XL & Death Before Dishonor

XL & Death Before Dishonor began in 1992. XL a.k.a. Todd Stevens started in the Christian music industry playing guitar, bass, and drum tracks for many of the West Coast Christian hip-hop artists. He was on the Dynamic Twins albums, SFC albums, and he helped produce demos for the Gospel Gangstas, and T-bone. He was on Frontline's group, Apocalypse's second release. He also toured with the Crucified, dc Talk, the Newsboys, Mortal, Applehead, Soldiers For Christ, and 12th Tribe. He shared the stage with Bob Carlisle of the Allies, Brian Duncan, and Crystal Lewis. He has also been in the studio with Oz Fox. They both played on a song for Chuckie Perez, an Arcade records artist. XL and Death Before Dishonor was signed by Brainstorm records in 1992. Brainstorm was owned by Ojo Taylor of Undercover and Gene Eugene of Adam Again. Brainstorm was a subsidiary of Word Records. In 1993, Gene Eugene produced their album Sodom and America. This was the first legitimate metal/rap album released in the Christian industry that matched, and some would say topped what ever was going on in the secular arena at that time. Epic decided to pick up the album for extra distribution because they thought it was legitimate. Sodom and America featured some All-Stars from both the Christian metal scene and the Christian hip-hop scene. The album featured Jimmy Brown and Michael Phillips of Deliverance. It featured Mark Salomon and Greg Minier of the Crucified. It featured Soup the Chemist from SFC and members of the Tunnel Rats, and Peace 586 of Freedom of Soul. It featured Tedd Cookerly from the rap core band Every Day Life. It was received with open arms. That was over 22 years ago. So it is time for another XL and DBD record. The current project, Offensive Truth Volumes 1 & 2 features some more All-Stars. This time it features Jimmy Brown and Greg Minier again, but this time the drummer from the Crucified, Jim Chaffin is featured on the record as well as Jesse Sprinkle who played with Demon Hunter, Dead Poetic and recently recorded with Doug Pinnick of King's X. The album features Rex Carroll of WhiteCross and King James as well as Oz Fox of Stryper and Bloodgood.