![[ Old Picture of Bone ]](http://members.tripod.com/~levelcpics/Thug2.gif){kind=small}
Bone
Thugs-N-
Harmony
delivers
a dynamite
double album
Beacon Journal pop music critic
"We niggas rappin', but still we acting like criminals," Grammy-winning Cleveland rappers Bone Thugs-N-Harmony state in the song Ready 4 War from their new double album The Art of War.
Hmm. Let's take a look at that unfortunate declaration.
Near the eve of the album's release (it hit stores Tuesday, and should hit No. 1 next week), two Bones found themselves buried in controversy. at the wrong end of the law.
First came the odd events surrounding unnofficial fifth member Flesh-N-Bone (he's the one who wasn't signed to the record deal when the group got its break, making the quintet a quartet). Flesh, who raps on a few The Art of War songs, got into trouble for making terrorist threats to his Los Angeles neighbors, mooning them, and for illegal use of fireworks.
Then, last week, Wish Bone was allegedly at the center of an incident at the "gentleman's club" Tiffany's Cabaret in Cleveland's Flats. The incident involved a
They say bad publicity is better than no publicity at all, and certainly when it comes to rap music this is true. Bone should realize this now more than ever, what with the commercial and creative misstep that is Look Into My Eyes, the first single from The Art of War.
The song peaked at No. 4 on Billboard magazine's Hot 100 Singles chart, and started dipping down the charts not long afterwards. It's a far cry from the record-breaking No. 1 run of Tha Crossroads last year -- the fastest-rising song to reach No. 1 since the Beatles' Can't Buy Me Love.
Look Into My Eyes previously appeared on the Batman & Robin soundtrack -- an ill-advised tie-in for a hardcore rap group, regardless of the fact that the movie was a disappointment all around. But the single felt like filler, a mere warm-up to something bigger and better.
