Bone Thugs-N-Harmony is a good example of a group that has become little more than a brand name as its various members devote more of their time to solo projects.
Thug World Order is only their fourth proper album in seven years, although many solo albums and recordings by other configurations have emerged during the period. By now, however, every album by the group seems like a reunion effort, their last one being dubbed BTNHResurrection, while, on this album, one of the members mutters unconvincingly, "I ain't gonna say we back, 'cause we never left...." The group's musical approach hasn't changed much, its raps offset by vocal harmonies and its musical beds anchored by samples as surprising as
Phil Collins' "Take Me Home." Lyrically, their concerns are also much the same, extending from boasting and reflections on life in the 'hood to complaints about low-quality drugs ("Bad Weed Blues") and the duplicitousness of women with whom they have had sex ("Not My Baby"). But their attention seems distracted, especially when they interrupt the proceedings with commercials for their upcoming solo projects, and the album's disappointing initial commercial reception suggested that their audience wasn't paying close attention, either. [Also available clean with three tracks deleted: "Bad Weed Blues", "Non-Fiction Words by Eazy-E" and "Thug Soldier Conversation".] ~ William Ruhlmann