Eazy-E was greatly involved in Bone Thugs-n-Harmony debut EP, Creepin’ On Ah Come Up. He produced the intro, co-produced “Foe Tha Love Of $” with DJ Yella, and appeared on three songs. Thirteen months later, Bone followed up their half-hour debut with their first full-length, E. 1999 Eternal. Eazy, who had died four months earlier, did not rap or make beats on the album, despite his executive production role. The tribute single that would help carry the 1995 album to more than four million sold (per the RIAA) was “Tha Crossroads.”

Speaking with HipHopDX, Bizzy Bone reveals that B.T.N.H. deliberately erased an Eazy-E verse from E. 1999 Eternal, on the song “Mr. Bill Collector.” “When all the [medical] stuff was going on [Eazy-E] wasn’t returning our phone calls, and we were stuck in the mansion,” said the Columbus, Ohio native about living in Eazy’s Chatsworth, California residence. At the time, the Cleveland collective had not been paid royalties. “Our records was platinum and all of this stuff was going on and we didn’t know what was going on. We didn’t know the whole thing about him getting N.W.A back together. While that was going on, we were sitting at that mansion with no food in that motherf*cker.” The members of Bone were resorting to stealing food from grocery stores just to survive, during a challenging period at Ruthless Records. Allegedly, Eazy, DJ Yella, and MC Ren had begun pre-production of a third N.W.A. album. The Ruthless CEO was in talks with Ice Cube, and reportedly pursuing friend-turned-foe, Dr. Dre.

Bizzy Says He & Krayzie Are The Ones Capable Of Creating New Waves For Bone Thugs (Video)

Angry at the man who signed them when they showed up in L.A., Bone responded. “We took Eazy-E off of ‘Mr. Bill Collector.’ We erased it. I had my kids out [in Chatsworth]. I had my three babies. My three baby girls. I was staying in the guest house. It was like main house, gate and everything, really cool. I packed mine up, funky-hustled up some paper and got all my kids back to Cleveland and was back to the hood, like the crack-selling hood.” Despite an EP out and an album on the horizon, Bizzy fumed at his label. He later tells DX that he learned of Eazy’s death on MTV News.

Bizzy’s frustrations with Ruthless would continue, despite B.T.N.H’s success. He would exit the group while they were still signed to the label eventually run by Eazy’s widow.

Krayzie Bone Has Powerful Memories About Ice Cube & Eazy-E’s 1995 Reunion After Years of Beef

Krayzie Bone and Bizzy Bone recently formed the duo, Bone Thugs. In the last month, they released New Waves.

#BonusBeat: Included on the deluxe edition of the LP is “Ruthless,” a dedication to Eazy-E:

This song features Layzie Bone and Flesh-N-Bone.