| The Art of War | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Studio album by | ||||
| Released | July 29, 1997 | |||
| Recorded | 1996-1997 | |||
| Genre | ||||
| Length | 121:14 | |||
| Label | ||||
| Producer |
| |||
| Bone Thugs-n-Harmony chronology | ||||
| ||||
| Singles from The Art of War | ||||
| ||||
| Professional ratings | |
|---|---|
| Review scores | |
| Source | Rating |
| Allmusic | [1] |
| Entertainment Weekly | B[2] |
| The Rolling Stone Album Guide | [3] |
| The Source | |
Vokal Hip Hop Blog: Album Release: Bone Thugs N Harmony - Uni5 Portfolio Firebrain Inc Bone Thugs-N-Harmony - Art Of War III (Snippets+2fullSongs. Art of War 3 - YouTube Bone Thugs-N-Harmony: Art Of War WWIII Has it leaked? Download Bone Thugs N Harmony The Art Of War Zippo. The Art Of War: World. Bone Thugs N Harmony DISCOG.( FULL ALBUMS ). Bone Thugs N Harmony - The Art of War (Duplo) (1997) Disc: 1 1. Retaliation (Intro) 2. Handle The Vibe 3.
The Art of War is the third studio album by hip hop group Bone Thugs-N-Harmony which was released on July 29, 1997. The album sold 394,000 units in its first week of release. The album was certified quadruple Platinum by the RIAA in June 1998. It was the first double-album from Bone Thugs-n-Harmony. The album included the platinum-single 'Look into My Eyes', and the gold-single 'If I Could Teach the World'. The whole album is produced by DJ U-Neek.
A sequel to the album The Art of War: World War III was released on December 10, 2013.
The album was rumored to be called 'DNA Level C' which is Cleveland backwards. 'The Art of War' was created largely as a response to rappers deemed 'Clones' (copycats) by the group. Such rappers included Do or Die, Crucial Conflict, Twista & The Speedknots & Three 6 Mafia.
In the wake of his father's death and Tomica Wright now heading Ruthless, Bizzy Bone was not happy, and thus did not appear for many shows or promotions. Now calling the shots, many tracks were altered by Tomica Wright, attempting to head the group into a new direction. Such tracks include Thug Luv with Sylk-E. Fyne, If I Could Teach the World, Friends, Ready For War and many others. While the group appeared at Sprite Nite on BET, Keenan Ivory Wayans (with Bizzy), and several other promotions, their tour began to lag without Bizzy.
In 'Ready 4 War,' Bone Thugs-n-Harmony (along with Mr. Majesty) called out Crucial Conflict directly by name, with Majesty even stating, 'I'll watch you ride the rodeo straight to the bottom'.

In 'U Ain't Bone', Layzie Bone raps a line similar to the chorus from female rap icon MC Lyte's '10% dis'. MC Lyte's chorus raps 'Beat biter! Dope style taker! Tell it to your face, you ain't nuttin but a faker!', while Layzie Bone's verse interpolates 'They beat biters, dope-style takers. When I see you face-to-face, my nigga, I'm-a treat you like a hater.' In 2000, MC Lyte stated that she was 'extremely' disrespected by Layzie Bone, Lil' Kim and Foxy Brown's lyrical interpolations of her '10% Dis' lines. Layzie interpolated the chorus on 'U Ain't Bone', while Kim and Brown interpolated the beginning verse, 'Hot damn, ho, here we go again!' on Mobb Deep's 'Quiet Storm' (Remix) and Capone-N-Noreaga's 'Bang-Bang', respectively. This resulted in MC Lyte calling out all of the three rappers on the Rah Digga-collaborated, 'Where U At Mama?'[4]
They also changed the name of 'Friends' for the cassette version to 'How Many of Us Have Them'. 2Pac wrote his verse for 'Thug Luv' in 1 minute and 51 seconds as confirmed by Bizzy Bone.
The first single for this album was Look Into My Eyes, which was also on the Batman & Robin soundtrack. Neither Bizzy nor Flesh-n-Bone was featured in the video. The next single was 'If I Could Teach the World'. Bizzy did not appear in this video either. 'Thug Luv' and 'Body Rott' were also released to radio as singles.
The Art of War received mostly positive reviews from music critics, with some critics calling the album sonically superior to its predecessor, E. 1999 Eternal. While others criticizing the album for its length, including extended disses towards other rappers, leading to repetitive song play. Stephen Thomas Erlewine of Allmusic said, 'While the group is capable of producing a catchy single, they don't have the personality to sustain an album, much less a double-disc set. By the end of the second disc, they have repeated all of their ideas at least five times apiece, and only a few of those ideas resulted in actual songs in the first place.'[5] J.D. Considine of Entertainment Weekly gave the album a 'B' rating, stating, 'Lest the smooth sound of 'Look Into My Eyes' leaves you thinking the Bone Thugs-N-Harmony are really just pop-friendly softies, this 28-song double disc, The Art of War, offsets its slow-and-sweet numbers with bloodthirsty workouts like the shotgun-spiked 'Thug Luv'. But after two hours of these singsong melodies, War seems more like a siege than a surgical strike.'[6] Rolling Stone gave the album three and a half stars out of a possible five.[3] Krayzie Bone said in a 2015 interview with HipHopDX that The Art of War was Bone Thugs-N-Harmony's best album, even better than E. 1999 Eternal. Comparing to Eternal, whose songs he claimed were planned and written years before they were recorded, where in contrast The Art of War consisted entirely of newer material that he and the other group members had sat in the studio to create. The response to these statements from mainstream media and fans has been evenly divided. Rapper Wiz Khalifa included the album in his list of '25 Favorite Albums' for Complex.
All tracks produced by DJ U-Neek
| World War 1 | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| No. | Title | Writer(s) | Length |
| 1. | 'Retaliation (Intro)' | Bone Thugs-n-Harmony, DJ U-Neek | 2:21 |
| 2. | 'Handle The Vibe' | Antoinette Colandreo, BTNH, U-Neek | 4:40 |
| 3. | 'Look into My Eyes' | BTNH, U-Neek | 4:19 |
| 4. | 'Body Rott' | BTNH, U-Neek | 5:01 |
| 5. | 'It's All Mo' Thug' | BTNH, U-Neek | 5:12 |
| 6. | 'Ready 4 War' (featuring Mr. Maje$ty) | Majesty, Marilyn McLeod, Pam Sawyer, BTNH, U-Neek | 4:36 |
| 7. | 'Ain't Nothin' Changed (Everyday Thang Part II)' | Barry J. Eastmond, BTNH, U-Neek | 4:43 |
| 8. | 'Clog Up Yo Mind' | BTNH, U-Neek | 5:01 |
| 9. | 'It's All Real - performed by Krayzie Bone' | Krayzie Bone, BTNH, U-Neek | 5:08 |
| 10. | 'Hard Times (Skit)' | BTNH, U-Neek | 2:49 |
| 11. | 'Mind of a Souljah - performed by Layzie Bone' | Layzie Bone, BTNH, U-Neek | 4:39 |
| 12. | 'If I Could Teach the World' | BTNH, U-Neek | 4:24 |
| 13. | 'Family Tree' | K. McCord, BTNH, U-Neek | 5:49 |
| World War 2 | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| No. | Title | Writer(s) | Length |
| 1. | 'Mo' Thug (Skit)' | BTNH, U-Neek | 1:40 |
| 2. | 'Thug Luv' (featuring 2Pac) | 2Pac, BTNH, U-Neek | 5:08 |
| 3. | 'Hatin' Nation' | BTNH, U-Neek | 5:12 |
| 4. | '7 Sign - performed by Bizzy Bone' (featuring Mr. Maje$ty) | Bizzy Bone, BTNH, U-Neek | 4:48 |
| 5. | 'Wasteland Warriors' (featuring Souljah Boy) | Souljah Boy, BTNH, U-Neek | 4:28 |
| 6. | 'Neighborhood Slang (Skit)' | BTNH, U-Neek | 1:29 |
| 7. | 'U Ain't Bone' | BTNH | 5:04 |
| 8. | 'Get Cha Thug On - performed by Wish Bone (featuring Tre)' | Wish Bone, U-Neek | 4:02 |
| 9. | 'All Original' | BTNH, U-Neek | 4:58 |
| 10. | 'Blaze It (Skit)' | Larry Blackmon, BTNH, U-Neek | 2:08 |
| 11. | 'Let The Law End' | BTNH, U-Neek | 3:36 |
| 12. | 'Whom Die They Lie' | BTNH, U-Neek | 4:24 |
| 13. | 'How Many of Us Have Them (Friends)' | BTNH, U-Neek | 5:10 |
| 14. | 'Evil Paradise' | Tim Stahl, BTNH, U-Neek | 4:48 |
| 15. | 'Mo' Thug Family Tree (featuring Mo Thugs Family)' | BTNH, U-Neek | 5:37 |
World War 1
World War 2
The vinyl release omits the tracks 1, 6 and 12 on WW2.
| Chart (1997) | Peak position |
|---|---|
| U.S. Billboard 200 | 1 |
| U.S. Billboard Top R&B/Hip Hop Albums | 1 |
| Canadian Albums Chart | 10 |
| Song | Chart (1997) | Peak position |
|---|---|---|
| 'Look into My Eyes' | Billboard Hot 100 | 4 |
| 'Look into My Eyes' | Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Songs | 1 |
| 'Look into My Eyes' | Hot Rap Tracks | 2 |
| 'If I Could Teach the World' | Billboard Hot 100 | 20 |
| 'If I Could Teach the World' | Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Songs | 12 |
| 'If I Could Teach the World' | Hot Rap Tracks | 3 |
Bone Thugs-N-Harmony is an American Rap group from the Glenville section of Cleveland, Ohio.
They are best known for their fast-paced, aggressive rapping style and harmonizing vocals. The group was mainly produced by Los Angeles producer, DJ U-Neek. In 1997, the group was awarded the Grammy Award for Best Rap Performance with their song “Tha Crossroads” from their E 1999 Eternal album. Bone Thugs-N-Harmony also collaborated with Eazy-E, 2Pac, Big Pun, and The Notorious B.I.G. being the only artists to work with all of them while they were still alive…
