Bizzy Interview From The Source

P'z To ks_bone@yahoo.com

THE SOURCE REPORTER: FRANK WILLIAMS
November 1998

Bizzy Bone is buzzing like a bee. Bone Thugs-N-Harmony's baby-faced
b-boy with the high- pitched voice is bobbing around the Santa Monica
set of the video for his red-hot debut single, " Thugz Cry ." It's the
first cut from his solo album, Heaven'z Movie. The premise of the
video is simple: Bizzy Bone will be trapped in a jail cell with police
( read: his record label ) trying to keep him locked down. Like most
hip-hop kingpin videos, he emerges victorious at the end: Free with a
briefcase full of money, fine women and staring lovingly at the ocean.
Couldn't write a truer ghetto fantasy myself.
On some updated Eldridge Cleaver and George Jackson shit, in one
scene Bizzy delivers his poetry from solitary confinement, or the "
hole." Bizzy's half-Italian and black stallion looks give off an
eerie, yet compelling stare from Director Chris Stokes' monitor.
Stokes, who put together teen R&B sensation Immature, has lighted
Bizzy just right, so he resembles an Indian praying.
While the hardworking crew scamper around screaming commands to
each other, I glance up at the small airplanes zooming in and out of
the clouds near the Santa Monica Airport. Snapping outta' my daze, I
spot Bizzy Bone shaking hands and working the set of " Thugz Cry "
like a casting call. He's doing more than your usual rapper (
reclusive in a trailor puffing blunts ). Bizzy wisely takes an active
role, directing production assistants and the rest of the crew about
what type of images, feelings he wants the video to convey.
This is more than posturing from Bizzy: It's a special alacrity
that reaches beyond the excitement of his first solo video. A
spiritual and optimistic glow follows him like the muscled-out angel
in the now infamous " Crossroads " video. On this sizzling August day
in California, there is renewed passion in Bizzy. He has changed. I
need look no further than his 21-year-old eyes.

Why is the former choirboy so happy and focused ? Well part of it
has to do with the tome he's been studying: the delectable and
pointed strategies of Sun Tzu's The Art of War. " It has a lot of
points of strategy and ways to conduct yourself going through certain
battles," says a fresh-faced Bizzy inside his trailer during a break.
" It involves the mental war, the spiritual war and physical war that
every man must face every day. "
Bizzy updated the two-thousand-year-old warrior philosophy to some
pre-millennium " Black man struggling in the '90s type religion."
Learning " to win without fighting " has helped him become wiser and
more diligent about his career and his future. This new attitude is a
180 degree shit from the contagiously mellow, but out-of-control Bone
Thugs-N-Harmony I'd met three years earlier on the eve of the release
of their sophomore opus, E. 1999 Eternal. In writing their first
cover story for THE SOURCE, I encountered five men-in-progress:
Blunts and alocohol overdoses were freguent realities for them. They
took me on a rollicking ride through Cleveland's urban underbelly,
where I met their down-to-earth, extended family who drank and smoked
together. Even Grandma was getting her buzz on. Today, Bizzy,
Layzie, Wish and Krayzie have obviously learned from the bumps,
insisting on evolving as artists, men and fathers. They all agreed:
It's BEEN time to let the bullshit go.
" Them first two years I was so drunk and fucked up," Bizzy says
emphatically. " See, when I drink, I blackout and turn into another
nigga. Than nigga be trying to kill people and gets in sticky
situations. Having a nigga ready to die. When I really got shit to
live for. So this whole time, I am spitting shit like that, in that
mind state, on the mike."
Drugs and alcohol are sure-fire killers of musical gems. Janis
Joplin. Kurt Cobain. Jimi Hendrix. Billie Holliday. Flavor Flav. Often
many get lost in the intoxicated haze and never recover, reduced to
has-beens and " do you remember " converstations at family barbecues.
Thankfully, Bizzy emerged.
" I battled alcoholism," he admits. " Knocked the fuck out all the
time. just drunk. Drinking hennessy every night. Since I signed with
Eazy, I've been drinking like that. Really now that I think about it,
I been on the liquor hardcore since 17 years old. It was all around
me."
Then in 1997, Bizzy went cold-turkey, giving up the Hen-Rock for
juice and devoting drinking time to his kiks and his album. He's seen
first hand how too many artists get caught up -- too drunk and high to
the point it gets detrimental.
" It's cool to drink, but don't get drunk," he advises. " It just
got to the next level. And I really didn't want to present myself to
the world like that. I got children, man. I got babies. I got five
children."
Later, I corner Krayzie Bone who, along with Wish and Flesh, makes
a cameo in the video. He mirrors Bizzy's words. " If you would have
known us back then and seen us now, it's like everybody has grown up
so much," he says, sitting next to the voluptuous Mo Thugs artist
Felicia in a trailer. " Especially when fame hits you as fast as it
hit us. We didn't even realize it. We was just kicking it and still
trying to act the same we did when we were on the street. That's why
it's time now to try and retrace all those bad steps. I just hope it
ain't too late."

Bone Thugs-N-Harmony took not only hip-hop, but the music world by
storm in 1994 with the hit singles " Thuggish Ruggish Bone" and " Foe
Da Love of Money" from the 2 times platinum EP Creepin on ah Come Up.
With super speedy rap styles and unique harmonizing, Bone became the
multi-platinum symbols of the emerging popularity fo mixing R&B
flavors with hardcore hip-hop.
" I been a Bone fan since ' Thuggish Ruggish Bone,' " says Batman
of Immature, who teamed with Bizzy on the single " Give up the Ghost."
" I got their first album when Bone wasn't Bone. They were young. I
think people tried to player hate when they first came out, but a lot
of people loved them. And I think those people overpowered the player
haters."
Did they ever. Bone's next release ---- named after their old
neighborhood in Cleveland --- entered at # 1 on the pop charts. E.
1999 Eternal spawned the mega-hit " Crossroads," a song Bizzy
describes as "a memoir about death. " It tied a record the Beatles
set in 1964 ( with " Can't Buy Me Love " ) as the fastes rising
single on the charts. In 1997, Bone Thugs won the industry's highest
honor, scooping up a Grammy for best rap duo or group. Last year's
coming-of-age double CD, The Art of War, was another multi-platinum
success, featuring the hit " Look Into My Eyes. "
" When we first came out we weren't tripping on no solo albums,"
recalls Krayzie. " Then everyone grew up and they started feeling
like they had different issues they wanted to express about their
lives. Once we decided how we were gonna do it, the order basically
came in place. It was: Bizzy first, I come second, Layzie third and
Wish would come fourth."
Bizzy's first single has and '80s chorus ( " This is what it sound
like when Thugz Cry") which is inspired by the artist still known to
me as Prince. On the song and throughout most of Heaven'z Movie, he
details, with venom, his struggles while growing up in Columbus, Ohio
as a foster child; the bumpy rollercoaster ride to international fame
with Bone-Thugs-N-Harmony; the ongoing standoff with his record
company, Ruthless Records; and his usual live and let die issues.
Bizzy Bone wanted to capture the struggles he encountered growing up,
where stability was invisible.
" I was born in Columbus," he says, tugging on the diamond-laden
cross on his neck. " I'm a foster kid. I'm one of them motherfuckers
that got shipped around. That's just how my childhood was. Maybe on
day I'll write a book about it. I became a father at 14 years old. I
became a father even before I became a man. It seemed like everywhere
I turned there was another obstacle. So I figured that as long as I
can drive straight and not make any turns then I don't have to worry
about anything. Beautiful kids run up on me by the bunches and just
scream my name. It makes me feel so good. But I feel in my heart
that I'm not worth it. I feel so humble. When the kids run up on me,
they say, ' We thought you were dead.' They are happy to see that I
am alive."
Perhaps because he has to chase away the demons, Bizzy is often the
silent member of his crew, the one people know the least about. His
record company knows this fact too: They've been running ads with a
frizzy-hairred Bizzy in a red leather jacket with the word " Missing "
at the bottom. Another reason for Bizzy's more serious demeanor is
the tumultuous and tricky lessons the music business has been teaching
the artists of all shades since Phil Spector got paid. Bizzy is
currently pissed of at and ready to dump Ruthless Records.
" There is no relationship," he quips, staring straight at me. "
That's the whole thing. She's ( label head Tomica Wright ) running
around here to all these record companies talking 'bout, ' I got Bone.
50 million. I got them under control. I give them some drink and bud
or whatever and keep 'em calm.' It's the same stuff written in The
Art of War album. Keep 'em drunk. Keep 'em fucked up with silly ass
bitches around us keeping their ass all up in our face. Shit like
that distracts a nigga from really reaping his benefits. I don't
agree with it and nor do my people."
Tomica Wright responded to Bizzy's comments in an intervies from
the new Ruthless Records office in LA. She says Bone has been shown
how their money is being accounted for. How they divvy it up is on
them.
" I'm not the type of person to try and distract someone from their
work, " she insists. " I'm trying to get an album recorded and
saying, ' When can you get in the studio?' If you say you need a ride
or something to smoke every time it's time to do something, then
that's on you. If you through a temper tantrum every time you get on
stage or demand a bottle of hennessy before you go on, then that's on
you. I deal with someone the way they ask to be treated."
The stringing lessons of the music biz's allocation of profits is
no stranger to anyone trying to feed their kids while singing, dancing
or rapping. " I can relate to it," says Johnny J, who produced " Thugz
Cry " and many other songs you've danced to, including Tupac's " How
Do You Want It. " " It is 12 years in the game for me. Dealing with
the business wasn't years in the game for me. Dealing with the
business wasn't an overnight thang. You have to go through the
bullshit and phases. Dealing with people that may try to put a little
move on you. It's sad that you have to go through that. But you live
and learn.
" You eventually wake up though. You see other people rolling
Rolls Royces and wearing the watches and yo' ass sitting around
wondering why you ain't eating or looking good. Then you gon' wake
you ass up. "
Eazy E wasn't known for being the most honest buisness-man, but
Bizzy thinks things with Ruthless would never have reached a boiling
point with him around.
" He gave you that artistic freedom to fly, " he reflects. " Being
yourself. Not trying to be anybody else. Doing your thing. He would
tell us to show a little more energy, get into it. He was very
supportive and gave us confidence in ourselves. He was really one of
the first motherfuckers (to) give us confidence and have the paper to
put behind it, so the world could hear us. It was a very spiritual
thing. The whole trip with E was an experience."
Bizzy won't touch rumors claiming very little was done to help Eazy
survive his sudden case of AIDS. He's simply bitter Eazy died so fast.
" It's fucked up, " he says. " It's a fucked up thing that went
down with E. Magic running around here healthy, doing shows, taking
care of his buisness. Breathing every breath he can breathe. God
bless him for that. But I can never forget the ghost of Eazy."
Friends say this fixation on the supernatural -- ghosts, angels,
Seventh Signs and all thing otherwordly -- is quintessential Bizzy. "
He's a deep person, " sums up director Chris Stokes. " He's a deep
person," sums up director Chris Stokes. " He has so many feelings.
You get somewhat of an evil and weird vibe when you listen to his
music or watch him perform, but he's really talking about a lot of
spiritual things."
He is still growing as a man, yet Bizzy continues to keep a promise
he made to himself back in the days when he was living somewhere
different every few months. " I just stay rooted in God," he says
passionately. " And I always pray before I eat, sleep or wake up. I
want God to know that I will humble myself before him at any time.
There is no pedestal anybody an set me on to make me think that I can
only look down at God. Or even eye-to-eye. I can only look up.
Always up. "
Proving the doubters wrong has proved crucial to Bizzy. By forcing
himself to think about the brightness of tomorrow instead of eing "
Ready To Die, " Bizzy has obviously internalized another Sun Tzu
point about strategy: " This is called overcoming the opponent and
increasing your strength to boot. " Translated it means, " If you use
the enemy to defeat the enemy, you will be strong wherever you go."
" He's come a long way, " says Bizzy's longtime homeboy Big B,
whose been singing with Bizzy since eighth grade. " He's a Grammy
award winner now. He went through a lot of shit before Bone. So as
far as having a strong will and all that, he's gone through trials and
tribulations. Like how he told you about his experiences in the
foster care. He's letting that out now. We used to keep everything
secret. It's great that
Bizzy has taken inventory of his essence and salvaged the torn
pieces of madness hovering around him, all while striving towards
peace of mind. The clubbers won't see him as much because he might me
" busy " with a weekly food drive he started in Columbus or trying to
get his label, Seventh Sign, off the ground. God has blessed him with
another chance.
" This album, I'm speaking about progress, " he says proudly. "
Where do we go from here? It's deep man. Liberation. I got off the
liquor cold turkey for 11 months. Yeah, I took a few sips since I got
back from finishing up the album. Just to relax. But overall, I
never felt better."
The new Bizzy sees no limitations on tommorow. He can now write
his own ending, like the last scene he penned for the " Thugz Cry"
video. It culminates like this:
" Bizzy Bone sitting Indian style in his jail cell. He is
surrounded by levitating pictures of dead relatives. The pictures are
floating around him in circular motion showing the face of each family
members as they rotate. After the faces are shown in the pictures,
they fly out the window and into the sky, turning into heavenly stars.
This will be the close of our video."
Amen