Bone Thugs-n-Harmony's 'Thuggish Ruggish Bone': Why This Song Sucks

Bone Thugs-n-Harmony's "Thuggish Ruggish Bone": Why This Song Sucks

By Shea Serrano Wed., Feb. 22 2012 at 5:00 AM

[Editor's note: Why This Song Sucks determines why particular tracks blow using science. It appears on West Coast Sound every Wednesday.]

Song: Bone Thugs-n-Harmony's "Thuggish Ruggish Bone"

History: "Thuggish Ruggish Bone" was Bone Thugs' 1994 breakout single. It's one of the most pioneering, inspired, zeitgeist-shifting rap songs of the '90s. And it is complete gibberish.

Atmospherics: Synthesized fury; teeny, tiny, elongated digitized tinks.

Scientific Analysis: "Thuggish Ruggish Bone" has baffled the scientific community for years. Why? Because it is rife with existential conundrums. The most pressing:

While there is a working definition for "thuggish" (ie "possessing qualities similar to, though not exactly like, a thug") WHAT THE FUCK IS A RUGGISH?

Is it a name given by oceanographers to a rarely-seen bizarro fish that exists near the mid-ocean ridge? Not sure, but I do know that my neighbor Teresa, otherwise known as Legacy, one of the city's more homely exotic dancers, said she couldn't describe it exactly, but she'd show me for $60.

But, actually, the "ruggish" question is the least of our worries. What the hell is anyone saying the rest of the time? This lyric is listed, on lyric sites, as the song's first:

You're feeling the strength of the rump.

The rump, bro. THE RUMP.

What's more, LL Cool J plays into all of this. To wit: At the end of the song, singer Shatasha Williams sings, "We got Layzie and we got Krayzie. Bizzy's in the house. Wish is in the house. And Flesh. And Tasha. Cleveland's definitely in the house."

Thus, being "in the house" was an exclusive and trendy thing.

But then a year later, in 1995, NBC created a TV show staring LL Cool J called In The House. The entire "in the house" paradigm was altered.

Conclusions:

(I) A ruggish might be a fish, but it might also be a sex move.
(II) Rumps can possess amazing strength.
(III) It is fucking IMPOSSIBLE to find a picture of In The House anywhere on the Internet.

Tags:

Bone Thugs-N-Harmony, Thuggish Ruggish Bone, Why This Song Sucks

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NEGATIVEDEGREEZFAR

Fuck YOU , ACTUALLY BITCH I KNOW THA FUCKING WORDS B4 YU SPEAK WHY DON'T YU LISTEN FAGGOT

Feder Alio

Once again white over-analysing. Stop trying to dissect and figure out the tune of black culture. I'm sure the author of this piece is intelligent, but not intelligent to know that the "rumps" layzie bone was referring to, means the huge sounds from car speakers. i.e "the strength of the rumps that bump". This article is a prime example why Caucasoids are considered corny.

Dennis Romero

There should be a column that covers why the LA Weekly sucks. I don't think it would be hard to prove scientifically given all the spelling / grammatical errors, the racisim, the trolling blogs, the misinformation and the bias.

Not funny or clever. I understand that this is a comedy attempt but it's poorly executed.

Yahhio

Eveybody relax a bit...this shit was hilarious. Who are all these people taking Bone Thugs N Harmony so serious!?! Rap is supposed to be fun. This article reads like a self aware self ridiculing (for everyones amusement) article. Keep Em coming!

Do all you readers call foul when little brother pokes fun of people (e.g. the rza)...?

Manuel Figueroa

Yeah the weekly is on a really terrible run. Aside from Jeff Weiss. Dude seems like he knows his hip hop

Frank Lin

What is going on with the LAWEEKLY?!!Why all of the poorly written and quickly hashed out music articles of late?What about topics like "Why This Column sucks?"; or "How I Couldn't Secure A Bona Fide Position In Journalism So I Took A Job In The West Cost Sound Department Not to Pay My Student Loans"??; or maybe"Why Are All The Articles At West Coast Sound So Poorly Concieved and Written"???With the impending internal knowledge over the past weeks/months of J Gold's departure I can only imagine some bigger idiot in a higher office at the Weekly thinking it a good idea to have the morons in the music department start writing more articles with the hopes one bonehead would shine through and possible none of the LAWEEKLY readers would notice...Guess what -- we notice - and we deserve more than this.

Sweety-b

I agree! This article was silly and a waste of time. Who the heck cares what "ruggish" means. This song was one of the best rap songs in the '90s, actually THE song that introduced me to rap. Let's just leave it at that and find something else to pick on.

Anthony

L.A Weekly: you are stupid! letting Shea Serrano put time into this and actually putting it up for the public to see. this is a rap song! if you actually knew anything about BTNH, you would know this was their first record out and all they were doing was recording rap songs to put out an EP as fast as their record label could (ruthless records) while they averaged an age of 17 between all 5 members. now i sound like a fan boy defending rap but that isn't the case...THE FACT THAT SOMEONE WOULD SPEND TIME IN ONE SONG THAT WAS ACTUALLY SUCCESSFUL AND POST IT ON A WEBSITE THAT'S SUPPOSE TO REPRESENT L.A MUSIC AND LIFESTYLE IS JUST PLAIN STUPID! THIS IS THE TYPE OF STUFF THAT MAKES THE INTERNET LOOK STUPID SO..............thank you for your contribution!

Jeff Weiss

I believe "Ruggish" has been defined by Webster's as a man who is inordinately confident and swagger-filled in spite of the obvious toupee on his skull.