Rap veterans Bone Thugs-n-Harmony are best known for “Tha Crossroads,” their 1996 tribute to late mentor and label head Eazy-E (Eric Wright), but it’s the golden sidewalks of Hollywood where they will soon be immortalized in the annals of pop culture history. The Cleveland-based rap group will receive a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame at a ceremony on July 8.

After 35 years in the industry, claiming the star is coming “circle” for Bone Thugs is more than a convenient phrase. It closes a loop on the group’s apocryphal origin story, when Ohio natives Bizzy Bone (Bryon Anthony McCane II), Flesh-n-Bone (Stanley Howse), Krayzie Bone (Anthony Henderson), Layzie Bone (Howse’s younger brother Steven) and Wish Bone (Charles Scruggs Jr.) pooled together enough money to buy one-way bus tickets to Los Angeles in hopes of auditioning in person for Eazy-E. When they arrived, they discovered that the former NWA leader was currently on tour, in Cleveland. Although some details of his quest for fame are true, Flesh-n-Bone says the actual events that led to his distribution deal with E’s Ruthless Records are less mythical than a couple of boats (or buses) passing in the night.

“It was an eggs-in-the-basket type of situation, but we actually connected with him in California,” Flesh tells Variety. “We were staying at our friends’ houses and were communicating with the Ruthless office. [Eazy] He actually called us back, so we all shared verses over the phone with him right there in California. He told us that when he was on tour, we were going to meet him in Cleveland to open for him at that show.” Ironically, the lesser-known conclusion to this story legitimizes his entry into the music industry by working harder, not smarter.

“I was going to book us plane tickets to get back to Los Angeles and start working,” Wish recalls. “We thought, ‘No, fuck that. Let’s go back to the Greyhound where we can get our shit together.'”

Merging the “Thugs-n-Harmony” moniker that Eazy gave them with the name BONE Enterpri$e, a group they had formed in Cleveland to perform at local talent shows, Bone Thugs-n-Harmony debuted with their 1994 EP, “Creepin on ah Come Up,” exactly at the time when the lines between singing and rapping were just beginning to blur. Wish cites the Whispers and fellow Ohio natives the O’Jays as one of his early influences for the harmonies that would define his sound, before taking pages from pioneering artists like Sugarhill Gang, Big Daddy Kane, and, of course, E’s NWA for his rapid lyrical cadence.

“We came from the time of Scarface, the Geto Boys, KRS-One,” Wish says, “where those storytellers and those real hip-hoppers were really doing something for the culture.”

The group members insist that they were prepared to start rapping any time they met someone who could offer them a recording contract. “We walked to Tone Loc’s house to rap for his manager,” Krayzie recalls. But Flesh credits Eazy-E, “the sixth member of Bone,” for helping them find their place in the music industry at a crucial time, both for the group and for himself. “I was really dedicated to Bone Thugs-N-Harmony, and it was at the height of a lot of the problems I was experiencing with the breakup of NWA and everything that was going on with Death Row Records,” Flesh says.

“He used to brag to his people that we were the next big thing, like, ‘These guys are the Beatles of hip hop.’ And everything he predicted about us came true,” he adds.

It’s not just a hyperbolic comparison, in 1996 “Tha Crossroads” became the fastest single to reach the top of Billboard’s national singles chart since the Beatles released “Can’t Buy Me Love” in 1964. It’s one thing for a hungry young artist to manifest success, but the achievement even surprised the group at the time. “Seeing us breaking records for people like that, in a completely different genre of music, was really crazy for us,” Wish says. “To be mentioned in the same conversation as guys like that was just unreal.”

Over the next few years, they collaborated with several of the music world’s biggest stars, including 2Pac (“Thug Luv”), Notorious BIG (“Notorious Thugs”) and Mariah Carey (“Breakdown”). Looking back, however, they insist they did not measure success by the yardstick of chart placements or industry certifications. “When I say we really made it, it’s not the money, none of that, but when we went abroad for the first time and saw people who didn’t speak English, but who could sing our songs, it was like, wow, we’re really somebody now, because we’re here in places we probably never would have been without our music, and these people know us and love us,” Wish says.

Over the course of 24 years, Bone Thugs-n-Harmony released 10 studio albums, two EPs and two mix tapes, winning a Grammy Award for “Tha Crossroads” and two other nominations plus accolades from the American Music Awards, Billboard and MTV. If their days of competing with the Beatles are behind them, they are still excited by the impact their music and style have on artists across the industry today. “Every time you turn on the radio, every time you turn on a video, we see what we created,” Krayzie says. “There hasn’t been a new artist coming out that isn’t using an element of Bone Thugs-N-Harmony… anyone who harmonizes, raps fast, people know where that came from.”

Flesh adds: “It’s a known fact that within record companies, A&R’s would tailor their artists to go into the studio and come out with something like Bone Thugs-N-Harmony. ‘I need you to go in there and make me another ‘first of the month.'” “It’s a huge phenomenon that I don’t think we get flowers for.”

Although the Bone Thugs have no prior experience visiting the Walk of Fame (after all, Ruthless Records was founded not in Hollywood but in Compton), receiving their star feels like a step toward remedying that lack of recognition. They don’t take it for granted. “This is a beautiful blessing and an honor, a great milestone in our career,” Flesh says. “I think we’ve come a long way.”

“This is kind of an honor for people who really made a difference in any genre, movies, television, whatever,” Wish observes. “This is what we got, and thank God we got it through music, because without it, I don’t know what the fuck we’d be doing.”

The quintet has made a number of lineup changes over the 35 years they’ve been recording, but a handful of singles released over the past year have featured all five original members, suggesting a fitting return for Bone Thugs-n-Harmony. “The best is yet to be seen,” Flesh insists. “Especially after receiving such a privileged honor as receiving a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame, I believe that we are going to continue to do great things for culture and continue to influence people and surprise the world.”