''Death Before Dishonor'' is the debut album by rapper

2 Pistols Jeremy Lemont Saunders (born June 11, 1983), better known by his stage name 2 Pistols (censored as 2P), is an American rapper from Tarpon Springs, Florida. After the local success of his independent single "Dirty Foot", he was offered a record d ...

, released on June 17, 2008. Guests include T-Pain,

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, Ray J, Slick Pulla,

Blood Raw Bruce Falson (born April 17, 1975), better known by his stage name Blood Raw, is a black American rapper. He was part of the Atlanta, Georgia, Atlanta-based rap-group United Streets Dopeboyz of America, U.S.D.A. until 2010. U.S.D.A bio Allmusi ...

, Trey Songz, BMU &

Tyra B Tyra Bolling (born June 27, 1985), better known as Tyra B, is an American singer, songwriter, and dancer. She's best known for her top 40 R&B singles "Country Boy", "Still in Love" and " Givin' Me a Rush" which is her biggest single to date. Ca ...

. A version of "Candy Coated Diamonds" featuring Fergie (instead of Tyra B) leaked on various The Black Eyed Peas fansites.

Critical reception

''Death Before Dishonor'' received mixed reviews from

music critic ''The Oxford Companion to Music'' defines music criticism as "the intellectual activity of formulating judgments on the value and degree of excellence of individual works of music, or whole groups or genres". In this sense, it is a branch of mus ...

s. AllMusic editor David Jeffries was mixed towards the album, praising the J.U.S.T.I.C.E. League's production but felt there were less quality street tracks to give it enough quality, concluding with, "Way too little, way too late to call this a compelling debut, but just like any given

Ross Ross or ROSS may refer to: People * Clan Ross, a Highland Scottish clan * Ross (name), including a list of people with the surname or given name Ross, as well as the meaning * Earl of Ross, a peerage of Scotland Places * RoSS, the Republic of Sou ...

album, ''Death Before Dishonor'' has singles to spare and enough of that Florida flavor to keep fans happy." DJBooth's Nathan Slavik also gave praise to the production but found 2 Pistols to be an average rapper that delivers sub-standard street tracks, saying that "''Death Before Dishonor'' doesn’t exactly cover a lot of musical ground, it’s essentially 'She Got It' and 'Eyes Closed' remixed and re-titled for an entire album." Pedro Hernandez of ''RapReviews'' criticized the album for having nondescript party tracks with faceless production and 2 Pistols for only having the basics of hip-hop content, concluding that "If you absolutely love this type of rap and already ran through the good stuff, 2 Pistols might be something to hold you over. For all others, ''Death Before Dishonor'' is about as enjoyable as having '2 Pistols' and no ammo."

Track listing

Personnel

*Vincent Absher – Engineer *Leslie Brathwaite – Mixing *Dane'sha Bullard – Vocals (background) *Bolo "Da" Producer- Producer *Coni Cone – Producer *Ja$mine Conner – Vocals (background) *Ashanti Floyd – Violin *Andre Grell – Marketing Coordinator *Corey Harrison – Vocals (background) *Honorable C.N.O.T.E. – Producer *Justice League (Chuck Greene, Ivan Rivera, Kevin Crowe, Erik Ortiz, Kenneth Bartolomei) – Producer, Engineer, Executive Producer, Mixing *Imran Majid – A&R *Jonathan Mannion – Photography *Nicole Morgan – Creative Coordinator *Gillian Russell – A&R *Glenn Schick – Mastering * Justin Trawick – Assistant *2 Pistols – Executive *Finis "KY" White – Engineer *Young Chu – Vocals (background) *Yung Chill – Producer

Chart positions

Samples

"Flex 2008" is an interpolation of Mad Cobra's "Flex" and contains a direct vocal sample in the chorus.

Rihanna Robyn Rihanna Fenty ( ; born February 20, 1988) is a Barbadian singer, actress, and businesswoman. Born in Saint Michael and raised in Bridgetown, Barbados, Rihanna auditioned for American record producer Evan Rogers who invited her to the ...

also recently sampled the instrumental from "Flex" with the track "Say It" from her 2007 album Good Girl Gone Bad.

References

{{Authority control 2008 debut albums 2 Pistols albums Universal Records albums Albums produced by Honorable C.N.O.T.E. Albums produced by J.U.S.T.I.C.E. League