Bizzy Bone

Best known for his role in Cleveland's Bone Thugs-N-Harmony, Bizzy Bone launched an extensive solo career marked by bold risks and occasional unpredictability starting in 1998. His debut effort Heaven'z Movie blended quick-fire rhymes with relaxed vocals in a deeply introspective manner that echoed the group's sound yet allowed greater freedom to probe his inner world and venture into unconventional territory. The Gift, issued in 2001, split opinions among supporters of the collective, as some embraced its candid revelations while others viewed the self-revelations as excessive. During a 2002 Bone Thugs-N-Harmony show in New York City, an obviously intoxicated Bizzy exited the stage midway, resulting in his immediate removal from the lineup that evening, although he maintained he had long operated independently and participated only as an occasional contributor. Around the same period he granted additional interviews in which he regularly discussed his new collective, the 7th Sign, and he also appeared on the Fox program America's Most Wanted to disclose that he had been abducted at age four and had thought his mother deceased until a viewer identified him from a photograph broadcast during the 1983 telefilm Adam, leading to his recovery.

The intriguing yet enigmatic 2004 release Alpha and Omega represented a confounding choice, yet positive listener reactions prompted Bizzy to issue his own limited underground project The Beginning and the End. In 2005 a further intoxicated on-air appearance on Houston's KPFT found him declaring homelessness; subsequent interviews offered no defenses, and he clarified that he was not in fact without shelter while acknowledging a struggle with alcohol and efforts to manage it. That same year saw the arrival of Speaking in Tongues together with the mail-order sets For the Fans, Vol. 1 and Vol. 2, plus the collaborative Bone Brothers album recorded with fellow Bone member Layzie Bone. His decision against touring behind Bone Brothers once more distanced him from the crew, causing the anticipated full-group reunion to dissolve. Bizzy kept a rapid pace into 2006, delivering Thugs Revenge, The Story, and The Midwest Cowboy, followed by the second Bone Brothers installment in 2007.