I’d have to say that was the easiest album to make because I had so much material and so much stuff backed up. We was fresh, still not that far from being on the streets. I still had a lot of material that I had that I wanted to get off my chest. It was a breeze. A lot of those tracks, I had the ideas and then I went in and laid them straight out. Some of the stuff was from what we didn’t use from Art Of War. On Art Of War, I would basically start the songs off and everyone else would just come in and do what they do. What dudes didn’t use, I just kept stashed away and when it was time work on my album, I just brought them out.
Krayzie Bone wrote and recorded over 150 songs for the album, of which thirty-eight made the album's final cut as a double album.
Singles
The album's lead single, titled "Thug Mentality" was released on March 20, 1999. The song was produced by Michael Seifert. It peaked at number 16 on the Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Songs, and at number 31 on the R&B/Hip-Hop Airplay. The album's second single, titled "Paper" was released on October 1999. The song was produced by Krayzie Bone himself. The song's accompanying music video was later released that year.
Critical reception
Thug Mentality 1999 was met with generally mixed reviews from music critics. Stephen Thomas Erlewine from AllMusic gave Thug Mentality 1999 a 3/5 rating and wrote: "Krayzie doesn't hesitate to accentuate the already smooth surfaces of his music. Some of these cuts are positively smoove, which stands in direct contrast to the gangstafied lyrics, but that's always been a part of the Bone trademark." He also criticized the excessive number of songs that made the final cut on the album and he wrote: "Krayzie tries to keep it interesting by varying the flow, never putting too many similar tracks next to each other, but who the hell can make it through 38 tracks of this without a breather, even if some cuts are skits? It may be a cliche to say that this double-record would have been much more potent if it was trimmed to a single disc, but that doesn't make it less true, especially since there are enough songs to make a very good record, possibly one of the best things Krayzie has been involved with." Entertainment Weekly gave Thug Mentality 1999 a B+ rating and wrote: "Bone-Thugs-N-Harmony’s main man gets millennial with a 38-track double CD, the best solo release so far from one of the Ohio speed rappers." Rap Reviews gave Thug Mentality 1999 a 5/10 rating and wrote: "Krayzie displays a wide range of flows and deliveries, often on single tracks. The opener "Heated Heavy" is impressive because it features quite possibly the fastest rapping I've ever heard—if there was any question, Krayzie could give Twista a run for his money any day."
Commercial performance
Thug Mentality 1999 debuted at number four on the Billboard 200 with 140,000 album-equivalent units in its first week. The album was certified Platinum by the Recording Industry Association of America in May 10, 1999. The album has sold 1,000,000 copies in the United States.
Track listing
Disc one
Disc two
Notes
signifies an co-producer
Sample credits
"Paper" contains elements of "Closer Than Friends" & "You Are My Everything", written by David Townsend and Bernard Jackson, and performed by Surface.
