These posts are about the songs that just barely failed to cross the key line of chart success, entering the Billboard Top 40. Every song featured in this series peaked at number 41.

The last appearance Eazy-E made in a music video was for the clip “Foe tha Love of $,” off of the first Bone Thugs-N-Harmony release of Ruthless Records, Creepin on ah Come Up. The Cleveland hip hop group was signed by Eazy-E, and he worked extensively on their first release for the label, even contributing some rapped lines here and there, including on “Foe that Love of $.” All the while, Easy-E’s days were numbered. Approximately six weeks after “For tha Love of $” was released as a single, Easy-E died from complications of AIDS. He was thirty years old.

“For tha Love of $” is officially the second Bone Thugs-N-Harmony single. Its predecessor, “Thuggish Ruggish Bone,” made it into the Billboard Top 40. To date, Bone Thugs-N-Harmony have pushed five other tracks into the same territory, including one single that topped the chart. “For tha Love of $” didn’t quite get there, though. It stalled out at #41.

Other entries in this series can be found by clicking on the “Top 40 Smash Near Misses” tag.