Bone Thugs-n-Harmony bit their whole steez from Freestyle Fellowship
Sure, why not?
Style-biting is generally pretty open to interpretation, but who else but the Fellowship was busting that hyperfast, sing-songy steez back then? Nobody, that's who. At least nobody of any consequence. So how did a bunch of stoners with bad perms from Cleveland come to bite everybody's favorite L.A. backpackers? We're guessing the Good Life Cafe, home to many a Fellowship rhyme workout, is the missing link. Lots of heavyweights outside of your typical gangstafied artsy-fartsy Project Blowed soaked up the Good Life. Ice Cube, for example, was a regular spectator. So why wouldn't Cube's ol' buddy Eazy-E take his latest wick-wack proteges to the same spot to soak up some knowledge? Granted, even the corniest Blowedian wouldn't come with something as corny as that harmonized "bonebonebonebone, bone, booooooone" ****, but the similarities are too close for comfort. And Abstract Tribe Unique's "L.A. Styles Back," a not-too-thinly veiled dig at some g-ed up doo-wopping biters, backs up the idea. Besides, Self Jupiter could singlehandedly whip all the Bone Scrubs' asses, so whatever he says goes in this argument.
http://www.wutang-corp.com/forum/showthread.php?t=14087
The roots of Project Blowed can be traced back to the late '80s and a health-food store on Crenshaw Boulevard called the Good Life. The store held a weekly open-mike night during what's commonly viewed as the genesis of modern freestyling. Up until then, freestyling had been defined as rapping prewritten verses over new beats. And while there was always room for improvisation, that wasn't really the focus. But the MCs who formed the nucleus of the Good Life's weekly event -- Freestyle Fellowship's Aceyalone, P.E.A.C.E., Mikah 9 and Self Jupiter -- began spitting completely impromptu verses that were both rhythmically intricate and lyrically dazzling.
"Before us, nobody was truly freestyling," Aceyalone points out. "Nobody knew how to rap off the top of their head. We invented the freestyle as you know it. We set the style and we set the pace. No doubt, no question."
Word began to spread about this aesthetic revolution, and the Good Life night caught the attention of L.A.'s hip-hop elite. One of the many legends surrounding it contends that N.W.A's Eazy-E brought members of Bone Thugs-N-Harmony to the Good Life to take notes on (and later bite) Freestyle Fellowship's singsong flows. And it wasn't just a West Coast thing. By the end of 1992, the Good Life was attracting luminaries like the Beastie Boys, Biz Markie and Fat Joe. But as the night continued to grow and flourish, some of the scene's most prominent members felt it was time to move on.
http://www.houstonpress.com/2005-05-26/music/blowhards/