choir together and all that type of stuff. Yeah, we had the band aids man. We was, Yeah, we had them up under our eyes. I think we thought that made us tough back in eighties five something like that,

you know what I mean. And Wish Bones is my blood cousin too, so it's it's really a family thing. So what is bone? I know, bone is the acronym for what brothers on normally elimination in butt it out niggas every Day brewed out Niggas ay Day and that's it. Just boned Bone is the the last name, you know what I mean? That's we was born Enterprise before we was born Thugs and Harmon. What was that dude that y'all was working with, Kermit or something like that, Kerman Henderson. Yeah,

slow Foot Mother is still around. Um, yeah, he's still out, He's still he's still alive, you know what I'm saying. We put out an album called Faces of Death for him back in like one. Yeah, and how did y'all transition to getting over the easy? Because I'm sure he didn't just have y'all for one album? Did he? Just? No? Well, actually, I mean that was a whole Jankee situation. We've been through what you know what I'm saying. Like, actually, we were signed to a management contract and he put the

record out. We recorded a record mand we was getting like fifty dollars a week, splitting uh to dollars a piece, you know, yeah, ten dollars a piece of fifty dollars a week, and um, but I was fifteen fifteen, about to be sixteen, and we was just excited to be recording back then to hear ourselves on tape. You know what I mean. We was emulating, y'all. We was emulating uh n w a, you know what I mean. We was out there on the block doing that. Do you

remember that concert that you guys open up for Ghetto Boys? Yeah? Man, you know, like when I first heard y'all, like, I was backstage. Actually I was in the dressing room. And so this is before y'all came out, you know, before y'all the world knew you guys. As the Bone does in harmony, right, y'all probably was okay, So at that point,

y'all were still boned enterprise. So I'm in the dressing room and I just hear this rumbling crowd, noises, people just going crazy, and like, what the hell is that? What's going on? So Chief, I wrote, Manager was like, yeah, Chiefs like, man, that's the niggas up, man, that's the niggas out here. Man, uh man Bone Bone something man, Man, Man, they're going they love that ship man. What the fund is they're saying? And he said, man, I don't know,

but they love that ship man. They love that ship man. I was like, so I'm listening and I was impressed, but I was not business savvy enough to say, hey, man, come on, man, come go. You know, let's do this. You know, like I didn't get it, like easy got it. Easy heard that and it was so so different, you know, that whole, that whole uh soliloquy, rapid style, the cattle float. You know. Yeah, it's like, what did y'all learn that? Well?

I mean it was, It wasn't really learned. It was developed over a period of time, you know what I'm saying, Like because first well, our first thing was who could put the most words in the rap in the bar? Whoever can put the most words in the bar was the dopest that day, you know what I'm saying. And Crazy Ball took it and mastered it and really liked he put the fire on it. We had a song called flow Motion, and that's when we knew that's what we're gonna do. We're gonna out wrap everybody by put

more words in the wrap. And then the singing came along, because you know, growing up to our parents music Marvin Gay, Smokey Robinson or no Stevie Wonder, all that that everything we heard in the house trying to be new. Addition as kids and and all that so the singing came along by us doing our ad libs and you know, by us having an alternating switch. We have paused and then go pause, go. So that's how we knew how

to go fast, speed up, go fast, speed up. So it was like over a course of years, because from like eighty four to ninety two, we was like you could say we was an artist development. We was trying everything. We tried. We was y'all, we was in w A, We was the fush Nickins. We was, um, who what's the bum sticky bone, sticky bom bone. Uh that's effects yeah all that. So yeah, it was like over a

ten year period when it wasn't overnight. Ten years we was doing talent shows and trying to just be somebody for a minute. Yea. So Twister, what was twister at this time? Before you get Twister? Twister came out before us. I really didn't know too much about Twister, But like I mentioned, the foosh Nikins, they had a super fast flow. Uh poor righteous teachers had something like flipping bust of rhymes variation, but it was fast. Everybody was just going

fast and was no rhythm to it. And do what I went to do it do what that came along. It was after I know they was after us. We came out ninety four, so they might have been ninety six with Pop with our independent album. We met Easy and ninety three we met Easy like we left November twenty three one way bus tickets when went out. We was like homeless for like three months out m California.

Met Easy, got to open up for him. All that long story short in June by jun uh Cleveland and okay, so so you open up for Easy in Cleveland, you wrapped, didn't you wrapped for him backstage or something like that. Let me get you the whole timeline. So we went November twenty third. N we left and we went to California. We was homeless. We heard he had a show in Cleveland.

We got back home and he was doing That's when he had real motherfucking Jeeves had just came out and um no, we hadn't met him, but we talked to him on the phone. We had wrapped to him over the phone because the secretary we called his office every day and we were wrapped to everybody in the office and they passed the phone around. Yeah, they passed the

phone around. So we got back to Cleveland, and because we had Faces of Death out and we had our thing with Kurmen Henderson and he had the store dolls, we had a little connects. So once once we got once we did that show. He didn't see our performances that night, but that charged us up to bum rush backstage and then we just I ran up on Yellow Boy wrapping and he picked his head out the door, like man, y'all the niggas was on the phone wrapping. We're like, yeah, man, it's us. He liked boomed and

that was it. You know, we got back. We went in the dressing room. It was about a thousand niggas and they're trying to, you know, show E what they had. And actually it was being busy that got backstage and ship we did our thing and shut off everybody in

Cleveland had that. We shut that thing down, and he uh went back on tour and a few weeks later he sent for us, and by novm and and and by June we had Thuggers Ruggish Bone out June nine four, So it was like a four month period that we was recording with Easy and then the album came out and the rest was history. How did the name lazy Bone come about? Wow? Um, lazy boon? Because if Ryan was crazy Bone, you know when I was I was telling you, when I was out in Texas, I was

already I formulated the name Bob. I was busy boned first, So I was busy boned. And when I finally came home back home to Cleveland, and I shared the bond idea with Crazy Bone, and I was like, well, what bond would you be? He like, Nigga, I'm crazy, And by him being my best friend in the world, it was like, well, I'm gonna be lazy then. And then the busy Bone was just sitting there. And then my mom introduced me to to Brian McCain. He was mc

mellow and but he was off the chain. I'm like, okay, so you busy bone and I'm basically lazy because it rhyme was crazy. Now I don't have a lazy bone in my body. Wow. Yeah, that is a fascinating story, man. Yeah. Man, that's that's how I formulated the whole Formulady crazy lazy Bone is crazy because it rhyme like that, and I wanted to be like my friend. Well, all this time I've been doing you damn it thirty years and I

never thought to ask you that question. Yeah, everybody be like, well, why why they call you lazy because you're not lazy? You all over the place. Well, there it is. I never told it to the world before, but there it is. The you see, I tell you crazy, I tell you we should tell you. You You heard it here first and getto boys reloaded Flesh and tell you you guys put out a song with Biggie and you put out a song with Pock, one or the few acts in music to be able to make that clean. How did that

come about? Wasn't Biggie and Pop? Wasn't that some kind of beef at that time you did those songs? The boys was filled. Yeah, so how did you How did you guys facilitate making a song with Biggie and Pop? And was there any friction within your camp or any type of mistrust or whatever on either side? When he was guys was like, Hey, I want to do a

song with you guys. Oh, by the way, we're gonna do a song with no It was it was like we had did the song with pop first, so pop did We did the song with Pop and that song came out and um Pop got murdered, and then we did the song with Big and we never even heard Biggie verse until his came out because he passed away

before we even got to hear his verse on the song. Yeah, so we you know, and we was from the Midwest, so we felt like we felt like, oh like with the south, East coast, West coast, we was we had a piece of all that being from Cleveland, anybody from Cleveland. No that we bumped the ghetto boys from the south, you know. Of course, everybody rocked him L A L. Everybody from the East coast and n W A and DJ Quick and everybody from west. So we stayed mutual

basically because the fuse that Easy he was having. He didn't want us to have no part of that because we was ready to ride for eat whatever however, but he was like, no, I got something better for y'all. Y'all different, and we don't know, we we don't understand that at the time, but that's how we was able to facilitate that. What was it like being around Easy? What was his energy like? Man, he was cool, he was humble, you know what I mean. You would think

he would be with the broads. You think he would be motherfucking and cussing all the time, But he was really like a humble, cool dude. I had my son with me back then. He had always take my son like that type of spirit love kids, take us out to eat niggas, don't eat all a fool. He'd take the full give it to the whoever was homeless outside, you know what I'm saying. So he was like he was just a cool, cool, cool dude, you know what I mean, Like real, real, humble. Can you remember the

more that you heard about his death. I can. I went straight to Cleveland because the moment it was, it was so crazy. Man. We had went to New York. This was like this wasn't even ninety for almost nine It was like November, right after Thanksgiving, we went to New York. I remember we went to the tunnel and uh, he talked to Ice Cube that night were you know, we're kids, man, were like nive with Cube and Cube. But we're sitting there watching it, you know what I'm saying.

So like February, we heard that he was in the house. He was where he went to the hospital. Then we heard about the AIDS you know what I mean. And then it was like, well, he gonna be all right. We're still recording, he still got us in the studio, he's still paying for our room and board and basically taking care of us, you know what I'm saying. So we get a call like easy to eat gone, Like

what you mean gone? Like where you go? They're like, no, honey, heat he passed away, Like what because we couldn't see him. They wouldn't let us see him in the hospital, you know what I'm saying. So it was like I thought the world was over at that time, Like damn, we just got on just our luck, bone thugs and bone thugs, just our luck with something good happened, and then something bad happened, you know what I mean. So I remember

that day. I was sitting on my stairs talking to my wife on the phone and then we get the call and mean, I'll call you right back, and they told us spread the news around the house, and we

was just lost. Man. So I went home to Cleveland and said, I'm I thought rapping was over with for a long time, for about at least three fot five months before we got a call saying, okay, we need you all to come in and finish what y'all was doing one So it was that was the craziest period in hip hop that I that we had to endure losing him because he kept us solo. I mean, he kept us separate from everybody, like we was like his secret weapon. If if anybody remember he started getting his

hair braid and the curl was gone. He was like a member of Bone, you know what I'm saying. So I absolutely remember. It's hard to relive it too many. Yeah,

I spoke to Easy. I never met Easy in person, but I spoke to him once on the phone, and uh, it's uh, it's one of those things that you know, like when you meet certain people you you you know, you wish you had you would have uh I guess uh uh alonger relationship with or even having a relationship with, you know, some kind of because Easy was a brilliant dude, and he don't get an ugh credit for his brilliance.

I mean, come on, man, dude gave us you know in w A, JJ was in w A. You know, Yeah, had the foresight to see that, you know, but Bone, I mean I'm speaking as far as just like groups. This is two of the greatest groups of all times. Like anybody on anybody's top whatever list, Bone and w A is gonna consistently come up. You know that dude

has some he has some foresight and insight. Do you keep in touch with I guess Tami could put that put the record out right after he died to Maka and uh Cassandra where was a very very influential lady that was helping to run the company at that time

as well. So she was the creative after easy that helped guide our creativity into the new Crossroads because we had the song cross Roads, which was dedicated to my homeboy Wally, uh cousin Bull, a couple of people we lost along the way, and then she had the insight to say, well, let's let's remake this for E and so Cassandra where it was very very instrumental and uh Tamika was the executive. She was called she was, she was the purse. She was, she was she was making

it happen. On songs, there's oftentimes a very little thing that said in a song that really takes it all the way. Like the song can already be jamming, but you put us at a little thing or whatever the sound or whatever and bad So Crossroads. It's jack it all the way through, but then just out of nowhere, I don't want to think you like, who can I miss everybody? That's busy that's busy Bone part. I'm gonna miss everybody, and I'm gonna miss everybody. I'm sorry, yeah,

say yeah, I'm gonna that's busy. Shot that in that busy Bones. Shot that in there, and that's you know, the crowd sing that when he don't come, when he when he not present. We let that song ride and let the crowd sing that because they love to say I'm gonna miss everybody, and and wish bond with that. I missed my uncle Charles, y'all. You know what I'm saying, Like those little it's bringing back memories. Man, It's uh,

that's some good stuff. Man. How do you feel about out two days artists who are who has that harmonic type sound like bone do you feel like you guys you know a part of that evolution. I feel like that's what besides having a song with Park Easy and Biggie, those three, I feel like that's what solidified Bone thugs and harmony. Like not to be cocky but we fathered that, you know what I mean, like from when Mariah Carey did it. You know what I mean to everybody, everybody

that sing and wrap and harmonized. Now I hear bone, thugs and harmony in it. You know, we don't get the props, but without us, it wouldn't be there, right, you know. I used to think that, well, there, you gotta give me my props to people know what's up. And then at some point I'm like, you know what fun that you gotta remind people? Yeah, like yeah, yeah, hey man, you say what you want to say. And sometimes people, oh, yeah, oh that's right. He didn't do that.

Oh I ain't. I didn't know, you know, because I used to didn't tell people about my rapping, you know, like what as far as my writing, you know, when I was writing for Bill, I never told anybody that I wrote for Bill until Bill got on an interview and said I didn't write for him, and I like, wait a minute, man, I'm like, you know, especially considering that I wrote the first thing that he ever I'm the one that suggested that he become a member of

the get Aboard. I wrote his first rap. I wrote Side and Ship my very first thing he said, and the dude. For the dude to say that, I was like, man, you know what, I'm gonna start telling motherfucker's everything that I do because sometimes, you know, being humble can can cost you. Being too humble can cost you. Let's put it like that. I think it's important for people to know what you've done if you working on a project.

That's so many people in this world that work at companies and organizations, even at uh at foundations, you know, charitable foundations. They do a whole lot to make those companies and organizations business or whatever move forward, but they don't get any correct credit. They don't get the recognition this person and fund of them who ain't really done ship and get all of the credit. And I think that it's important for people to make note and let

people know, nah, I did this or whatever. And of course, if you work for a company, you gotta be careful because some you know, what's that saying and for the laws of power never shot in the mask. You gotta be very careful about that. How many kids you have m hmm yeah, seven eight nine, you got nack? Yeah? Wow? Yeah? How many boys and girls? Uh? Five? Five girls? Five girls and four boys. Yeah, yeah, grown kids. Now I'm five paup Paul and four boys. Any of the kids rapping,

all of them? Really? Yeah, I'm I'm the new Joe Jackson man. All my kids get it. My son's my son, Stephen Jr. He's just put out where he got three new songs out right now on the internet and uh, and he go up under the name of Stephen House Jr. Won't change it to a rap name or nothing. So he put out a couple of hitted hundred thousand on one fuse the first day, you know. But he and he actually sing, so they sing, They wrapped instruments, the

whole nine producing, you know. So they're definitely following in my in my footsteps and bone footsteps. So yeah, I'm gonna give you a list to who I who I'm working with. I got Trinity, my daughter, who uh, growing up hip hop is interested in and now I'm working with growing up hip hop now you know what I'm saying. So and my son Stevin, he's the rapper rapper, you know. So and yeah, they they did and they they're ready, man. But they they've been doing it since they came out

the wound. So you know, yeah, man, my kids are talented, and I'm damn there to that level where I got a couple more albums in me because I love music so much. Man, it's my therapy, you know. I mean that music. Me being there to have a studio at home brought me home to my children, and I was able to share that with him, you know what I'm saying. So now I go home and they got four five six that made songs done to, three albums put up and you know, just waiting for the perfect time too

to hit the same with them. They out here and Houston. I got two sons out here in Houston making noise around the town. So yeah, they I mean not from Houston, but they out here. I got their friends, the kids, they went to school, We got family out here, so they came down here. Actually a little Stevie's first video it's done in Houston with the Houston back dropping all that.

So yeah, I'm rooted. I'm rooted everywhere. Man. When you look at your kids, even before let's say, let's talk about before they got into the game, you never was so jaded by the industry, like a lot of people jaded by the industry, So you never was jaded, so jaded by the industry that you said herself, you know, I don't want you doing this, never to any of your kids there, you know, because I always looked at it like it was a challenge, you know, first of all,

the challenge of getting in the door, you know. Then the second of all, the challenge of trying to make my deals better because I got we got took so many times, you know them deals wasn't right. But every time I sold another record, I've always been, always been about the business as well, you know what I'm saying.

So every time we did a platinum, I wanted to renegotiate everything, and and by me knowing that getting advice from e when for the love time that we did spend with him, that charged me up, Like, oh, it's a game, y'all want to play the game. So if I sell more records, I get to come back to the table and holat two or you know what I'm saying. So the negotiation part kept me into it. And my whole thing was always to own everything I want. I wanted to do it with little Jay was doing. I

wanted to do what easy he was doing. It and Russ and Lee or Coin's and them. I wanted to be that, you know what I'm saying. So music it's my love and keep me grounded. But at the same time, numbers and money in, you know, just to be the best was always so I wasn't jaded about my kids. I never tried to, no, because all my life had been music. My mother a singer, you know what I'm saying.

So my mother sung. She she never really made it, made it, but she did background with the uh oh Jays and things like that, where I remember being real little with her going to the bars and singing. So I ain't never really seen another path but entertainment. So is that where it comes from? Yeah, Mama Pete, Yeah, Mama Pete. Man, she's she's a real brick house. Yeah, that's your mom. Just celebrated a birthday. Yeah, and so you guys in the same month, labor gang. Yeah, did

you ever have a birthday party together? Man? All my parties was with my mom, you know, ever since I was I was having house parties. Man. When I was twelve years old, you know what I'm saying, all the high school kids was coming. My mother let me she'd rather stay home and do what we did instead of

running the streets, you know what I'm saying. So I was allowed to do things other kids my age wasn't able to do because my mom other you know, everything that went on in the eighties, we did it my mother. You know, at one point of time, the crack epidemic had her. And you know, I was able to roam around and I so dope and I did this, but my mother made a safe haven at home. Bone came home, you know what I'm saying. So we had house parties. Man,

we was the ship way back then. Like so my kids get it honestly now that I you know, I feel like I learned so much from being robbed and took, like now with the Internet and I got all my rights back working on getting our masters from Ruthless and all that ship. Like, my kids are their own bosses, you know. I mean, they're managing their own careers. They just come to me for advice. I mean, I just consult. Have you ever thought about moving out of Cleveland? Man?

I um, I mean, I'm I'm always have one ft in Cleveland, but mainly I'm in l A because that's where all my businesses you know what I'm saying, Like Cleveland, we had to leave Cleveland to bring it back, you know what I mean, because it wasn't there. It was either you go to New York, come down south, or California. And that's why I planted my my feet at California, and I you know, my empire, it's on both sides, but I'm in California because that's where all the business

at for me. How bad is the gang activity in Cleveland now? Because I remember going to Cleveland to do a show maybe like two thousand or something like that, and I didn't know Cleveland was that bad. It's horrible. I didn't know it was that bad. We had a show. And when I say, the whole entire damn vine was we're talking game, like everybody was game. I was like, damn, what happened? And this was just I guess I hadn't

been there probably about maybe ten years. When I went right, I was like, whoa, Yeah, that transformed, and that transforming about it because when I was growing when I was growing up, when we got on, I was twenty years old. So the generation after that, like we didn't even believe in gangs like that. We wrapped. Our streets were from the street, you know. I mean, we're so dope, that's what we did. So now it's they're young man, they died, they're going fast, and you know, I know some very

influential people trying to help that cause in Cleveland. But it's bad. It's it's bad. It's nothing. It's nothing to do. That's why I'm trying to I'm trying to do what I'm doing to bring it home. How did y'all feel, well, how did you feel specifically when people were accusing you guys are being devil wishippers worshipers back in the day. Yeah, I remember y'all doing. Then y'all do something with a Weji boy. I can't crystallized memory of it, but I

remember something. I was doing something with a wei boy. Let let me clarify that. So everything we probably ever did, we wrote songs about. So in high school, somebody brought a Weiji board to school and by the way, it's a Parker Brothers game, you know what I mean. It was bought at Toys or us. Somebody brought it to school. We played it was like, oh man, we're gonna make a song about it. Never thinking that because our most of our families are Jehovah witnesses, you know what I'm saying.

So we grew up with Christ in us. And yeah, our our family, it was mad. It was mad, but we made songs crazy. Bam. Mama put us the funk out, like she's seen that ship in her house and she was like, get the fun out all y'all, get don't come back, and yeah, broke it up. And but yeah, we made a song about it. Man. And when people thought we was uh devil worshipers, I just thought that was absurd, Like if you really listen, if you really

a fan of Bone and you listen to it. We mentioned guys so much in our music, like how could you think that? But not knowing now that when I look at hindsight, okay, I see what they how they could have mistooken mistaken that. But now we we We rocked with the Lord Man Jesus Christ all day long.

Jan Roue was recently on the show and he told me about how his mother was banished from That's Your Hope for Witness program because she had been having relations with worldly people, just like just kicking it with hanging out with worldly people and they banished that I didn't know Jehovah witnesses. Was that gangster? I just thought they just knocked on doors. No, no, no, no, they get rid of you. Man. It's it's some rules and things that go along with being a Jehovah's witnesses. I studied.

I never became a Jehovah witness, but I studied Jehovah's witness and like just like I studied, I studied up. I studied the Karan. My brother, Flesh and Bone is a Muslim, so you got crazy Bone families, Jehovah witnesses. My grandmother was a Jehovah's witness. My brother became a Muslim, so we got we got so much. It's a diversity with them bond as very very hard displain, but it works because we talked about all all love it. Okay, if you look at society, let's talk about American society.

American society is very diverse, but what we don't have is people who have a tolerance for people who don't have the same beliefs as they do. So how did bone does in harmony make it work? Because bone thugs and we found out real real early that we needed each other because we was all dope on our own, you know what I mean, Like we were, we dressed dope, we was everything we did individually, we shined at it.

But we we when we recognize if if all of us, because we used to do this, well, take our hands like one, two, three, five, put it together. Now hit that nigger, and that's how we thought, like as a whole, we weigh stronger. So I think if American society realized that little simple thing, you know, it's it's good to be different and get different opinions, you get different outlooks on things. And we embraced that, like at the ages

of twelve and thirteen, because we wanted out of the ghetto. Man, it was hard, it was we was hungry, you know what I'm saying. And when we rocked together, when we wouldn't got that bag from the dope man like you you on that corner, you on that corner, I'm gonna be here, y'all, y'all got the night shift, and then we'd take the day shift. Like we worked. We rocked like that the whole time. So understanding that we were stronger together as kids, that's how we got on because

we stuck together. But America, I just think it's too finicky, you know what I'm saying, And they just complaining and complaining and not appreciating. So that's a whole another bag, This American pot wei in, you know what I mean. But stronger together, we gotta saying. Called team. The ancronym of team is together everyone achieves more. You know that, man, together,

everyone achieves more. That's the bond anchronym for team. When you were in the streets, what's like the worst thing that you saw that made you say, Man, I ain't doing this father, I got to get the other out of it. You know. I got shot in the head at six Team. I went to jail when I was fourteen for the first time. I was fourteen years I never forget these dates. August twenty three, nineteen eighty nine,

sent me off. We was born. We was bandais boys at that time, and I had to be away from like my my boys always was my family, and I had to be away for that. That's where the bone came from, you know what I mean. Like plotting, it's a it's a deep story behind bone. But the the way it came about was me going to jail and I had to come home. And when I did get a chance to come home, I lived in Texas. I lived in Dallas, went to a school called Trinity and that was my tim gray year. And I came home

and I had to find my brothers. I had to find wish Bone. I didn't know where he was at, you know what I mean. I had to find crazy Bone. I actually ran into his craziest dad walked in the store and his dad was there and I'm like, where the fund is that? And he told me and I went and found him. And that's about the time my mother introduced busy and I was going back to do when I left off, like I was going to see who who I used to get my bag from and

be like, yeah, I'm home. I ain't say nothing. I did my little time, although it was juvenile, you know. I went to Texas and came back and boom, walking down the street, got mis stick in ass somebody else. Niggas jumped out, tried to jump on me and my brother. We beat their ass, and nigga poured out a gun. I tried to run and they hit me in the head. Still there, they said, don't do this, but I'm hardheaded, so I shake it anyway. But yes, this so, but that was a lifetime ago. It seemed like I was

sixteen years old. And that's when I said, you know what, I ain't doing nothing else but music. And right after that, if I did sell dope, it was to get the clothes we needed. I worked at KFC may show Ball had everything we need, a fairy show, you know what I'm saying, Like, so I struggle for this. I'm the glue. Everybody got their role, you know what I mean. Crazy Bone when it comes to wrap and he the sense say to me, you know what I'm saying, be harmony

and fleshes the general and wishes the lieutenant at arms. Me. I'm the glue. I'm the liber I'm the one gonna go get everybody like it's time to come home, It's time to do this. It's it's money to be made. So that's my perspective role with the Bone, thugs and Harmony. So getting shot in the head, that was it for me. I'm like, I ain't doing this, no mo. It was time to leave Cleveland. And then they killed my best friend. My best friend while he was breaking up a fight

some ship. He ain't had nothing to do with Nigga, couldn't hand me, pulled out a pistol, shot him in the chest. And when our first when Faces of Death was coming out, we got the tape back the day before, a couple of days before his funeral, and I buried the tape in his put the tape in his uh in the coffin, and after that it was like music. Music. We got to get out of Cleveland. That was the mission.

Did they ever found your shooter? Nope, So you could have ran across from any number of times you could have showed up at a bone concert. I probably shook his hand, and if to be honest, if I knew who he was, I would shake his hand. Thank you, Nigging for changing my mind. H See, I must change your mind. Literally, Yeah, I almost made me lose my

mind too, literally exactly. Um that that shell. You don't have to get tested for lead poisoning mm hmm Nope, because when it entered I mean at this bomb and my my doctor's called me iron head, and every now and again I get pains up in here. But that's all. It's like they're saying, it's too dangerous to try to take it out. They couldn't get it. Yeah, I guess they. Yeah,

they couldn't. They couldn't get to it. Yeah. I had one in my chest and I had it taken out, lived with it for about and probably three or four years, but I got tired of getting tested. I was paranoid about getting tested for lead parts and like catching lad parts, and so I would get tested a couple of times a year, and then finally I just got removed. Mine

wasn't as dangerous to remove. So yeah, and my and this it was five so so little that they, you know, they thought it would be more detrimental to move that thing. And I had lost it. It blew my ear out, like I was. I couldn't hear my left ear for a few years, and then one day I just popped in, like miraculously, miraculously, So yeah, I considered that a blessing.

About a year ago, you hopped on Instagram and went in on the me Goes people talking about Me Goes is the greatest group, the greatest hip hop group and all this step Steph, and you had something to say about it. For those who don't remember that, explain what was going on, oh man? For so, I know how I passed it up since then, but I mean, it's all it's it's cool now, but and I was. It was I was fighting a battle that wasn't even mine, man,

you know what I mean. It was Uh, I guess big Boy from from the radio out out in l A had asked one of them goals, Um, you know, do y'all feel like you're the greatest group? And by the way, which I think everybody should feel like they're the greatest, you know what I'm saying. And um he said what he said, and then Busy took it a certain way, and Busy Bone got that um big boy like yeah, you like he had a problem with big boys.

So that little talking and beef was going on, and some street niggas had gotta started talking, had got into it. So I felt like I had to stand up for Bone because Bone is like my baby, you know what I'm saying, and um, and it was just talk talk talk, and I hadn't said nothing that I I was just watching that this time. And then um he got on there and said something to the effect that them old broke niggas, and that pissed me off because I'm like, you comme I think it was it was offset because

I really went at him. I never heard the other to really say anything about it, but it was offset that. It was like uh like saying like we was played out, we was broken. Then they said they was the greatest group, not just in hip hop but in rap. But when the niggas said that we was broke, I'm like, oh, no, Nigga, I worked for mine. And then so I got at him, and then uh, one of the other little rappers says something,

and then it started turning into a thing. So I'm like, I just jumped on the mic and felt a certain way. He didn't write nothing down and just went at nigga's heads. You know what I'm saying. It's like because I felt like you, like I bond thugs and Harmony, would never disrespect ghetto boys because y'all paved the way for us. You know what I'm saying. We would never disrespect in w way. We would never disrespect tribe called quests or

anybody that put the work in. I just start feeling like these little niggas really think they they're ungrateful, Like nig you wouldn't be getting that bag if we put the work in and then you're saying you're the greatest group. But now you're saying you created my style. Man, fuck you. That's how I felt. But I mean now it's like I wish I wouldn't have said nothing because they didn't

pop back. I'm like that, and and it was like, well, let's count the money, let's see who's back the big No, we're your skills at because we take this rap ship serious, like it's an art and it's a real art, you know what i mean. So the art was like, I mean, they ain't want to They adn't want to do that. So I want a lot of people today they measure importance by how much money one has a right, and I just think about so many people who has had

an unlimited amount of money who ain't ship. I mean, just like, you know, i'mna kind of dude that I could be impressed with what someone does, but I'm more impressed with what kind of person you are. That's what impressed me the most, because I'd rather eat crumbs with bombs and snakes, I mean, steaks with snakes, you know

what I'm saying. I would rather eat crumbs with bombs than steaks with snakes, and that's the way I I operate, And it's just it just trips me out the level of as kissing that's out there with when it comes to people with money. When I was growing up, you could be hard and everything, and you could be a dude in the streets getting money. But if you couldn't protect your own money, nobody respected you. They're gonna take it. They would take it. For these days, these guys, I

actually out here protecting these dudes. They they're out here like getting in the way of the bullets and stuff. You know, Like of course, well they get in the way if they think the bullets ain't really gonna come, but when they really come, they get the hell out. I wait. But like, we wouldn't protect a sucker. We would protect a dude that wasn't gangster, but you know he was getting his money, but he respected the code and he looked out for people in the hood or whatever,

and you know he didn't he didn't flunt. Right, We protect that type of but just like a regular sucker and a matter how much of money, hey man, we're coming up on get that. You you got to give it up because we we just didn't respect I mean he's talking about, you know, growing up around a whole bunch of wolves. Man, you know, like man and everybody trying to eat and you're you're getting all this money and you're a sucker and you you know, you're shipping

on people. Oh man, you ain't gonna survive. Yeah, you're not gonna Absolutely, I'm cut from that cloth. That's the cloth I'm covering from. And that's that was the point, Like your characters all I like, young man, you don't even know. I just turned forty seven, not and did more in life for so many, so many, so many people like don't count my pockets. That that ain't what you do out here in the streets, because once you get to count niggas pockets, niggas knock your head off,

like keep it real. These days ship you got rappers that's full blown known snitch and they're still selling records. I don't. It's like, I'm not from that era. So my thing was, don't disrespect the people who lays your foundation down. That was my whole principle behind that. And actually Snoop told me, he was like don't even He was like, later on, you bigger than that. Just don't. It ain't worth it. It's business, and I wish I

would have listened at that time. So that's water under the bridge, and I'm pretty sure you know they'd are matured a little bit too, so we can get money. I wanted to look up something right quick. I'm trying to see this actress's name, Ellen Pompio. I guess that I don't know how to pronounced her last name. But she's facing some backlash for disrespecting density at Washington. Does

that Washington? She talked. She told a story on her podcast where in the day when Denzel Washington was directing an episode of Great Anatomy. She was trying to tell one of the actors how to get through the scene and Denzel interjected and say, you know, don't you tell him what to do? I'm the director, And she said, motherfucker this mu said. She said, she said that to Denzel. She thought she was gonna get a lot of praise, but they lit her ass up on Twitter. I mean

they lit her up. And that goes to your point, you know, the disrespect, Like Denzel open the doors and he continues to open doors for anybody that comes after him. He laid the foundation. Denzelvis one of the most respected actors of all times. And even outside of acting as a man, you know, as a philanthroper, you know, as a you know, philanthropist, as a as a you know, just as a as a father. You know, this man

is where respected and for heard of. You know this, this this is type of stuff we would never hear here back in the day, we would never hear uh an actor or anybody that was basically someone who came after someone who laid the foundation, who paved the way, being disrespectful like that. And I said that to make this point, keep waking up and then you're gonna be that person who paved the way. That's gonna be getting shipped on, getting disrespected and being called old and broke

or whatever. Right. It just trips me out how so many people disrespect people who are older. And you don't have to be seven, eight and nine years old, you can be thirty. They just hate that. The mother fucking point isn't that The point of the point is to get get like me right, get up and did you want to get and you can basically become like a

social encyclopedia right for you? People get the youngster can come and get the game, you know, Like I just was always that dude that like to be around the older people to suck the game up. I never, when I say never, I never disrespected old people like that. Yeah, I mean I was taught respect your elders bottom nine. You know, back when I was growing up, we are on our street and everybody knew everybody. You know what I'm saying, Like it ain't like that no more. The

communities all broke up and things like that. So if I was running up and down the street being disrespectful, then somebody let my mama know, my mama gonna whoop my ass. And then not only that, she's gonna get permission to whoever caught me to you know, snatch a

not and out of nigger. So I don't know where we lost it at, and but we gotta get it back because we gotta get it back, like because I mean, my kids are walking here and they got what I got, you know what I'm saying, Like I put that time in with him to let them know, Like you, I don't care if you if you think you right, that's your elder. You shut the funk up and get out the door with your difference of opinion, you know what I mean, because it's aged before beauty, the wisdom. You

know what I mean. You're in part the people who can impart that wisdom on you. You know what I'm saying, Like I look up to y'all, y'all my o g s you face. You know what I mean, Cube, I was raised, I was out there. I'm raised by y'all. You know what I'm saying, Like I didn't go do what you said you were doing. You know what I mean. I learned and wanted to critique, like damn they said, like do it like this and like soaking up game. So maybe maybe the kids want to be sponges again.

It looked like it looked like the ignorance might be stirred around a little bit to where it's changing. Because my kids, my my my homies kids and all that they was taught to be respectful. You know what I'm saying. That we kept them in the Bible. All though we talked the street ship, we still the basic instructions before leaving Earth. It's put in their hands, you know what I mean. By the way Bible acronym basic instructions before

leaving earth. Yeah, I never heard that before. That's tight, man. I think you owned something about these kids being sponges and wanting to suck up the game, because I'm in the same boat. My kids very respectful, My friends kids very respectful. So that's why I never like make these sweeping general realizations about today's youth because I know so many youngsters who are getting it and doing well. You know, I know a lot of them who are on the right path, and a lot of them are getting money,

and they have integrity. They're not just doing anything to get money. They have integrity. They care about how they're viewed by their family. They understand them when they go out there, they're not just representing themselves, they're representing their family and they get it. So it's salute, salute to

every one of you out there. So it salute to the to the mothers and the fathers, and the aunts and the uncles you know, and and the and the cousins and the grandparents and and and family friends who are who are helping and helping to raise these kids. Because it really does take a village, you know, I really, I really appreciate it. Uh, Like you have no idea when I see stuff like that you're seeing you talk about. They gave me chills when you say, you know you're

kids get it and your homeboys. Yeah, we cut from the same cloth. Man. But you know something, I I think it goes beyond just disrespectful elderly. I think it you know, elders, It goes to the heart of how a person is just disrespectful. Period. Some people are just disrespectful and they don't respect nothing. So you find somebody who don't respect their elders, and that's a person who

don't respect nothing. I can guarantee you if that person don't respect their elders, that's a person that don't respect their mother or their father. They don't respect their grandparents, they don't respect their they don't respect their peers, they don't respect their contemporaries. Some people are just disrespectful and they need their asses whooped, you know, like really whooped,

like really Like I ain't talking about a scuffle. I'm talking about an ass whooping so severe that you say to yourself, God, if you let me survive this with nobody, I'll never do that again. That's the type of ass whipping that needs to be administered and it's coming because there's always somebody badder than you, and that's gonna be always somebody that ain't going to accept the disrespect. It's coming. So some of you out there that might be listening, man,

quick while you're head man, it's okay. You reap what you soul man, you absolutely do. So you know, I take my hat off to the young jeez that's doing it. There's so many that I respect, and I refused to let one or two bad apples ruin it for all up because we we paid them dudes already. We're not going back. I just had this conversation with Tretch, you know what I'm saying about how shout out yeah, shout out the trigger trash man because I always get jewels

from him. And we was just talking and about like how what we had to go through in order for our children to have the growing up hip hop opportunities and things like that. So the beefing within gotta stop. The ol gs gotta step in and talk to the kids. And and I'm feeling the vibe of it's enough of us now to really like we can't be too busy to raise them because if we want this planet, you know, we gotta that's what we gotta do, and just to

go back. I don't blame the children. I kind of blame America because Mark, you know, they locked my uncle's up man, they locked them up in and we was lost. I was selling dope, you know, but my grandfather was on something different. He had his playing baseball and youth associations. They put crack on the streets, which took the attention away from raising the kids, you know what I mean.

Like I was out there, I got shot, so I guess I'm here now just to say I could have been unlucky enough to not be here, but since we're here, like it just we could change it. Let's revisit something real quickly. Your relationship with your mother was a very good relationship, you would say, right close with that being said, how did you end up in the streets because my mother ended up on drugs, you know what I mean? And I also pride mysel phone helping my mother get

off for drugs. Once I understood how them drugs got into America, and once I understood what we was really against, like well, how we didn't put these guns here? And I was learning all this stuff from hip hop was teaching us like, although, yeah, we had to fuck the police and all this, but you still had another angle of you know, guidance of saying, well KRS one, telling us who put it in? How did it get here?

It was you know, we're hungry, Why why we got you know, this is our only alternatives, our only alternative. So once I understood that, I stopped blaming my mother, Like I always loved my mother with a passion, but I was mad my friends knew she was on that ship, you know, I meaning, it didn't make me feel good, so I would end up selling it. I needed some Jordan's you know what I'm saying. I wanted to be up to date. I wanted to look good going to school,

you know what I'm saying. So by the time I was I was fourteen when I got knocked the first time, six team when I got shot, I was famous by twenty because I started reading. I read Napoleon Hill. You know, I passed my kids different that I passed them the books to self help books that my uncle's wasn't there to pass me would pass to me. So I understood, like they the incosperation and how they how they was getting paid when I found out by Barker on penitentiaries,

and I used to cut school to watch prices. Right, this motheruck's talking about, come on down, the price is right, and you owning penitentiaries, like, but you're getting paid for that. So I I when I start seeing the monopoly and things, you know, I start when I start educating myself, I started doing different. So that's all it is, is an education. The reason why I ask you the question is because you know what we always say, it starts at home, right, And I know it don't start out of nowhere. It

starts at home. Everything starts at home, no matter what the government got going on, it starts at home. Now we know. I think it's important that we put the blames squarely on who's ever, whoever participated. Right. We are the generation that came before this generation, the first and foremost. We're responsible for the new generation in my opinion too. And then the generation before us are responsible also because obviously they didn't give us something that we needed. Right.

But ultimately, you know, you go to the family, you go to the person, the individual, right, Because for me I understood early on, I was like, man, this government is fucked up. They hate us for real, and they do have traps out there, and I walked right into some of those traps, understanding that I have to make sure that I avoid those traps. It's on me. I know who these people are, I know they don't life, I know what they're doing. I see it. I'm not

going to participate in the factory. I can't for the sake of myself and my seeds. My children are like, I got a position, my baby so that they don't

get got by this system too, you know. And so I didn't want I didn't want that to go on say it because sometimes you know, we will say, you know, we blame the system, and rightfully so this is a very wicked, very dibolical system and the people, and you know, let me go further than the system and say the people that work within the system, many of them are very very evil, voul, uncivilized, months greedy, say man, the

worst of the worst. Right knowing that I like our smarten ass, I like to make sure yeah, yeah, you get me. You thought I wouldn't get the land. I got it. Yeah, I'm gonna be able to get that. I got it. You thought I was gonna be there got you, you know, Oh you try to get me in that contection. You trying to get me. Oh my, I see what you're out doing. I'm gonna go this way, you know. Like, So, this is what I impart on my kids daily, and I impart on anybody that really

would listen. Is that at the end of the day, it's on us. We gotta because if if we put it on somebody else, then we don't have to take responsibility. It's like if you're playing basketball, right, You're playing a game of basketball and you say, well, man, you know the reason I lost, Man because I ain't had the right out of shoes, Like, I don't give it the work. I can keep playing bad foot it. I ain't gonna no excuses. I'm out the wind, and I don't want

to have excuses because excuses hurt Excuses hurt me. Like it's like when I just admit it. If I admit an excuse, it's like, well, why didn't you do anything about it? Like so my thing is, hey, man, we can complain all day, but after we complain, let's do something about it. And so I am of the understanding that if we do something about it, we understand who these people are. We understand how the system is really.

We it's been really from day one. So ain't nothing special about us when we consider what I our ancestors went through, right, and even our grandmothers and parents went through, you know, in civil during the civil rights era. You know, there's nothing new under the sun, even Jim Crow and all that stuff. You know, So ain't nothing special about us in regards to what they experienced. And if they could get through it and take it off, what hell? I know, we can do it, and we gotta do it.

We don't really have a choice. Start with the man in the mirror. Y'all want it for yourself period, you know. And and and that's it. And I'm glad you clarified that because I'm definitely not pointing the finger over there. It's start right here. I want to get their asses too, because de some dirty, dibolical, low down uncivilized much so their assets got to be called out. I hear people say, well, you're always blaming this person. Are you blaming this and

blaming this? You know? Yeah, mother, I'm gonna get anybody who is liable. They are liable. The US government is liable first, and foremost they all liable. But at the same time, we can't just use that as an excuse not to excel. We still gotta do what we gotta do. In spite of we gotta live. We got the well man, because you have lived, Because Stephen House has lived. Man, we have been blessed with some of the greatest music

in history like that. Anybody could say whatever the hell they want to say, but they cannot take away your contribution to hip hop and what you continue to give to us. Man. Like you said a few moments ago, you read with yourself, Man, you have sold some hell of a seeds man, and we appreciate you for her. That's that's definitely an honor coming from you, man. Absolutely, you know what I'm saying, big bro. And you just don't vot you well, you know we can't for I

ain't gonna get on the soapbox. But I love you, man, and I respect you, and that's an honor. And me and my bros and we know the ship y'all wrote helped us get to where we are. You know what I'm saying. Without y'all, it wouldn't be no bone without a couple of people that influenced our lives in the in the manner that made us want to be creative, like damn, we could do that, and here we are. And that's and all I'm doing is all I'm doing

is passing the betime. What I'm saying, I just turned forty seven, man, I'm playing on going on tour at sixty. I mean, I mean having to, not having to. But we've been on the road for twenty seven years and we probably do like two hundred fifty days a year, so I can cut that down to about fifty, you know what I mean. But watching watching the kids and these artists that I got up under me, man, I'm like, I'm content, you know what I mean. I feel like I didn't my plate. I still got some steak on

my plate. I'm getting full, Like now, who else want to eat? You know what I'm saying. So just spreading it out, That's all I want to do. Thank you, man, I love you back man, We love you. Thank you, ladies and gentlemen. Lazy Bump in the building. This episode was produced by Aching and brought to you by The Black Effect Podcast Network and I Heart Radio.