Payroll Giovanni is a 32 year old rapper from Detroit, Michigan who came up about a decade ago as a member of the Doughboyz Cashout collective. He’s also released a total of 8 solo albums, most notable being the Cardo-produced Big Bossin’ & Big Bossin’ 2. But just a month after the 3 year anniversary of the latter, the pair are reuniting for the 4th time to put out Payroll’s 9th full-length effort.
The album kicks off with “Previously”, where Payroll recaps everything that’s happened to him in the past 3 years over a West Coast-flavored beat. The next song “It’s Around” talks about making himself a boss over a nightly instrumental while the track “Eyez Closed” talks about counting money like it’s nothing over a beat with a more Bay Area influence to it. The song “Always Hustling” talks about never slowing down over a smooth instrumental while the track “Mob $hit” with Larry June sees the 2 talking about what they be on over a ritzy beat.
The song “Everyday” talks about grinding nonstop over a straight up g-funk instrumental while the track “Make It Look Easy” talks about going from rags to riches over a delicate beat. The song “Game Showed Me” talks about dudes being iffy to him over a keyboard-heavy instrumental while the penultimate track “Pay & Cardo” talks about giving the listeners what they want over an atmospheric beat. The closer “Forever Flow” then talks about how his grandma used to give him money to flip over a synth-heavy beat.
Payroll always puts out his best material whenever he hooks up with Cardo & this is a great follow-up to Big Bossin’ 2. I really dig how both parties took it back to the 90’s West Coast gangsta rap era from the overall sound of the album to the lyrics & for those who aren’t familiar with Payroll, it’s almost like you’d think he’s actually from Southern California.
Score: 4/5
Legends Will Never Die 