During the recording of
Creepin on ah Come Up, the members of Bone Thugs-n-Harmony sought to release "Thuggish Ruggish Bone" as the first single, as they felt it conveyed the group's identity most clearly. Other personnel on the label wanted to release "
Foe tha Love of $" first instead, but the group ultimately succeeded in convincing
Eazy-E that "Thuggish Ruggish Bone" should be their debut. The music video (directed by
Terry Heller) was shot near the
Cuyahoga River in western
Cleveland, near the Lakeview Estates public housing units. The filming of the video was interrupted by a
drive-by shooting; however, nobody on set was injured. The music video also featured rapper
Eazy-E. Conversely,
Krayzie Bone states that the group encountered Williams by coincidence near the recording studio, and selected her to sing the chorus after Williams introduced herself as a singer and impressed the group with her performance. Williams stated in 2015 that she had not received any
royalty payments for her role in the song.
Bizzy Bone corroborated her claim, stating that
Eazy-E tended to disburse payments informally rather than signing contracts during that period, with the result that many planned payments fell into disorder after Eazy's 1995 death. ==Track listing==