Strength & Loyalty, originally titled The Bone Thugs Story, is the seventh studio album by American hip hop group Bone Thugs-N-Harmony, released on May 8, 2007. It was Bone Thugs-n-Harmony's first major album after an absence of nearly five years. The album contains guest appearances by Akon, Autumn Rowe, Bow Wow, Felecia, Fleetwood Mac (sampled), Mariah Carey, Swizz Beatz, The Game, Twista, will.i.am, and Yolanda Adams. Producers include Akon, DJ Toomp, Jermaine Dupri, Mally Mall, Neo Da Matrix, Pretty Boy & Bradd Young, Street Radio, Swizz Beatz, The Individuals, Ty Fyffe, and will.i.am. The executive producer of the album was Swizz Beatz. Bizzy Bone was not featured on the album. Then imprisoned member Flesh-n-Bone was only featured on a track entitled "Into The Future" and did not make the album cover. The album debuted at #2 on the Billboard 200, with 119,000 copies sold. It has since gone on to be certified gold by the RIAA, having sold over 500,000 copies within the US to date. The first single was "I Tried", which features Akon, and was also produced by him. The single was released on February 16, 2007. On March 7, the video officially debuted on Yahoo! Music, and on March 17, it debuted on BET's 106 & Park. The second single was "Lil Love", which features Bow Wow and Mariah Carey, and was produced by Jermaine Dupri. The single was released in June 2007, while its video was premiered on July 5, on 106 & Park. Critical reception Strength & Loyalty received generally positive reviews from music critics, praising the production of the album and Bone's ability to "reinvent themselves with just 3 members." David Jeffries of Allmusic gave the album 3 and a half stars out of a possible 5, stating "This 2007 edition of Bone is missing members Flesh-N-Bone (thanks to incarceration) and Bizzy Bone (thanks to him being Bizzy Bone) and it shows. As a trio Krayzie, Layzie, and distant third Wish are a solid crew, able to deliver good weekend numbers like "Bump in the Trunk," "Lil Love," and "C-Town" (they never forget Cleveland) along with polished gangsta tracks like "I Tried." In the big picture, Bizzy and Flesh are missed, but what's remarkable about Strength & Loyalty is how it makes the listener forget they're missing while in the moment. Numerous melodious hooks in the easy-rolling Bone tradition fog the memory, and guest