I grew up in Marietta, GA, and as such my public school lunch memories are soundtracked, predominantly, by two things-the sound of rhythmic pounding on lunch tables, and Bone Thugs-N-Harmony’s now-seminal E 1999 Eternal. That album’s two major singles, “Tha Crossroads” and “1st of Tha Month” pretty much defined a sound that’s taken for granted now-layered choirboy harmonies, rapid vocal delivery, violent, intense hip-hop/r&b/gospel amalgam. Akon and Twista owe everything they have right now to Bone Thugs’ coolhigh(as a kite)harmonies, as do most of the lesser hustlers crowding the radio at the moment

(anyone else remember when they were the angel counterpoint to the Satan-and-fire imagery that used to permeate everything Three6Mafia released? God, that was like a decade before…they won an Academy Award. That’s weird to say…)

There’s been more shit, more trials and tribulations in the Bone family, than I care to attempt to chronicle here. Suffice to say, “Tha Crossroads” happened. I grew up. Bone had more side projects and “….Presents…” albums than a handful of Wu-Tangs.

But…the caliber of music just kept slipping.

This year sees the release, finally, of Strength and Loyalty, their long-overdue full line-up album that returns, thematically and musically, to what they’ve always done better than anyone-GangstaGospelRap. I’ve been through this album once and only once, and let my mind drift into the high school nostalgia (Osborne High School reprazent!) that it brought about. Rather than attempt a full-on play-by-play of the album, and rather than attempt to chronicle the old and the new, I’ll let you go on your own mental trip back. In the wake of the attention their contemporaries in Three6 have received in the past year or so (oh, god, HollyHood, anyone?), let’s hit it. This isn’t to wax intellectual introduce anyone to something new, though it may. This is for everyone who has ever found themselves humming that “bone bone bone BONE bone BONE bone bone” intro for no apparent reason and, after recognizing it, mumbled “fuck, I miss Bone. They were better than I realized at the time”-because they were. I didn’t get it at the time-and, fuck, I wish I had.

First and foremost, the new:

Bone Thugs-N-Harmony: Wind Blow

Not one of the best songs on the new album, and that’s saying a lot-because this is fantastic. I won’t say a damn thing that would spoil where the sample comes from, but once the chorus plays out your mouth’ll be agape. The lyrics-a self-aware musing on what it means for Bone to have been out of the game for as long as they have, and to have watched so many with less talent copy and dilute their formula. And, oh, it’s good. So. Good.

(And both Akon AND Twista guest on the album-proving Bone ain’t mad atcha)

More on and from Strength and Loyalty later. This album is gonna creep on ah come up, for real-just think, the last time they made anything this insistent, iPods didn’t even exist.

No, you think about it.

And from the past:

Bone Thugs-N-Harmony: Tha Crossroads

This is the song that defined, and continues to define, a generation of rap

Bone Thugs-N-Harmony: 1st Of Tha Month

I’m pretty much positive that the first few bars of this are ubiquitous to quite a few middle and high school locker rooms and hallways.

And the video with the storyboard you know by heart:

R.I.P. Uncle Charles.