Krayzie Bone: “I’m in the City and I’m Going to Be Making Big Moves [in Cleveland]”

It’s been 28 years since Cleveland’s own Bone Thugs-N-Harmony released their Grammy-nominated, platinum sophomore album, E. 1999 Eternal.

Now, in a fitting hometown addition to their accolades and awards through the decades, the Cleveland natives will today see the intersection of E. 99th and St. Clair ceremonially renamed  “Bone Thugs-N-Harmony Way.” But, for them, it's just one step in what they're trying to do in Cleveland.

“I see this street uplifting the community, bringing more positive things, because this is just the beginning,” said Bone Thugs-N-Harmony’s Anthony “Krayzie Bone” Henderson. “This street renaming ain’t even scratching the surface of what we’re trying to do. The city recognized us and blessed us with this, but what we're trying to do is go way deeper than that.”

All five Bone Thugs-N-Harmony members will be in attendance at Friday’s noon ceremony at the crossroads, which Henderson says will feature “a lot of love,” which will carry over to a weekend packed with events. On Friday night the group will be performing at the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and on Saturday they’ll perform at the Glennville festival before joining LL Cool J’s show at the Rocket Mortgage Field House.

“We're trying to build up in the community, we're going to talk to the residents in the community and ask them what they think the community needs. So that's how we plan to be there for the community—hands-on, on the ground running right along with them.”

Bone Thugs-N-Harmony members Bizzy Bone, Flesh-n-Bone, Krayzie Bone, Layzie Bone and Wish Bone have always carried pride for their city and their neighborhood. The group has referenced E. 99th in songs, filmed on it for music videos and even used it as inspiration for the title of E. 1999 Eternal.

“Cleveland definitely shaped our sound, it shaped everything. Our experiences, which we talked about throughout all of our music. Cleveland had a very big part of shaping who we are,” Henderson said. “Cleveland is different than any other city. Like the people, the struggles, the whole atmosphere is different.”

Formed in 1991 under the name B.O.N.E. Enterpri$e, the group didn’t fall under either side of the coastal rap rivalry. They were forging a name for Cleveland in the national hip-hop scene.

“We weren't from the East Coast. We weren’t from the West Coast. We weren’t from the South,” said Henderson. “We was from the Midwest, and nobody had really come up and made an impact, at that time, for the Midwest like Bone.”

In addition to spending time with family while he’s back home, Henderson’s looking forward to hitting Cleveland food spots like Open Pitt, Kim’s Wings and Mr. Hero. But he’ll also be doing work for the Spread the Love Foundation, a non-profit dedicated to advancing cultural equity in Cleveland communities through music industry education and workforce development for disadvantaged populations.

“Doing a non-profit is something I always wanted to do, I just didn't have the knowledge to do it at first. But then, when I got with certain people, and accumulated a team of people that actually knew how to maneuver and take the steps we needed to take we started moving forward," he said.

Founder and chairman of the Spread the Love Foundation, Henderson was inspired to bring education, job opportunities, and skills to work in the music industry–not just as an artist or entertainer, but as a manager, publisher or other behind the scenes role–back to his neighborhood. Although starting a Cleveland-based non-profit has been a long-time plan for him, Henderson acknowledges that through his career he’s had a long journey.

“My goal was always to come back to do something for the community. And a lot of people feel like we should have been done that, but it’s a growing process. We got into the industry very young, and the last thing on our minds was doing something like this. We were young, we had money, we were just focused on being celebrities, I guess, and embracing the new-found fame that we had.”

Now 50 years old with 10 Bone Thugs-N-Harmony albums, nine solo albums, three collaboration albums and two Grammy awards, Henderson says he’s in the business of helping uplift his neighborhood.

“It wasn’t until years later, once I matured and got all the partying out of my system and everything, I started to look back and look back at my past and where we came from, and feeling like there was more that I could do, especially back home, from all the knowledge and game that acquired living out in California and visiting different cities. I wanted to bring it all back here to Cleveland and implement all that here.”

As Henderson’s navigated life and legacy, his music has reflected his reality, developing and changing as he does.

“If you look at all of [the albums], you see they start off real grimy from Thug Mentality up until now, they’re much more lighter. So you can see, back then I was in a much darker space, today my music is much lighter because I’m in a much lighter space.”

Having dropped his latest album, QuickFix : Level 3 : Level Up, just this year, Henderson says fans can expect more music on the way. Busy as both an artist and a producer, Henderson has a collaboration album with DJ Paul from Three 6 Mafia in the making. And fans of the Mo Thug song “Ghetto Cowboy,” which was produced by Henderson, can anticipate a country western hip-hop album that he’s working on as well.

“[Fans] can expect me to continue to keep moving. Just motivating, innovating, people to continue building. I'm not going to stop doing music, creating, producing, developing artists, movies, scripts, all types of stuff I’m digging into.”

Beyond music, Henderson and the rest of Bone Thugs-N-Harmony have a podcast coming soon. On “Thug Stories,” the artists will recount experiences from the last three decades, going back to their days on E. 99th and St. Clair.

Henderson also has eyes on the big screen with hopes of a movie to tell the Bone Thugs-N-Harmony story.

“I think that's the final piece to everything, to our legacy. Just having a biopic and just telling the whole story on-screen.”

Although Ice Cube and 50 Cent make Henderson’s list of dream directors, he doesn’t have an actor in mind to play himself.

“Everybody wants to go for a famous actor, but I want somebody that really can play me, I don’t care if they’re famous or not, they can really get me across on film. That’s what I'll be looking for,” he said.

With all of the projects he has in the works, Henderson says he’s still dedicated to “making big moves” in Cleveland. The message Henderson wants the city to hear is that Bone Thugs-N-Harmony haven’t forgotten their home.

“We’re still here for the city. Just because we travel abroad and we move abroad, don't mean that we forgot about Cleveland. That’s the whole reason that I'm back here, is to shed light on our city and to help bring it up. The city can get used to seeing me because I’m going to be here.”

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