When Bone Thugs-N-Harmony first exploded on the rap scene in 1994 with their fast rhymes, harmonious choruses, ominous G-Funk, and gangsta attitude, no one knew whether the uncanny Cleveland group were for real or if they were a novelty success. After all, at this point in time, few rap groups outside of New York or California had been able to prove themselves on a commercial level. And Bone Thugs-N-Harmony leap-frogged cult success, instantly rising to the top of the charts with their summer 1994 anthem "Thuggish Ruggish Bone." By the time their first full-length album, E 1999 Eternal, dropped a year later, it not only debuted at number one but also proved to be one of the decade's most important and enduring albums. While other rap groups struggled to break away from the cliches first forged by NWA, Public Enemy, Boogie Down Productions, 2 Live Crew, and LL Cool J in the late '80s, Bone Thugs-N-Harmony was one of the few groups able to carve out their own stylistic niche, an inimitable myriad of urban sounds with a strong ghetto attitude. Yet following the unprecedented success of E 1999 Eternal and, more so, the Grammy-winning success of "Tha Crossroads," Bone struggled to meet unreasonable expectations and also struggled with redundancy, having realized their apparent summit on their debut album. Yet even if the group was unable to repeat their success, they remained a vital group, as few were able to bite on their signature style. - All Music Guide. I agree with that, definitely an important group...
By the time Bone Thugs-N-Harmony released The Art of War in 1997, double-disc albums were met with an exhaustive sigh... Fans anticipated a ton of filler and the phrase, "this album would have been dope... if it was just a single album," was all too common. That said, the 2Pac feature on "Thug Luv was an insanely hard beat that I ironically remember driving around to when I moved to Miami that year. "Look Into My Eyes" and "7 Sign" were two other favorites from the project. The whole album is produced by DJ U-Neek who landed a platinum single with "Look Into My Eyes" and a gold single for "If I Could Teach The World." All told, the album went quadruple platinum by the summer of '98. I believe it's safe to say that -- critically -- the reviews were split down the middle, mostly feeling like the album didn't do much to add to their legacy, and was rather redundant by making itself a doube-disc. All in all, I still enjoyed it and I was probably the only New York cat in Miami, driving around without bass music in the whip. You revisit the 2xLP from Bone Thugs-N-Harmony below...