It's that time of year again when sister2sister puts together our big Intergenerational Celebration event. This event culminates with our presentation of the "You're My Sis" and "You're My Brother" awards, which declare a male and female hip-hopper to be the brother and sister respectively of a female and male from the political or business side of the world. Choosing a hip-hopper each year to bring together with an intergenerational partner is always a difficult task for me and the staff. This year we chose Bizzy Bone of the group Bone Thugs N Harmony to become brothers with the Honorable John Conyers, Democratic Congressman from Detroit, Michigan, who is the highest ranking member of the Judiciary Committee.
My staff brought to my attention that BizzyBone and the hip-hop group, Bone Thugs N Harmony, were coming back after being off the scene for a few years. More importantly, they told me that Bizzy had wanted to give his Grammy award to John Waish of "America's Most Wanted."
Why? Because when Bizzy was a child, his sisters' father abducted him. His mother was searching for him when John Walsh showed Bizzy's childhood picture along with others at the end of the "America's Most Wanted" show that John hosted when he painfully talked about the abduction of his own son.Bizzy was so grateful.
Then, Bizzy was brave enough to reveal publicly a frightening sexual encounter his abductor had tried to get him into when he was only five or six.
So, if Bizzy was courageous enough to talk about all this, we needed to embrace him. He came to D.C. to spend a day with Congressman John Conyers, just to hang out to establish a bond with his soon-to-be brother before our September 10th Intergenerational Celebration, which fosters mentorship.Bizzy and the Congressman got on like a house on fire. They spent time together.Bizzy was amazed to be in the Rayburn Building where all that power is. Conyers introduced him to the Japanese Ambassador. Conyers and Bizzy went to the nation's Capitol building where Conyers had to go for a vote on the floor.... It was awesome.
But wait, it gets better! Conyers asked Bizzy if he could stay over because someone was sponsoring a fundraiser for Conyers the next day and he wanted Bizzy to be there. Guess who was giving fundraiser for Conyers? President Clinton!! Yes,Bizzy got to meet former President Clinton. And on top of that, Chris Tucker and Robert Townsend and the congresswoman from Bizzy's hometown of Ohio were all there. Folks were all over him!
Bizzy and I spent hours with him telling the story of his short but mind-boggling, painful life.
Kidnapping, hustling, heatings, hate, self-mutilation, being baptized over and over and over again, messed up record contracts-he's seen it all. It was hard for me to listen.
But guess what? He came through! Let's see how you do reading about the amazing life of Bizzy Bone...
Jamie: I'm here with Bryan McKane. Who named you "Bryan"?
Bizzy: Actually, Byron named me Bryan and ran down there and put my name down on it real quick. Byron is my sister's father. He was the one that abducted us.
Jamie: Okay, start from the beginning. The setting is in Cleveland?
Bizzy: Columbus, Ohio. It was three children. My two oldest sisters, Hope and Heather, and myself.
Jamie: Your mother was...?
Bizzy: Roseanne Jefferson.
Jamie: Was your father there?
Bizzy: My sister's father was.
Jamie: Your mother was with somebody else?
Bizzy: We didn't find this out until later on, but when I was born, my mother says he knew I wasn't his child. He hung me out of the window and said, "I'll kill him, I'll kill him." So they were constantly getting into arguments like that. My name is the name of two people Bryan Anthony Bryan representing Byron and I was named Anthony because she thought that was my biological father's middle name, but it really wasn't. He had told her a lie and I just recently found this out 'cause he just got out of prison. Everything just really came together. So what I'm telling you is what I know now. I'm really honest and I love my mama, even though we don't talk no more because of what I came out [with] and what I said, which was the truth. See, the thing is, I've been in foster homes for more than half of my life. We asked my mother to please assist us, be a part of this "America's Most Wanted" thing because you were a victim, too. It was like, "I don't want to do it and I don't think it will be a good idea," which wasn't helping me out at all. It was like I had to
do things for myself.
Jamie: Was she married to Byron?
Bizzy: Yep.
Jamie: And Byron knew that you weren't his baby?
Bizzy: He knew it here [in his heart]. You know how females have intuition? He got a little slight touch of it.
My sister's nose is a little bit thicker than mine, they are a little bit bigger boned, and my cheekbones are kinda higher than theirs are. I got that little Cherokee twist up in here.
Jamie: Heather and Hope were living there, plus you, Byron and your mom?
Bizzy: Yeah. We were all living there, so it was like a huge, huge argument. It wound up where there was a boot in the TV and our next door neighbor, Gene, took me and my sisters away from it 'cause they didn't wantus to be around the argument. The argument was based on everything that was going on and you hear bits and pieces. I'm about four or five years old now. My mother zips out, her skirt and all. [Byron] comes over and gets us from Gene's house, puts us in the car and after a few days, my mother was dead is what was told to us. My grandmother was dead. This is what was told to us. So it's more like, "Where's Mommy?" "She's dead." "What about Granny?" "She's dead."
We were on the road. We were state to state. They found us in Oklahoma on a reservation at a trailer park. We were gone for like 16 months. That's when
John Walsh [of "America's Most Wanted"] got into it. Around that same time, his son had gotten abducted and he was hot on the trail of this cat who did this to his son and he put the movie out.
One thing I have to say about John Walsh is that he fought to get the children's faces shown at the end of the show. That was the only reason that I was found along with my sisters.
Jamie: Now, who submitted your pictures to John Walsh?
Bizzy: My mother. She was working with the FBI, with psychics, spiritual advisors, churches, reverends, pastors, anything she could to find her children.
Jamie: So then, John Walsh puts your picture up there. Who saw it?
Bizzy: The next door neighbor that used to babysit us. She is the one who called in. Next thing I know, we were at school and our names were changed.
My last name became Jones. I watched him as he erased it from the birth certificate stuff. I seen it all. I remember him arguing at the place with the names. He said, "It looks like it's been erased." He was like, "What are you talking about?"
They called us from the school: "Hope Jones, Heather Jones, Bryan Jones, come down to the office."
When you get called to the office like that, I was like, "D#@n, what'd I do wrong?" I'm just thinking.
Jamie: How old were you then?
Bizzy: I was 6 years old.
Jamie: Where were you?
Bizzy: Oklahoma.
Jamie: Why did Byron want you? He didn't think you were his child.
Bizzy: I think he halfway didn't really, really know. I also think that another part of that was to hurt my mom. My mom was the go-getter. She was the
one working for the government, working for the glass factory, going out there busting her tail.
He was more or less working the system. He used to play with the Pittsburgh Steelers. Then he went on to play for the Columbus Bucks. He went to college in Nebraska. He was a very intelligent man. That's how we went from state to state so long without getting caught.
Jamie: What's his last name?
Bizzy: Byron? Well now it's McKane. He had so many different last names. His story is even deeper, but that's basically what happened. They get us down there to the office and they keep asking us our real name and I wasn't budging. They said, "Where is your mother?" I'm like, "She's dead." My sister, she's the oldest, she was like, "You can tell them, you can tell 'em. I'll tell 'em." They were like, "No, we want him to tell."
Jamie: Why did they want you to tell?
Bizzy: Those are his biological daughters. In truest essence, that's a custody battle. I wasn't his child.
That's kidnapping. I don't know if they were trying to build a case or whatever they were doing. There was a policeman there and he said, "Your mother is downtown." I bottled up from there. "Let's go," and I seen my mother. I seen [Byron] and I looked at him like, "Why would you lie? Why would you tell me my mom...?" And I'm young. I'm like 6 years old. He was the only person I knew as Dad.
Jamie: How did Byron treat you when you were there?
Bizzy: I definitely remember certain little things and I can understand why he was a little bit meaner on me. It was like he was trying to turn me into a girl or something. One time when he took me, I still remember what this neighborhood looked like. He told me to go upstairs and take a bath with some kid that was like maybe 12 or 13 years old. And I'm terrified. I'm looking at him like, "No, it's okay. It's okay." I just really didn't understand it, but I did what he said. This is an adult, I'm a child. I really wasn't who I am now. It's like I'm a different person. I went up there and that little boy was telling me about my private parts and telling me to touch myself and trying to touch me and things of that nature. And he did touch me and it scared the hell out of me. I got out, put my stuff on and ran downstairs.
I was trying to talk to [Byron] and he was just shunning it away. We in the car and he just shunned it away. I never really said anything after that. I guess as a child, I felt completely betrayed. It's like, "D#@n, I can't even tell you." I don't have nobody that I can go to, to help me out, to let me know this is wrong. Go smash him, do something. You're 6 foot 4. Smash him, anything. I'm a baby, I'm your baby. I didn't know anything about this ain't my daddy and all this bullsh#t. I'm Bryan, he's Byron, what else is a child gonna think? All my sisters are light-skinned. I'm light-skinned, too. I didn't see no big difference. I really didn't. Maybe because I just didn't see it.
After that, I can even remember being in the hotel room and he'd be watching porno movies while I'm there. I got my head in the pillow so it's like being suffocated. That's why I don't like being suffocated in places. It just gets me, makes me feel funny, you know what I'm saying? My sisters were there, too. They probably won't even admit it right now. I know my sisters were there. I know they had their faces in the bed, too.
They just don't want to admit it because they're scared. I ain't scared and I don't care what nobody thinks of me. I got six children and I feel like I'm alright. I do my thing. I get my drink on, I get my puff on, that's my own self-medication. And I work on it to get myself together. That's basically what was going on. Now that I look at it, it's like, d#@n, you didn't even want me to be a man? You want me to grow up and think about this? I got freaky ways. I like sex. I don't feel like I'm a sex addict because I don't think there is a such thing as a sex addict. I just think people abuse their privileges, their free will. That's what we have. We have something that no other being was created with—free will. That is a blessing and that is why human beings get so much flack from the spiritual world, because of all the freedom that we've been able.
Jamie: After Mom came and got you, did you still have contact with Byron after that?
Bizzy: Well, what happened was after my mom came and got us and picked us up, we stayed with her for about another year and a half, maybe two years.
Somehow, he didn't go to jail. This whole abuse and this thing that happened with this nasty little kid and the place that he took me to, this was completely
blocked out. I didn't even realize this until I recently, until it came out. [There was] a lot of thinking, a lot of soul searching and meeting with John Walsh and everything that we had done and in telling it, it all just came together.
We were with my mother for about two years and she was going through a thing and we started getting abused, physically. Byron was the one who beat her to death. to have and that we use in the wrong way. [It's] something that different beings and different entities have no opportunity to do these type of things; to love, to hate, the negatives and the positives. We have that opportunity and that ability So, that's basically how things went down.
Jamie: Do you see Byron today?
Bizzy: No, Byron, unfortunately, passed away. He passed away and we got him a nice tombstone. He passed away 5-16-97.1 got the tattoo on me.
Jamie: Why do you still feel close to him? [Looking at Bizzy's arm] You've been cutting yourself?
Bizzy: That was the self-mutilation period.
Jamie: [Still looking at Bizzy's arm] What is this, RIP?
Bizzy: Better believe it.
Jamie: Byron Carlos McKane. 8-22-46/5-16-97. Now, is that to remember what he did to you or is it to remember him?
Bizzy: If I can go to Jesus and ask Him to forgive me for my sins, and He can do that as long as I come with sincerity, then who am I to hold a grudge against anybody for anything that they might have done? I'll see you in a spiritual world. I don't want to fight you, I just want to tell you that I love you—period and point blank because we're human beings and we have to stick together even if we do something wrong to each other.
We still got to stick together because it's a lot of different things working against us. That's what I understand—that fight and that struggle.
Jamie: One and a half years, you're with your mom, Byron's with you at the same time?
Bizzy: No. When the police called us down...I probably didn't get to finish that. I'm sorry.
When I did get to see my mother after thinking that she was dead, what happened was there was some court thing that went on. I seen Byron waltzing away and I seen my mother like, "Come on, let's go." I'm like, "Where is he going? Why can't y'all be together?" I didn't know what was going on. And at this time, my biological [father] wasn't there because he's kinda a violent person. I would've hated to see what would've happened with that altercation, but something came up anyway. We get home with my mother and the very first night we were there, we were getting all these Christmas presents we didn't get to show up for. My grandmother came over. We thinking she was dead and my mom is like, "She is not dead. I'm gonna show you that she's alive." The very first night we were there, we ordered a bunch of pizzas and you know how kids are. We were tired, tired from the whole ordeal. We were up in bed. Robert's down there arguing, "These kids can't be making all this mess."
Jamie: Now, who's Robert?
Bizzy: My biological father. He was there for [my mother]. When she needed someone to be there, he was there for her and I will give him all the respect in the world for that. Now it's mommy and daddy time. It's not Robert and Roseanne time. You done went through this strenuous ordeal, now it's time to follow through or just leave us there. This is what I feel later on, but I'm glad everything worked the way it happened because the Lord is good all day, every day. We wound up getting abused. I'm going to school with black eyes and things like that. Listening to "This ain't my son."
You know how it is. It's very questionable now. It was just a very confusing thing.
So one of the teachers wound up like, "What happened?" She just looked at me and said her name was Mrs. Arnold. I'll never forget her. She used to wear her
hair in a bun, wrap it up in the back and throw her pin down there. She was also my sister Heather's teacher a year before and she had kinda seen what was going on with Heather, but with me, it was more visible. I can't get in a fight every day and the little kids cannot hit you that hard to make your whole eye be black, the whole side of your face, you got a smack print on your face. Now I'm about 7. Second grade, yeah 7 or 8. She called the police. I told her what happened. She was like, "What did he do?" "I got a whipping." She was like, "Oh no baby, that's not a whipping."
She called the police and we didn't get removed immediately. They started taking pictures. They made me take off my clothes and took pictures of my body
like I was in prison. I ain't know how to say no. It's a policeman. My last deal with a policeman, he brought me to my mother. He was always trying to get information from me. I'm tight like gnat booty, I'm not really gonna say anything because I'm just a quiet kid anyway.
After a few pictures and things like that, my mother and [Robert] wound up getting into a great big argument. So while they're taking pieamount of feet away. After all the time had passed, this is their father and he did love them.
Robert didn't play. Robert would put a belt to your backside. I don't even know if big B even really whipped them. I'm quite sure he chastised them, but
Robert took it to another level. Robert made it to where it was visible, it was marks, it was lashes to where you couldn't even go to gym class and wear
shorts. But if you wear sweat pants for three years, people gonna be like, "D#@n, why don't you ever wear shorts? Something ain't right. You must have ugly legs." "No, they welted up."
Jamie: Did Mom fight him?
Bizzy: Let me tell you, it started out to be funny. She didn't want to acknowledge that it was abuse. She was scared. I understand that. She's a woman, not that all women are scared. She was just the type of woman who was. She had already gone through getting us back, now it's like, "D#@n, I got to go through this, too?
Let me block this out. I'm gonna go ahead and work for this government. I'm gonna go ahead and put in my 15 hours, bring home the check."
He was working, too. He wasn't like no lazy dude or nothing like that. He did what he had to do. He just didn't have the opportunities that she may have had or the know-how in order to take care of it. She wasn't there most of the time. So he was left to be a father with a son he didn't really know
was his. And you got to know how men think.
It just kept getting deeper and deeper and deeper.
We wound up in foster homes. She married him. I went back with my mom. I had to stay in a foster home for another two years I believe. We had to go to psychia trists and counseling. And you know I hid everything?
I've always been tight like gnat booty. My outlet was music. My outlet was singing. I get a lot of flack for it.
My voice is always like, [Bizzy sings at a high pitch.] When I used to rob people, they actually thought it was a little girl robbing people. "It's a girl running around Cleveland robbing people." I used it to my advantage later on.
Bryan needed an outlet 'cause Bryan was hurting. I used to sing to the Lord all the time. I used to put together shows after everybody went to bed. I would
set my pillows up and I would sing and I would make my show for the Lord. All the angels I would see just watching. And after I did my show, I would play out my career. After my career, I'd play out my death. It would be a complete show for the Lord. It was just my outlet.
It took about another two or three months before the disciplining started again. I was about 13 years old when I had had enough. I stood up to him. I said, "Why don't you pick on somebody your own size? I never seen you do that. You pretty much beat me up, huh?
When I grow up..." That was my whole thing. When I grow up, I'm gonna kill him. I'm gonna shoot him in his motherf#@king face. Then I'll go to jail, but who cares?
My life is f#@ked up anyway.
He grabbed this board with nails in it, like, "Yeah, I'm 'bout to tear your a## up." I'm washing dishes 'cause when I came home, I had to do chores, sweep
the floors, clean their room, clean my room, get the upstairs done, get the attic done, get the downstairs done and wash some clothes. That was what I had to do.
Jamie: What about homework?
Bizzy: Well, of course. I was a pretty good student; you know honor roll. If I wasn't, it was gonna be some drama, regardless. My grades fell later on and eventually, I left school. He came through with the board and he had went in my room and tore up my Bible. One of my friends' bigger brothers had drowned and I had his picture in my Bible and the Bible was all messed up. I guess he was like, where is this kid getting this spiritual stuff from? I don't know where it came from. It was just a relationship that was formed. To be honest with you, every state that he would take us to, he would get us baptized over and over and over and over and over again. He would go to these country places where they didn't watch much TV so they ain't really know. Once they caught on, he's out. It wasn't really too many outlets for kidnapped children. It was a few things posted up on the FBI bulletin.
Jamie: What was Byron doing in all these cities?
Bizzy: Handy work. I remember going to college to be with him. He took a couple of college courses. Jamie: So after he came at you with the board with the nails in it...
Bizzy: I dropped the dishes and slammed the dishes and it was like, he was surprised. I was scared of him, but now I'm ready to kill him. I ran out the house, scratched his car up, hopped the fence, went over to my next-door neighbor's house and they brought out the guns and said, "Well, if he comes over here, it's not gonna be pretty." I was like, "He ripped up Donald's picture and what am I gonna do? I want to stay with you."
They called the police. I sat and talked to the police, told him everything that was going on, let him know my situation, what had went down and they took me back to my foster home. Mrs. Beulah Smith, that's my mama, flat out, said "Bring him back. Come on, Bryan."
She's straight from down South. She had about five, six kids and three grandchildren stayed with her.
Jamie: The foster parents were good?
Bizzy: To be there, to live there with someone who doesn't know who you are and a safe haven, a roof, food and things of that nature, yes. I can't expect for
them to show me the type of love I feel your blood should be showing you, whose blood you're pumping through your veins, but they were d#@n good.
I started banging when I went to Cleveland. I went to Cleveland to go live with my sisters and Big B. I was 13 years old. As soon as I got there, the way they made their money was through dope. My sisters taught me how to sell dope, basically. They were like, "These are 20's, these are 10's, no 5's, exact money, no quarters, no change at all..." We didn't do change for some reason. We did that for a while. The first night I did that, I lived pretty well.
Jamie: Were you scared going out?
Bizzy: Yeah, I was scared, but I had been through so much. I never got caught. We were in a house. It's funny how things come back around. Byron was with this woman, one of the biggest drug addicts in Columbus, Ohio. I don't want to say her name, but I love her to death just because she was there.
Eventually, he got robbed by her. She took everything from him and he had it taped to his ankle. [She] put him to sleep and got up, tried to hit him. He woke up, no tape on his leg, no hair, you know how it's gonna rip your hair out.
He was looking for her for about three or four days and we in the house by ourselves. He started chasing this woman. He fell in love with someone who didn't
truly love him, who was more in love with drugs than they were with him.
So I'm running the streets and that's when I started bangin'. I met Little Steve, wich is Layzie Bone, and we just clicked. I never really told him anything about myself.
being out there, you're like gazelle walking amoungst the lions. Then it's like, what can I do in order to get my claws a little bit sharper? We went out there and got us a gun and I started bangin'. I remember my first gun. It was a 32 named Weezy.
Jamie: Why'd you name it Weezy? after "The Jeffersons"?
Bizzy: Yep. George Jefferson was...I liked the way he walked.
He walkd with confidence and liked that. HE wasn't big in his physica, but he would carry it and he had money.
He was running his own stuff, he was Black and it just....
I didn't really understand my biracialness back then. I was just Black because I always in the Black community and always either called Julio or ******, with the "e-r." I just started running around and I could sing. That's how I got into it. I also rapped a little bit. Actually, I wrote a rap down for [Layzie] at his house because his mother was helping Big B trying to find [his girlfriend], Cheryl. That's how it all started off with the Bone thing. He knocked on my door one day and came and got me and I never came back. I never went home after that.
Jamie: Where did you go? To his mom's house?
Bizzy: We lived over there. Her name is Pam—Mama P—she's the mama of the whole Bone crew. When you meet Mama P, you're gonna know that you met Mama P.
Jamie: How did you all get the name "Bone"?
Bizzy: Well, Layzie was going down to Texas to serve some time, 'cause he had got caught selling dope back in '89. He was rolling down this place and it said "Bone Enterprise." He said, "That's gonna be our name." Him and Krayzie Bone, which is Anthony, they had been friends throughout school and they would rap, do talent shows together and things like that. Anthony came back home and that's who we were. We were Bone Enterprise and everybody had a Bone name. I didn't get one immediately, but I proved myself through freestyle sessions, talent shows. When nobody else wanted to rap, I'm the first one to step out with that high-pitched voice and really didn't care what anybody thought about me, 'cause I'm gon' put it down. IF you rap better, I'm going to start singin', you start singin', I'm gon' rap. You do that, I'm gonna do both. I'll backflip ...you're not gonna win.
....I think Steve took me to Anthony's house first.
Anthony's the genious. He would make the beats and those were our instrumentals 'cause we didn't have money to get instrumentals.
Mr. Krayzie Bone is one of those type of magnificent, amazing, people. He came with the titles, he came with the topics, he came with the substance, he was just the bread.
Jamie: How old were y'all back then?
Bizzy: I was 14 about to turn 15
Jamie: How long were y'all all together before Eazy found you?
Bizzy: Three years. We were together for three years, just in the streets of Cleveland going through the little talent shows and things of that nature. [We were] swapping sandwiches, breaking bread and wearing each other's clothes and stuff like that. Hustling as much as we could, but the hustling never went down when we were together. It was more about the music. Then, we took the one way bus ticket to L.A. and that changed our lives because our neighborhood had started smoking embalming fluid. Everybody in the neighborhood, it was like a craze. They were breaking into funeral homes left and right.
Jamie: Embalming fluid! They call it what?
Bizzy: They call it "wet" and they call it "sherm" in Cleveland, but sherm in L.A. is like PCP. It's just different slang. People started dying in our neighborhood. A couple of people were dead right in front of the house.
Jamie: What did they do? Inhale it or what?
Bizzy: No, people were getting high off of it and killing people. I don't want to tell kids how to do it. You would basically put it in something you could smoke. You can't shoot it up. You know what it is, you put it in dead bodies. It makes you feel invincible, like you can pick up this whole hotel with one hand and in the other hand smoke a cigarette.
Jamie: So you all got out of dodge?
Bizzy: Yeah, we all said, "You know what? It's time.
Somebody is gonna die."
Jamie: So how did you all get to California?
Bizzy: We got the one-way bus tickets. We went back to South Central and that's where the Mansfield brothas really took care of us. I would just sit back in the shed all day until Don would come back and pick me up and put me in the house 'cause I just really hate to be a burden on somebody.
They had a shed in the back that they set up for us to write raps and stuff. They were like, "We know y'all gon' make it." Then, Eazy-E called the house.
Somehow, little Layzie done maneuvered and made a few phone calls down to Cleveland and he got the secretary to get Eazy to give us a call. Eazy called us, we rapped to him over the phone. He told us that he was gonna call us back. When the woman of the house, which was Don's woman, Danita, found out that he had called the house, the phone was in the room, she locked the door, and left the house all day.
Jamie: She didn't want you all to talk to him?
Bizzy: Satan at his finest, of course. Satan was poppin' his collar. I ain't mad. I can't be mad. After that, Eazy-E comes up on a TV show called "The Box." "In Cleveland, Ohio, Eazy-E from the infamous N.W.A. singing his greatest hits." That's when the light bulb went off. We called the pizza man. I got on the phone, "Yes, we're having a party over here. I want five pizzas; two cheese, three pepperonis, three six packs and make sure you bring change. Thank you." Soon as he got there, you know what it is. "Drive-by."
Jamie: Y'all robbed the pizza man?
Bizzy: Several times. Went back to the Greyhound, got tickets the same day. It takes three days to get home. Went back there to see Eazy. We went back there and Lay was talking to Yella, I believe. He was like, "Yeah, he want to talk to us."
He was like, "Eazy, it's some guys out here named Bone." He was like, "Tell 'em to say a rap." Layzie couldn't even get a rap out his mouth. [He started]
spitting. [Eazy said,] "Tell them ni##as to come on back here, man." We went back there and didn't say nothing else to him. We did a wino song basically. He dug it a lot. Eazy flew back home and we got back on the bus.
He was gonna fly us home, but we were like, "We'll take the bus." He was a little cheap; he's a businessman. He don't know us from Adam. He took us back to his hotel with him. Him, and Gangsta Dresta and B.G. Knockout, much love. You doing time, I love you, brotha.
Anyway, we went back there and they embraced us. We walked home, got on the bus the next day and three weeks later, we were gold. When we went down there, we banged out the EP in three days. We were so hungry, it was like, "Is it my turn yet?" We were young and had plenty of energy.
Jamie: I always thought it was so amazing that you all had that rapid-fire cadence. Who came with that first?
Bizzy: I'm gonna be real honest with you. When Krayzie Bone came home from jail, 'cause Krayzie had accidentally shot Wish with a 12-gauge in the leg. We were gon' rob some brothas. We were doing pretty good at first - Then' a brotha got a little bit too tipsy and Wish wound up in the hospital.
Im crying like a little girl. He was like, "*****, I'm gon' be alright- It's just my leg, look!"
The state picked it up 'cause Wish wasn't all mad at him. They were drunk and he had put too many shells in the gun. When he got out of jail, we was wild. He came home and he told us [this new style] that he had. We were looking at him like, "Okay, keep on going." He was basically putting syllables together and making them go rapidly and it happened in a few different Cab Calloway was one of the first artists to flip his tongue, but it wasn't any words to
it. So, when he came home, he put it down and gradually everybody picked it up. I already had the singing thing down. When I rapped I would sing, sorta how Nelly is doing it. That's kinda how I was starting out. It just blew up from there and we meshed it all together and Lay came with the street appeal and the thugness. Wish came in with it and Stack was the school head so he was constantly like, "you guys gotta write."
Jamie: Who is Stack?
Bizzy: Flesh, the one doing some time right now. Eleven years.
Jamie: What is wrong with my children?
Bizzy: You know what's wrong? They done put us in bad situations. He started flippin' out and he had a chemical imbalance and they had him on Thorozine. If you don't know, that will freeze your thoughts. He was also put on Lithium. Doctors called us and tried to get us to release him to their care. Really, it was on Lay and he was like, "What should I do?" "Man, we going to go get him." We walked all the way down the freeway to the insane asylum to go pick this ni##a up. He had a teddy bear with all the stuffing ripped out and he had pages balled up in there and that's where he put his raps 'cause he thought somebody was trying to sabotage him and not let him say what he had to say. I haven't spoken to Flesh. The last time I seen him was when he got sentenced.
Jamie: Why did you decide to tell your story?
Bizzy: I decided to tell the story 'cause I always knew about John Walsh. I picked up one of his books. I bought it actually because I wanted to read what this guy had to say. I seen my picture in his book. This was when I was a child. The picture of how they found me. I just focused on it. I kept it to myself for about six months. Then, I hooked up with my manager, Rick Robinson, and he hooked me up with Bea Montgomery. Oh, Beatrice, she is the bomb. She said, "Seriously, I'm gonna get you on that show." Bea Montgomery is the publicist. She's done Ohio Players; she worked adamantly with Brandy and her mother. She also has a foundation in New York where she helps young artists who really don't have a chance.She gives them somewhere that they can call home. In other words, inspiration, hope for tomorrow, somewhere to go. She's a really good strong Black woman.
Jamie: How come the kids and no marriage?
Bizzy: Well, I got six children. I have five children with my babymomma. Recently, she just had another child with her fiancee. She's doing her thing in Cleveland and living good. I kept the kids with me for like two and a half or three years while she went out there and did her thing. I stepped away from the music when everybody was saying, "It doesn't shock me." I got my babies with me, I don't care what y'all say. The Lord is gonna love me for this. She picked up the pace and me and her have a wonderful relationship. I called her yesterday and just said, "You're doing a wonderful job and thank you very much. I will have some money to you just as soon as possible." I had gotten married for about four months.
Jamie: Not to her?
Bizzy: No, no, you got to Understand, we were together since I was 14 years old. I had my first child when I was 14. Once I made it, she just really thought that I was messing around. I was one of them guys who would get called a punk because I would close my hotel door, roll my blunt and drink 'til I passed out. I really didn't want to mess anything up with me and her, so she just didn't believe me at all. I'm like, "D#@n, I love you. You my motherf#@king queen, girl. You done had all these kids, you think I'm gonna make y'all thick like that and then run out on you?" When Big B passed away, she left me with them kids. It was too much for me to handle. She left and went to Cleveland to be [with] my sisters I guess.
Jamie: So you had to take care of the five kids?
Bizzy: It was four then. Three girls and one duke.
Jamie: How old are they?
Bizzy: Shynikka will be 13. Little Bryona is 10. Monet is 8 and Bryan Jr. is 6 and little Leone is 4 and Aaliyah is 8 months.
Jamie: Did you name her after Aaliyah?
Bizzy: Actually, her mother did.
Jamie: Who's got the kids now?
Bizzy: What we do is I keep them for the summer and when I'm not working. She keeps them for school. She did that for this year. Next year, the boys are gonna come down with me 'cause they're getting older and I just feel like I don't need no other man to raise my children at all 'cause I hold it down. If I can hold down five, I can definitely hold down two.
Jamie: How many years has it been since you did the last Bone Thugs album?
Bizzy: We did Resurrection in '99,1 think. Then, we just did this new album and we got 40 strong, strong songs, but they're not gonna put all those on there. Right now, we're not even able to say I like this song, put this on there. It's not really what it should be and I'm gonna be honest.
Jamie: You're still with Eazy-E's label?
Bizzy: Well, actually, I'm with my own label, but I did sign with my partners so everything goes smoothly. I did my little CEO thing and gave them the right to solicit.
Jamie: What's the name of your label?
Bizzy: Seventh Sign Records. We don't have a distribution deal yet. We're working our tails off to get one.
Jamie: What's the name of the album?
Bizzy: They're saying that the title was Thug World Order. I don't know if that's gonna be the direction, but that's what we said it was.
Jamie: I used to love you all's music so much, but the lyrics used to wear me down. "Murder, murder." I used to play that all the time, but it just really kills me to hear my Black children talking about killing one another.
Bizzy: You just said the perfect word though, "children." I signed my first contract when I was 14 years old.
Jamie: But "Crossroads" came out and that was so beautiful.
Bizzy: It came with the passing of Eazy.
Jamie: Do you miss Eazy? Were you having trouble before he passed on?
Bizzy: No, we didn't know anything, so anything that came was a blessing. If you come with nothing and you get $10, you're thankful for the $10. As far as missing mim, I really think things could have been different. I think things would be better if he was still around, at least for us. He can understand us 'cause he's a man and we're men. He's hip-hop and we're hip-hop, he's from the streets, we're from the streets. He's actually a performer and we're performers. I guess he could relate more on the artistic level as well as a business level.
Jamie: How did you feel when he got sick?
Bizzy: Well, they hid it from us for a while. We had still not really received the money we were supposed to receive. He had gotten sick and I went back down to Cleveland.
Everybody went home and Lay and Wish stayed out there in Cali to figure out what was going on. It's like the place we were at, they were putting us up out of there. There was no way to eat; we were out there in a big mansion with no food in the refrigerator and it just didn't make any sense. I'm like, "Sell this furniture, sell this motherf#@king window. We can get some money for that. Where's the pawn shop at around this b$@ch?"
Jamie: How have you all been living now since you never really made any money?
Bizzy: It's been a constant struggle. It's just been so many people stealing from Bone Thugs. What I came to understand is that Bone Thugs 'N Harmony has generated a half billion dollars in revenues and merchandise and I'm not even putting bootlegging in it.
We're talking merchandising, single sales, album sales, videos, soundtracks, the whole thing. When you look at it, you say, "Okay, we're gonna take 10 percent from half a billion dollars. Let's take 3 percent from half of a billion dollars. If we haven't even received that collectively, something is sincerely wrong. It's like they got minimum wage from McDonald's, but not for people who are making millions. It makes absolutely no sense and we have no union, no outlet, nobody to go to.
If I go get this high class lawyer who works for a - certain amount of people and different people in the business that have big names that shut sh#t down and all I have to offer him is the truth, and the opportunity to continue a relationship with me to do business; asopposed to somebody saying, you know what, I'll give you a million dollars to stop what the f#@k you're doing and leave me the f#@k alone and tell these boys it ain't nothing you gonna do. Nine times out of 10, and we're dealing with lawyers, you know, give me the money.
Jamie: Was this the contract that you all signed when you didn't know any better?
Bizzy: Well, not just that. I signed a contract when I was 17 years old and I was told there was absolutely nothing I could do about it.
Money has been running the world for years.
After that, it got to the point where it was like, "What are these expenses again? Hold on, I didn't even have a credit card." We're at the Elvis game now, swiping everything. "You want to go get you an outfit? Now that goes to Bone Thugs N Harmony's account. That's what we'll do, we'll put it on their account." We don't even have to be there.
Jamie: So this recouping of expenses is what really hurt you?
Bizzy: Oh my goodness! With all the paperwork, it's a lot of different issues that I believe all it would take would be some honesty. If we had someone in this business who was actually honest, 'cause if you can sit and tell the story and it makes sense, imagine how much sense it makes on paper.
Jamie: Do you all have any kind of money
Bizzy: Yeah, from "Crossroads" and all the hits that we've accumulated. Being on the road has really kept us...
Jamie: That's how you all are eating, you've been on the road?
Bizzy: Yeah, that's how I've been eating.
Jamie: Have you been touring by yourself?
Bizzy: By myself and with the group, but mostly by myself. I have been touring for about two years now just off of my solo album and doing bits and pieces of "Crossroads." [I've been] spreading my message. I stay in the schools talking to kids. That's how I have basically been maintaining—taking care of myself and my children.
I mean, as far as the group goes, the group is definitely getting along. We just did two shows in Colorado. It's some things that's going on that do need to stop.
See,
http://www.youtube.com/v/t_liS71DJ78 people don't want me to speak, but I'm gon' speak 'cause I'm not scared. We're in a situation right now where it's getting violent and it's not coming from our side. That's as far as I want to go due to legal things that I expect to happen, but it's gotten violent.
Bizzy: Well, with the new Bone stuff, it's a little bit more socially conscious as far as my verses go and the things that I'm saying. I'm a little bit more socially conscious of what's going on out there. I say a few things about one of my friends that got shot by the police in his back. Right now, me personally, I got this beautiful new song about AIDS. We try to have a little fun, too.
It's still the same vibe. We're still coming with that same tongue. A little bit more intelligent words. It means a little bit more now. We ain't just talking about going out there and killing people or getting killed because we're men now. We know how to articulate our emotions a little bit better.
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