Wednesday night, me and two of my homiest homies, April and Adrian, went to see Bone Thugs N Harmony at the 9:30 Club in DC. I know what you’re thinking, “They still perform? Isn’t one of them locked up? Isn’t one of them a crackhead now? Isn’t one of them dead?” Those were a few of the frequently asked questions I received when announcing I was going to the concert, and to be honest, I only knew the answer to the first; that, of course, they still perform, because I was going to see them do it with my very own eyes.

I didn’t do any research to see if Bizzy Bone (or any of the others) was indeed locked up/strung out/dead, I just hoped for the best and that all five (yes five) of them would show up that night. [From l to r: Flesh N Bone, Krayzie Bone, Wish Bone, Bizzy Bone and Layzie Bone].


First, we went to Busboys & Poets on 14th Street at 8 pm to eat before the 10 pm show. I hope April doesn’t notice that I didn’t remove her red-eye.

Me and April at Busboys


We headed over to 9:30 on foot, right about 10 pm. We were greeted with this around-the-block line for entry into the 9:30 Club. But it was cool, we were just waiting for the doors to open.


It was cold! But not too bad. Plus we kept ourselves entertained.


Quickly made it inside (after having my $5 jellybeans confiscated, I’m still a bit burnt about that) and redeemed myself with a cream-filled 9:30 Club cupcake.
April and her cupcake.

Much of the night’s audience looked like this, minus the rosary. :-/ Lots of pale white kids with BTNH t-shirts on and platinum-ish chains.


Also as shown here, behind Adrian looking suspiciously at the camera.

We heard that although we arrived at 10, Bone Thugs wouldn’t be performing until 11:55 pm. Awesome. :-/

Hey, we can wait. Plus, we heard some dude?/chick?/group?/band? named Sloan was slated to perform before Bone Thugs. Really? Well, where is he/she/it? At 11:20 pm, the lights dimmed and someone finally took the stage.

A group of dreadheaded young adults jumped the stage and began to rap vigorously. Who were they, you ask? I wish I could tell you. They never introduced themselves and there was no emcee to introduce them before their arrival. They just started rapping over their pre-recorded tracks including the voice track, so it sounded like a double performance. Add your prerequisite crew of followers on stage mimicking your every line, and you have a yourself a rap group. They looked suspiciously like they were from DC with their long dreads and slouchy skinny jeans, but who can even tell anymore?

Their bass-filled beats filled the 9:30 Club and we were all mildly entertained after waiting 90 mins for Bone Thugs. They even performed a “love song”.

Next up was…Sloan? Slone? Sloane? Another group of guys, a bit heftier this time, appeared and one of them was named Big Sloan. Which one, I can’t be sure, and this is the clearest picture I could get because they moved around so much. Apparently, Big Sloan is from Long Beach and loves his city, and loves weed just as much, for he sang a love song too, about weed, as he and his buddies smoked it on stage. I think he’s the rapper standing all the way to the right, and can rap pretty quickly, almost like Twista.

Evidently, Big Sloan is on the Mo’ Thugs Record Label, and after his performance, properly announced Bone Thugs N Harmony to the stage. But not before Adrian gave his confusing approval of Sloan’s performance.

Then Bone Thugs N Harmony came out!


We appreciated the live band, dubbed “The Bandaid Boyz” with a synthesized keyboard player, drummer and trumpet player. That’s right, trumpet player. We immediately noticed that Bizzy Bone was suspiciously absent. But who cared? Bone Thugs rushed the stage with a ton of energy. The crowd was hype!

They immediately began to perform songs from thier first and second albums, Creepin on Ah Come Up (1994) and E 1999 Eternal (1995). Surprisingly, only two songs in, they sort of rushed into everyone’s favorite and their first hit, Thuggish Ruggish Bone. My phone was taking such awful pictures that I’ve included video this time.

After performing this one, we speculated what song they would end on, since we just knew it was this one. Crossroads maybe? First of the Month was my guess.

They performed East 1999 while a nearby white guy in the fitted Cleveland t-shirt got hype. Then Me Killa and No Shorts, No Losses while the crowd chanted back. Then they slowed it down a little with yet another weed love song in the same night, Buddah Lovaz, which was awesome and I don’t even smoke. Then Shotz to the Double Glock. (this track has lots of gun noises on it) If you’re thinking, “I don’t remember those songs…” it’s ok, because if you hear the songs today, you’ll either be like “ohhhhh yeeeeeeah!!” or “I’ve never heard that one”, which means you were never a BTNH fan, which means you’re not reading my blog post, so it doesn’t matter.

Then, Bone Thugs decided to turn things up a notch. They asked the infamous question, “Where da ladies at?!!” and invited a bunch of girls on stage to pay homage to the late Eazy E, the man who discovered and signed them all those years ago, Tupac and Notorious B.I.G. Once about 10 girls were pulled on stage, Layzie Bone could be heard saying, “That aint enough, we need more!” and even more girls ran, no sprinted, toward the stage. Only live video can truly demonstrate the behavior and descripton of these chicks while dancing to Eazy E, Tupac and Biggie songs.

But wait, there’s more, even if it’s a bit blurry.

Scandalous. But who doesn’t love Biggie and Tupac songs? (I love NWA/Eazy E songs but I might be alone on that one, lol) We all had a ball dancing to them. Back to Bone Thugs N Harmony songs.

They drank Hennessy and Grey Goose on stage while performing For the Love of Money, one of my absolute favorites. Adrian noticed that for the past three songs, however, Krayzie Bone was sitting on the cooler (yes, the cooler on stage) and hadn’t moved. Like he was too intoxicated or something. No worries though, they’re doing First of the Month!

And finally, Crossroads. It didn’t exactly end on Crossroads the way we imagined, but we’d heard everything we came to hear, and it was after 1 am. Another song began, something like Fuck the Police! and we exited into the V Street chill.
I hope to see you at the next reunion concert,
Insana
by Insana Collins
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