Description
Sodom and America is the debut album by the American hip-hop group XL and Death Before Dishonor, released on Brainstorm Artists International in 1993, distributed by Word. Also manufactured and distributed by Epic Records, a division of Sony Music. The album was engineered by Gene Eugene of Adam Again fame and Bob Moon at The Green Room in Huntington Beach, California; and was produced by XL (Todd Stevens) with Gene Eugene.
Check the credits of your rap CDs (SFC, Freedom of Soul, Dynamic Twins) and you’ll notice that XL (aka Todd Stevens) isn’t new on the scene. He’s been acknowledged in the past for playing just about everything.
‘Sodom and America’ is definitely not your typical collection of rhyme and rhythm. XL takes a different twist, going back to the roots: Nazareth, Judas Priest, and Zeppelin. What we end up with is crunchy riff rock with a funky vibe. It would be easy to say. Sounds like he’s doin’ the body count thing; but everyone I’ve played ‘S & A’ for says it blows Ice-T out of the water.
XL tackles many tough and sometimes overlooked issues. «Die (That Settles It!)» talks about the rise of the Muslim faith due to rotten Christian example. «Woman» is about girls buying into the lie that you’re as good as you look even though we’re all “fearfully and wonderfully made.”
Mention must be made to «Afrocka». It’s here that XL’s humor is most evident. “It’s 1993 but man I can’t wait til, ’95. / Cause afro’s gonna be a foot high. / Not with the wave, curl or the natty dread. / I got a big buckwheat afro on my head… / I’m a hardcore, afro wearin’, hip hop rocker….”
Other highlights are Mark Salomon (Crucified, Native Son) rapping on the title track, and Super C rapping on «Death before Dishonor». So go ahead and broaden your horizons. This is a rap album for folks who don’t necessarily like rap, but enjoy a strong message and a twist of reality. Peace, out. [Don Hill, Cornerstone Magazine, 1993, Vol 22 Issue 101]
After rapping on a number of other artist’s R&B and hip-hop albums XL lets loose with a rap/rock collision the likes of which Family Bookstore has never seen.
Comparing XL’s one-man Death Before Dishonor thrash metal band with Ice-T’s Body Count would seem obvious but not entire appropriate. Where B.C. is T’s way of running with another vocal/lyrical style, XL matches rapping to this music in a raw, spit-out style befitting all that guitar feedback.
And befitting his subject matter. Sure, «Fatal Blow» and especially «Brink of Insanity» bespeak the same kinds of warnings of excessive life other Messiah-loving metalheads have purveyed before, but being black, funky assisted by a plethora of top-notch guests, XL’s saying some things unheard before.
He can rally against historically-entrenched racism through «Die (That Settles It!)» and have fun with his big ol’ hair and how his color doesn’t traditionally fit his music in «Afrocka». Maybe you’d expect all that, but his grip on godly feminine self-esteem in «Woman» is tighter than that of many female performers (or at least better articulated).
And in simply bragging up his Lord and his abilities, XL has some cool cameos. Mark “Native Son” Salomon joins in taking U.S. decadence to task in the title track, SFC‘s Super C gets a verse of «Death Before Dishonor», and Brett “C.O.G.” Cadell screams out the anti-suicide chiller «My So Called Friend Death». For those nodding to the music, check the guitar solos from Crucified‘s Greg Minier, Adam Again‘s Greg Lawless, and Mike Phillips.
If a debut this consistent and often poignant from a hardcore, afro-wearing hip-hop rocker isn’t enough of a surprise already. [Jamie Lee Rake, Syndicate, July/August 1993, Vol. 8, Iss. 4]
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CD tracklist:
01. Brother To the Saboteur – 3:02
02. Sodom and America – 3:11
03. Kiss of Chaos – 3:16
04. Death Before Dishonor – 3:11
05. Don’t Fool Yourself – 3:14
06. My So Called Friend Death – 2:47
07. Die (That Settles It) – 3:34
08. Woman – 3:59
09. Fatal Blow – 3:59
10. Sifting With the Sickle – 3:01
11. Brink of Insanity – 3:38
12. Afrocka – 3:48
Note: Simultaneously released on cassette and CD by Brainstorm. Remastered and re-issued by Girder Records/Roxx Records in 2022.
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