Looks like Bone Thugs-N-Harmony rhymer Bizzy Bone may no longer be able to live up to his name, now that the MC has reportedly been dismissed from the group for good. After being kicked out of Bone last fall, following a drunken performance in New York City, the embattled MC was brought back into the fold to help Bone promote its latest, the slow-selling Thug World Order. But as the group has made the rounds on tour since then, Bizzy's habit of missing shows has apparently led his Bonemates to send him packing.
"We would like to clear this rumor up about Bizzy Bone," Layzie Bone said in a recent interview on MTV.com. "That cat made his own choices, his own decisions. He's no longer in our group. Please believe we love him, but he's doing his thing. We doing Bone Thugs. That's what the fuck we wanna do."
Bizzy doesn't seem too broken up about the split.
"I've been kidnapped, I've been touched on as a kid, I've been homeless, I've been starving -- this can't hurt my feelings," the rapper told MTV. "When you been kidnapped, and the FBI is looking for you, you tend to take pain better than some muthafuckas."
He adds, "They didn't show up to more stuff than I did. I did everything within my means. I tried. It's just not meant to be."
In the meantime, the rest of Bone Thugs is set to enter the studio with the Outlawz, formerly Tupac's crew, for a joint album due later this year.
SynthCleveland has announced the lineup for its forthcoming Foundation II compilation. Among the 15 bands scheduled to appear on the album are Tofu, Rivulett, In a Cat's Eye, and State of Being. Visit www.synthcleveland.com for more details.
Cleveland metallers N.D.E. have signed with Crash Music, home to Malevolent Creation, Di'Anno (the solo project of former Iron Maiden singer Paul Di'Anno), and others. On April 8, the band will release its latest, End of Trust, with expanded artwork and distribution that should have ears ringing from Lakewood to Long Beach.
Pop punkers the Unknown have welcomed Sidecar guitarist Pete Woodward as a replacement for the departed Chris Roscoe. Woodward will continue as a member of Sidecar, in addition to his new role in the Unknown.
The much-anticipated reunion disc from Akron's Rubber City Rebels is due out May 20, courtesy of (you guessed it) Smog Veil Records. At the end of this month, the band will launch a brief European tour.
Geminus Sect, which recently relocated to New York, has been selected for inclusion on a couple of upcoming comps. The Cleveland-bred industrial troupe will be featured on DSBP Records' Annihilation and Seduction alongside Acumen Nation, Swamp Terrorist, and Kill Switch . . . Klick. The group will also be included on a tribute to Kiss's Unmasked, dubbed Undressed, where they'll turn in a cover of "Two Sides of the Coin" (which we're betting will sound almost as scary as Gene Simmons looks, sans the greasepaint). Visit www.rsrtribute.com for more info.