E 1999 Eternal
It's somehow appropriate that Ruthless Records' first release since the death of its founder, Eazy-E, would come from Bone Thugs-n-Harmony, a Cleveland-based crew that mixes the smooth L.A. gangsta grooves Eazy helped create with the group's spooky fascination with the afterlife. It's as if Eazy still talks to the members of Bone--Krayzie, Layzie, Bizzy, Wish, and Flesh N'--through their beloved Ouija board. And, it seems, even in death the gangsta rap pioneer isn't a bit repentant.Following last year's multiplatinum EP,Creepin' on Ah Come Up, Bone have put together a debut long-player that builds on everything the first record promised. That is,E.1999 Eternalcontains some of the most beautiful music you'll ever be repulsed by. Bone's vocal style is so tuneful and harmonically coordinated that it sounds more like a ghostly chant/sing than like traditional rap. But like Boyz II Men's evil twins, Bone offer up a complex potion of bittersweet crooning and poisonous rapid-fire rhyming that takes us deep into the dark side of life and the twisted side of death. ThatE.1999 Eternalis so musical only makes its noxious lyrical content all the more subversive.--Roni Sarig