There is, perhaps, no greater proof of acrimony between artist and record label than when a CD booklet records only the names of those involved in its production – no lyrics.

Such is the case with T.H.U.G.S., hopefully the ultimate Bone Thugs-N-Harmony release on Ruthless Records. In 1993, the Cleveland rappers were granted an audition before the now-late Eric “Eazy E” Wright, founder of Ruthless Records.

Wright was so impressed by the members' fast-rapping flows that they were signed on the spot. Rap had always been about the message and marked with clear-in-your-face delivery that N.W.A. made a career out of. Bone Thugs-N-Harmony didn't sound like anyone around at the time, and the extent to which that's no longer true is the extent to which they've been successful copied.

They would stay with Ruthless for more than a decade of a lucrative-yet-contentious relationship with the label, which was taken over by Eazy E’s wife Tomika Woods-Wright, after the rap mogul died of AIDS in March 1995. Bone broke ranks with Ruthless in 2003 after having released several platinum hits and becoming Ruthless’ cash cow ever since the 1995 release of E. 1999 Eternal.

Today, the band has finally moved on to bigger game -- Interscope-Epic records -- a label more commensurate with its multi-platinum track record. Bone’s latest cameo-filled LP Strength & Loyalty was released in May with co-vocals from a sundry cast of characters ranging from The Game to Yolanda Adams to Mariah Carey to Lil Bow Wow. This level of big name firepower may have been impossible to attract at a smaller label and with smaller money. And now the band that’s done more with less finally has the resources to do more with more.

Still, dissolving a once-successful relationship between an artist and the label that gave the artist his start is always a dicey business. Listening to T.H.U.G.S., an album filled with shoulda-beens from BTNHResurrection and Thug World Order that didn’t “make the cut,” is akin to watching the “lost” episodes of Chappelle's Show: you know that someone out there doesn’t want you consuming them, which adds to the pleasure of doing so — even if you can’t follow along with the lyrics.

Without Wright’s leadership, Ruthless has been rudderless, struggling to sign and produce its own artists. Since 2001, Ruthless has only released a0 albums, only one of which was in no way affiliated with its two former cash cows, N.W.A and Bone.