For nearly 20 years, rapper Bizzy Bone has been part of a dynasty that the fans won’t seem to let die. As a member of the award-winning, multi-platinum group Bone Thugs-N-Harmony, Bizzy has seen his fair share of successes and defeats.
Recent years have found Bizzy Bone down at times – weight gain, group disputes, and a struggle with alcohol threatened to take him completely out of the game. Still, as we learned in Part 1 of “A Revisit With Bizzy,” the phoenix always rises again. With a renewed spirit, a svelte physique, and a dose of cleaner living, Bizzy is back to claim his rightful place among rap greats – hopefully with Bone Thugs, but either way, he’s on the come up with new music and a book in store.
Check out Part 2 of our chat with the unpredictable Bone Thug:
AllHipHop.com: There’s been press releases and whatnot, in terms of a project coming out relatively soon. It was supposed to be called The Art of War III. Is that coming out? Do you want to clear that up?
Bizzy Bone: Okay, okay. Well, this is what happened. This cat, we signed a deal with this cat, with this label. I’m not gon’ say anything as far as the name of the label, because we just sent the termination paperwork in today. So once that’s all the way complete legally, then I can go further with that. I just don’t want to talk about nothing that has anything legally going on.
AllHipHop.com: Okay, so I guess that’s kind of on hold; that’s to be determined and not set in stone, obviously.
Bizzy Bone: To make it all clear, I just sent in the termination papers today on behalf of the members of the group, that the deal was signed for.
AllHipHop.com: In terms of the Bone thing and how you guys are going to work that out, with your solo career at the forefront as well, what can fans expect in terms of what’s coming for you and what you’ve been doing?
Bizzy Bone: I’ma tell you, what they can really expect is just a lot of fun. Now, it’s really just about having fun, putting out great music that people want to hear, and having that energy around people to where it isn’t as if I got to always play my music. It’s no dreary, cloudy sh*t around me, not in my music or anything. Everything is bright and happy ‘cause n*ggas is happy. When the kids are eating, you’re in shape, you’re healthy mentally, physically, spiritually, and you’re smoking weed? Oh, come on, man, man, come on. You already know what we doin’ over here.
AllHipHop.com: I’ve heard something about a book? Is that something that you’ve authorized? Do you have a book coming out?
Bizzy Bone: Yes, definitely. It’s actually taking on a life of its own right now. You know, I’m all about marketing and promoting, and my biggest fear is putting out something beautiful and it not being marketed and promoted properly. I’ve been in that position before numerous amounts of times, and I don’t like it. So when I do these things, I just worry about the marketing and the promotion. But, I mean, we got the magazines backing us up. People Magazine came on the table; we got a couple of news stations out in Los Angeles, but I just want it to be more, I want it to be further.
I want to get in touch with Chelsea and Wendy Williams – she owes me an interview. She clowned me on the interview, called me a drug addict and all these other things, now she got everything cleaned up and all that cool stuff, and I want to be a part of that, too. She can be loved, too. We can squash beef, too. That’d be wonderful for us to do that, but that’s neither here nor there at this point. She’s not a shock jock anymore; she on some Oprah sh*t, I respect her gangsta.
The book supposed to be that g###### serious, about a little kid kidnapped and all that other stuff, make it in the music industry, Eazy-E dying, and all that good stuff with the Bone Thug crew in there, the war stories, things we did as kids. I mean, the book is f*ckin’ insane, it’s beautiful. It’s a great book, ‘cause it talks about the sh*t that the people and the fans don’t really know about, like the ‘hood stories, like robbin’ muf*ckas, and when CC (Wish Bone) got shot in the leg by Krayzie Bone. It’s a fun *ss book. Did you think it was going to be anything else?
AllHipHop.com: It seems like you’re laying the foundation to write that final chapter the way it’s supposed to be written and not remembered as the back alley thing, or always drunk, like you said. Now looking at it as a Bone, how do you see that final chapter as a group playing out?
Bizzy Bone: Well, if I had to tell the fans anything personally, I would say that as a crew, we are all individuals. And what I’ve learned with Bone, you don’t tell them what to do, you show your friends what you’re doing, and hopefully, we can all fall in the same line.
We all know what Bone needs to do to be successful – work, be physically and mentally in shape, and be ready. Because when we get out here, they need to see us the way they first seen us, the way we looked when we were young. And that’s just really about that, and it’s just about showing not just this new generation, but the generation that’s to come. This is the road to Aerosmith-dom, Megadeath-dom. You understand? Those groups of when they’re 40, 50, 60, they can still get out there and kick a show’s *ss and kick a stadium’s *ss. It’s the 20th year anniversary, and we look like we’re 12 years old. Because we started it when we were 14 and 15. So we still have the opportunity; it’s just if everybody wants to go for it simultaneously, like at the same time. But if not, ain’t gon’ happen, captain.
AllHipHop.com: Does it surprise you that through everything, and through all the hardships, the opportunity is still there? And not just there; it’s up to you guys, it’s not like you’re getting pushed out the door.
Bizzy Bone: I’ma tell you why. I think it’s because even at 65 percent, Bone is still a good ticket. We got enough drama around us and enough things you could look up on the history and enough things swirling around all five members, but we’re still a good ticket in any city. Nobody has belittled themselves to $50 in the back alley, and just destroyed themselves. So that’s one good thing that I think each individual member has done as a survivor in life, so from that point on, we already are all musically talented, flat out. And I just look at it in that terminology.
AllHipHop.com: How would you hope that people looked at you if you had to look ahead two, three, four years from now? What do you hope people are saying about Bizzy Bone?
Bizzy Bone: ‘Look at that boy go for it. Look at that n*gga run. Go get it, n*gga. Run for it, n*gga. Oh, yes, get that sh*t! That’s how I would probably look at it in three or four years.