Krayzie Bone of Bone Thugs-N-Harmony 'fighting for his life' in hospital

Krayzie Bone, a member of Bone Thugs-N-Harmony, one of the most influential rap groups in history, has been fighting for his life for several days, he said in a post on social media on Monday that included a photo of him in a hospital.

The cause of the hospitalisation is unknown. The 50-year-old rapper, whose real name is Anthony Henderson, has for several years battled sarcoidosis, a rare autoimmune disease that can cause respiratory problems if it reaches the lungs. He was forced to postpone part of a 2016 tour as a result. The hip-hop news site All Hiphop reported that he had checked himself into a Los Angeles area hospital on Sept 22 after coughing up blood.

Krayzie Bone said on Instagram on Monday that he had just fought to stay alive for “9 days straight.” “Never take life for granted enjoy it while you have it!” he wrote.

Known for its harmonies and buzzy hooks, Bone Thugs-N-Harmony is one of the pioneering groups of the melodic rap that dominates the genre today. Henderson is one of five members of the group, which was formed in Cleveland in the early 1990s. They received a lift from Eazy-E, a founding member of the rap group NWA, who signed the group to his label, Ruthless Records, in 1993. “Creepin on ah Come Up,” their debut album on the label, sold millions and made them the first a hip-hop group from Cleveland to break into the mainstream.

Bone Thugs-N-Harmony were nominated for three Grammys, and won one in 1997 for Best Rap Performance By a Duo Or Group. (Their Grammy-winning hit, Tha Crossroads was in part a tribute to Eazy-E, who died from AIDS in 1995.) Members of the group have collaborated with some of the biggest names in pop music history, including Tupac Shakur and Mariah Carey.

“When our management got a call about Mariah Carey wanting to do a record with us, at the time, we didn’t even really understand how big Mariah Carey was,” Henderson told The New York Times in an interview published in August as part of a project celebrating five decades of hip hop. Krayzie Bone appeared on Carey’s track “Breakdown” from her 1997 album.

“We knew of her, but we were so wrapped up in our newfound fame, we were just in our own little world. So, like, we almost didn’t even go.”

In 2011, Henderson left the group but eventually reunited with his former bandmates. The city of Cleveland renamed a street after the group this summer.

“The Bone Thugs style developed by just basically being in cyphers together,” Henderson told the Times. “We would smoke weed either in my mother’s basement or at whoever’s house we was at, and we’d just start rhyming, working on our harmonies and everything. We knew each other and we knew we could rhyme but when the other four would say the ad-libs, it would sound like we was harmonizing. It’s nothing we did on purpose — we just started doing it and that was our style one day.”

Along with his work with Bone Thugs-N-Harmony, Henderson has released solo albums since 1999, including “QuickFix: Level 3: Level Up,” which came out this year. He also founded the nonprofit Spread the Love Foundation, a Cleveland-based initiative aimed at music education.

Bone Thugs-N-Harmony are in the midst of a national tour and had returned to Cleveland with Krayzie Bone in August.