This group changed rap music – and you can see them in Columbia

There are a lot of reasons why you should get yourself to Music Farm on Thursday, Nov. 16, to see the rap group Bone Thugs-n-Harmony.

Here’s one you might not realize: As the group first credited with adding harmonizing vocals to fast rap, Bone Thugs-n-Harmony paved the way for a multitude of artists, including the Canadian superstar Drake, who gave the group credit earlier this year for influencing his sound.

“When they started, they were ahead of their time,” says the Music Farm’s Trae Judy. “They still put on a great show. Plus, any time you can see a multiplatinum, Grammy Award-winning act, you should do it.”

Members of the group, according to its Facebook page, are Krayzie Bone, Layzie Bone, Wish Bone, Flesh-n-Bone and Bizzy Bone.

Here are a few additional tidbits about this pioneering group.

1. Friends since junior high school, the band’s original members reportedly perfected their harmony performing in the hallways of Cleveland’s Franklin D. Roosevelt Junior High School between classes.

2. After taking the bus from Cleveland to Los Angles to meet their idol, NWA frontman Eazy-E, the group ended up performing for him over the phone.

Weeks later, when Eazy-E was in Cleveland to perform, the group talked their way backstage, found the star and auditioned again, this time in person.

He became their mentor and produced their first record, “Creepin on ah Come Up,” which went multiplatinum.

3. In 1997, the group won the Grammy Award for best rap performance for “Tha Crossroads,” a soulful dedication to lost loved ones from their second album, “E 1999 Eternal.”

The breakaway hit remains so popular that, in 2016, a version performed by the characters of “Sesame Street” appeared on YouTube. It has received more than 4.6 million views.

4. Bone Thugs-n-Harmony’s sound was so distinctive that it gave rise to a sub-genre of gansta rap, “The Cleveland Sound.”

5. Michael Jackson gave permission for the group to sample one of his songs in 2009’s “What Have We Done.” He also appeared in the video.