Bone Thugs' comeback is complete.

Byline: Scott McLennan

Long careers in hip-hop are rare, and second careers are practically unheard of. But if any hip-hop group has proven capable of beating the odds, Bone Thugs-N-Harmony is it.

"Strength & Loyalty" is the first new music out of the Bone yard in five years and returns the group to the glory days of the mid-'90s when its work won Grammy awards and could be counted on to generate platinum sales.

"All the negative talk about Bone Thugs being over and not doing anything, that kept us going," said Krayzie Bone.

With member Flesh-n-Bone still serving a prison sentence on a weapons conviction and the volatile Bizzy Bone once and for all bounced from the group, Bone Thugs-N-Harmony is down to Krayzie Bone, Layzie Bone and Wish Bone. And the trio provides ample firepower to deliver 14 tracks that span the rapid-fire flow reminiscent of the group's earliest work to a gospel number with Yolanda Adams to a bona fide smash with Akon.

Bone Thugs-N-Harmony is performing Saturday at The Tweeter Center in Mansfield as part of the annual Summer Jam concert put on by radio station Jam'N 94.5. The show starts at 4:30 and also features Ludacris, Ne-Yo, Bow Wow, Young Jeezy, Omarion, Jim Jones, MIMS, Kelly Rowland, Lloyd, Swizz Beatz, Bobby Valentino and Akrobatik.

The festival lineup interestingly brings together Bone Thugs and Swizz Beatz, as it was the younger hip-hop producer and performer who lit the fuse on "Strength & Loyalty."

At a time when Bone Thugs-N-Harmony was cut loose from record labels and sustaining itself through sporadic live work and back-catalog sales, Swizz Beatz ran into the group and said he would like to help out the troupe that had been inspirational to him.

"Before any paperwork was signed, we went to his studio because he wanted to see where we were at. In that first day, we cut 25 songs. He said, `You're still hungry,' " Krayzie Bone recalled.

Swizz linked Bone Thugs to Interscope Records, and the clout of the imprint made it possible for Bone Thugs to pull in guest spots by Akon, Twista, The Game, will.i.am from Black Eyed Peas, Mariah Carey, Bow Wow, Yolanda Adams and Felicia - basically a roster of artists that is burning up hip-hop and R&B record and radio charts. Bone Thugs-N-Harmony itself quickly returned to the charts with the single "I Tried," a song featuring the red hot singer and producer Akon.

Bone Thugs-N-Harmony is no stranger to such success, as the Cleveland-bred group successfully reached into many hip-hop camps during a reign that spanned much of the 1990s. With N.W.A. member Easy E serving as its mentor, Bone Thugs arrived with the 1994 hip-hop hit "Thuggish Ruggish Bone." The group's affiliation with gangsta rap imprint Ruthless Records led to the hugely successful albums "E. 1999 Eternal" and "The Art of War." The group grew its original gangsta-based, N.WA.-inspired sound to include more funk and R&B. The group won a Grammy for its 1997 urban ballad "Tha Crossroads."

Internal strife hampered the band, especially as member Bizzy Bone typically failed to show up with the rest of the group at live appearances. While tough to break up a group that sprung from the bonds of family (Wish and Layzie are cousins) and friendship, Krayzie said the split ultimately proved beneficial to the group's resurrection.

"The hardest part without Bizzy was us having to be more creative. We all had to write more and fill a void. But this ended up being our most stress-free album. Before, we had to worry if Bizzy was going to take the money and disappear, or if Bizzy was going to make it to the studio when we were supposed to record. With just the three of us collaborating, we had no problems," Krayzie said.

"Strength & Loyalty" has a little bit of everything on it, and for the first time features Bone Thugs-N-Harmony going down an outright gospel route.

"Everybody we worked with was very aware of who we were and typically were fans of our music. Except Yolanda," Krayzie explained, talking about the group's heartfelt collaboration with the gospel star on "Order My Steps." "She wasn't sure she should do it. Then she heard the song, and she got really excited. She tried to add more parts, and we had to tell her the song was already long and we needed to finish it. It was cool."

Veterans of the gangsta sound, Bone Thugs-N-Harmony showed no signs of lagging behind current, younger big names of the genre when teaming with The Game and Twista on a couple of tracks. And on its own, Bone Thugs easily blazed through raps about gunplay and street violence, though such songs now sound more cautionary and full of lament rather than coming across as cocky and boastful.

"This record feels like it did when we first got into the game," Krayzie said. "We made everybody stop and come over to see what we were doing. We loved N.W.A. but we had our own way of doing things. We were from Cleveland, so we had our own sound and style. Today's rap game may be different from when we started, but we've always gone different ways to capture a crowd."

Scott McLennan can be reached at [e-mail]

Jam'n 94.5 Summer Jam

When: 4:30 p.m. Saturday

Where: Tweeter Center, Route 140, Mansfield

How Much: $94.50, $75.50, $45 and $25

ART: PHOTO

CUTLINE: Bone Thugs-N-Harmony will perform Saturday at The Tweeter Center in Mansfield as part of the annual Summer Jam concert.