It was like: “I didn’t know you could do it like that.” Hearing Bone for the first time was like watching seven-foot Dirk Nowitzki shoot a three-pointer for the first time.

But maybe that was just what Cleveland rap sounded like in the early ’90s, and we don’t know because barely anyone knows any Cleveland rap other than Bone. Three-6 Mafia accused Bone of biting as soon as they came along, though the two groups never really sounded that similar. It’s a completely alien take on rap, one that seems like it shouldn’t work but that absolutely does. Nobody’s ever heard anything like it, and by the time they break out of their town, nobody knows what the fuck they’re hearing. Cleveland, hometown to Bone Thugs-N-Harmony, was and is a total rap backwater, so they develop this whole sound in complete isolation. They get so good at it that, sooner or later, all five guys sound like Twista trying to sing like Nate Dogg while still rapping absurdly quickly and somehow succeeding. They get into that friendly-competition thing that’s always great for rap, cramming in as many words as they can. It’s the early ’90s, so they start rapping, too, and they find ways to do that while staying completely in key. But they aren’t living in the early ’60s. While they’re out on those corners, during quiet moments, they fill time by singing old songs together, harmonizing on Temptations tracks the same way the actual Temptations once did. Five guys from a decrepit Midwestern city stay out in the streets, trying to get money however they can. It’s practically a rap superhero origin story.

Bone thugs n harmony east 1999 album