Best known for his contributions to the Grammy-winning Cleveland gangsta rap outfit Bone Thugs-N-Harmony, Steven Howse, who performs as Layzie Bone, combined lightning-quick delivery with relaxed, melodic phrasing that helped define the group’s signature approach. Once the quintet rose to prominence in the mid-1990s, Howse launched parallel solo work that included forming the Mo Thugs collective, pairing with Bizzy Bone in the Bone Brothers project, and issuing projects such as Thug by Nature (2001), It’s Not a Game (2005), and The Definition/The Meaning (2011). He also founded Harmony Howse Entertainment to oversee his own releases.
As the younger brother of Flesh-N-Bone and cousin of Wish Bone, Howse followed the group’s breakthrough by preparing a solo album, though his first official outing appeared under the L-Burna alias. Ruthless issued Thug by Nature in March 2001, showcasing guest spots from Aaron Hall, Flesh-N-Bone, and WC. Around the same period he assembled the expansive Mo Thugs roster of Cleveland hip-hop acts, which appeared on several compilations, among them the 1996 debut Family Scriptures that reached number two on the Billboard 200 and included Krayzie Bone, Soulja Boy, Ken Dawg, and Graveyard Shift, as well as the 2003 follow-up The Movement.
Sandwiched between Bone Thugs’ Thug World Order and Thug Stories, Howse unveiled his first Layzie Bone album, It’s Not a Game, on Cleopatra in 2005; the set entered the Top 100 of the Billboard 200 with appearances by Twista and Snoop Dogg. That year he also teamed with Bizzy Bone for the duo’s initial release, Bone Brothers. In 2006 he collaborated with Young Noble of the Outlawz on Thug Brothers while delivering his next two solo albums, The New Revolution and Cleveland. The following year brought another Bone Brothers effort alongside his fifth solo project, Startin’ from Scratch: How a Thug Was Born, which included contributions from 2Pac and Eazy-E, and coincided with Bone Thugs’ seventh album, Strength & Loyalty, recorded as a trio.
Howse maintained a rapid release pace in 2008, issuing four albums that encompassed the solo effort Thugz Nation, the joint project Finally with Do or Die’s A.K., and the Bone Brothers titles Bone Brothers III and Still Creepin on Ah Come Up. Twin Thugz, a partnership with Big Sloan, surfaced in 2009, followed in 2010 by Bone Thugs’ eighth album, Uni5: The World’s Enemy.
February 2011 saw the simultaneous arrival of Howse’s sixth and seventh solo albums on RBC Records: The Definition, which featured Thin C, Chamillionaire, Baby Bash, Paul Wall, and Snow tha Product, and The Meaning, which enlisted Bow Wow, Big Sloan, and Too $hort. He rejoined Bone Thugs for their 2013 release The Art of War: World War III while directing operations at Harmony Howse Entertainment, which issued the single “Mr. Murda Mo” featuring the label’s roster that same year. Additional 2014 collaborations included “Sidelines” with Spice 1 and “Never Forget Me” with Akon. In 2015 he scored a regional success with the Cleveland Cavaliers anthem “Cleveland Is the City,” and while preparing his eighth album he dropped further singles such as “I Made It” and “That Dank.”
