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December 11-17, 2008
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Harmonious thugs
Bone Thugs will see you at the crossroads
by Dan Hinkel
Cave art
Stewart Erlich of WadiRum finds his voice
by Dylan Otto Krider
 Harmonious thugs
Bone Thugs will see you at the crossroads
by Dan Hinkel
The mainstream appeal of Bone Thugs-N-Harmony defies explanation. Their rhymes are almost all unintelligible. The “harmony” in their name seems generous. They’re from Cleveland, a dead spot for popular hip-hop. And one of them sounds like an irate teenaged girl.
Yet they have sold tens of millions of CDs, influenced imitators and built a huge fan base (including, I must confess, myself). I can’t explain it, but I suggest you look up “1st of tha Month,” “Crossroads,” “Thug Luv” and “Home” on YouTube. The music is weird, infectious and often beautiful.
In honor of their upcoming show at the Fox Theatre on December 15, let’s Bone up on our history. BTNH — with support from gangsta rap pioneer Eazy-E — scored early hits with “Thuggish Ruggish Bone” and “1st of tha Month.” They vaulted Ohio speed rap to the mainstream with “Tha Crossroads,” a touching eulogy for, among others, Eazy-E, who died of AIDS in 1995. The video aired constantly on MTV. The single camped at the top of the chart and won a Grammy.
They reached superstardom on the strength of a potently maudlin death ballad, and things stayed strange after that. BTNH spin-off Mo Thugs Family notched a hit in 1998 with “Ghetto Cowboy,” a rap-country-folk story song about stealing horses and gold. In that song, Krayzie Bone raps with a southwestern twang, proclaiming himself “a rootin’ tootin’ shootin’ damn fool.” In 2003, BTNH dropped a track with Phil Collins, that most harmonious thug. Please believe me when I say that song, “Home,” is awesome.
Along with musical oddities and flagrancies, BTNH innovated in their own work and made significant cameos with rap giants. The Notorious B.I.G. mimicked their style to memorable effect on “Notorious Thugs.” They recorded a dark, violent banger with Tupac Shakur. Collaborations remain a strong suit. The group dropped another modest hit with singer Akon in 2007.
BTNH took speed rap to the mainstream, and artists such as Twista — a Bone contemporary who found pop success after BTNH —
continue to walk the path they cut.
It’s a shame the press agent for BTNH wouldn’t call me back to set up an interview. I would have a lot of questions for any of the men who operate under the surname “Bone.”
One question sticks out from the bunch, and I would ask this question with respect and affection: How?
On the Bill
Bone Thugs-N-Harmony perform with F.O.E. at 8:30 p.m. on Monday, Dec. 15, at the Fox Theatre, 1135 13th St., Boulder, 303-443-3399.
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 Cave art
Stewart Erlich of WadiRum finds his voice
by Dylan Otto Krider
Spending time alone in the desert has long been thought to be a spiritual experience. The Jews wandered for 40 years. Jesus endured the devil for 40 days and nights. In Stewart Erlich’s case, it was more like a long weekend with a nasty bout of the stomach flu, but life altering, nonetheless.
On a year-long journey through Egypt, Israel and Jordan, Erlich drank some bad water, and got, in his words, “Really, really sick,” turning pale and shaking. He hitched a ride with some strangers who dumped him in a secluded cave in the middle of a desert valley known as Wadi Rum and went hiking for a few days.
Sure, maybe sweating out a fever with a pack of provisions isn’t quite like facing down the devil, but it was still a torment, leading to a moment of catharsis.
“It’s the quietest place I’ve ever been, but really raw and really stark and occasionally really powerful. I think it even snowed, and every now and then a herd of sheep would go by,” he says. “It didn’t take long to start feeling better.”
So, no, Erlich is no son of God, but few of us are. Nor is he a prophet, like Mohammad, who would spend a few weeks a year meditating in a cave on Mount Hira near Mecca, though he did have a revelation of sorts.
“It’s kind of like arches in Utah — giant expanses of land with nobody living there, so it was really easy to get lost,” he says. “It was very healing and very beautiful. Even if you’re not spiritual, you can’t help but have a meditative experience out there.”
It was a place of extremes — extreme hot, extreme cold. All qualities he has tried to recapture ever since. To this day, he equates Wadi Rum with the power to heal, and eventually, made it the name of his band.
WadiRum does not sound Middle Eastern by any means. When forced to choose a category to place his albums on iTunes, he’d pick “indie rock” or “acoustic alternative.” If forced to compare, the band sounds something like Damien Rice or Rachael Yamagata. However, Erlich isn’t overly concerned about finding the right moniker for his style; he’s more interested in spreading the word.
“Lyrics have always been really important to me,” he says. “I’m an English teacher. I don’t try to be clever for clever’s sake. I want to be poetic — to find what about my experiences speak to you, or your experiences that speak to me. Lyrically, I think about the kinds of things that I have witnessed or experience myself that I can’t get out of my mind.”
Some might think he’s a little melodramatic, but Erlich generally considers himself a happy guy — married, with an 8-month-old daughter. “I write about things that hurt me and affect me, so I don’t have to be hurt in real life, things that are hardest for me to say.”
His drummer, Adam Randall, once told him that his lyrics were incredibly sad, but Erlich doesn’t see it that way. “The message is actually positive. It’s a celebration of that emotion, creating art out of that emotion, not just sitting in the sadness. It’s a celebration of human experience.”
He’s currently looking for another singer to fill the harmonies of Jill Pilon, who recently moved to New York, and they’ve added a new cellist, Beth Rosbach, to the lineup. Longtime member Jesse Varner is on bass.
“We just put out a new record in April, so we’re still really excited about that material,” says Erlich. “We’re a little more up tempo and a little bit more acoustic… every song deliberately goes somewhere and has a really strong pop. I try to create different dynamics... starting really quiet, then building louder at the right places.”
For now, Erlich is happy doing the struggling-artist thing — holding down a day job while he moonlights — because it gives him the freedom to only take the gigs he wants (he doesn’t do bars). He doesn’t have to do the “rent shows” to keep the power on. WadiRum has built up a local fan base that allows them to follow their hearts, not their wallets.
Erlich feels the Internet has made it easier for independent artists to stake out their little group of true believers by giving a means to distribute and record on their own without the sacrifices that come with record labels. “We do smaller venues that seat 120 people, but you can hear a pin drop,” he says. “I think, more than ever, the product that bands have is the live show.”
On the Bill
18 Switchbacks performs with WadiRum, Women and Wine and Magnolia Row at 10 p.m. on Saturday, Dec. 13, at The b.side Lounge, 2017 13th St., Boulder, 303-473-9463.
Respond: letters@boulderweekly.com
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