JOHN NORRIS: Not so easy to understand all the time, are the lyrics of Cleveland rappers Bone Thugs-N-Harmony. They've got a new record due out at the end of the month, and Abbie Kearse traveled to their hometown to talk to a couple of the Bone Thugs crew about their sometimes indecipherable lyrics ["Look Into My Eyes" video, 1.1 MB QuickTime].

ABBIE KEARSE: Will you guys ever put a lyric sheet out in your album so that for some who can't figure it out, that they'll know what you're saying?

KRAYZIE BONE: I don't know.

LAYZIE BONE: Possibly.

KRAYZIE: It's been something that we've discussed. I would like to do it for one album so that everyone could see that we really be saying words and we really be talking about something, you know what I'm saying?

KEARSE: Is it like with jazz music or scat that there is a certain, you know... you improvise or do actually have certain words for every

song that maybe some of us don't get?

LAYZIE: Every song got words and everything is a word out of the dictionary. Ain't nothing made up. Maybe there's some street slang, but...

KRAYZIE: But everything has meaning behind it. We could slow down everything and every word you heard you'll hear, you'll say, "OK, that makes sense.

KEARSE: Do you have fans who say "Yeah, I'm really down with the beats, I like the music, but what were you saying?

LAYZIE: Yeah, we've got plenty of fans like that. Everyone asks us what we saying. Everybody like, "I love your song, Bone, but what the hell you talking about?" But we don't mind.

KRAYZIE: And I tell them don't feel bad, 'cause it take me a while to figure out what they're saying my damn self.

JOHN NORRIS: "The Art of War" is the name of the new Bone Thugs album, and it's due in stores July 29.