Love West Coast drug slang lyrics and early ’90s delivery like Too $hort and 4-Tay? Then this is the album you need to hear, NOW. I’m a huge fan of that style. And Payroll Giovanni has it down pat. But listening to $hort now, he feels dated–the constant misogyny feels silly, and nobody’s buying the pimp game anymore. That’s where Payroll comes in. He’s that rare kind of rapper who can sing about the game without losing the complexity of the situation: “I grew up seeing the good side and bad side of drug dealing/But I stil made up my own mind/I will face the consequences that come;Just the choices we made trying to ball so young.”
Oh, and he’s not from Cali. He’s from Detroit. And producer from Cardo makes “music that gives the hustlers goosepumps” and “the real bitches chills.” Seriously. You can hear the ’90s influences all over it, and it’s full of slinky synth, but Cardo puts it all together in ways you’ve never heard before.
“Y’all confuse being gangster with dumb shit,” he says on “In Me, Not On Me,” about how lesser rappers try to hard. Yeah, it’s common for a rapper to boast that he’s the best and everyone else is a fake, but between his crisp and sharp delivery, his tremendous command of the English language, and Cardo’s laid back, creeping beats, you believe Payroll.
Even when the duo take it to a sex song, they create something that’s fresh and different–about loving heavy hoes. But it’s not to make fun of them, it’s true appreciation. Genuine.
I haven’t listened to a new rap album straight through, no breaks, no stopping, sitting in my car so the last song would finish, since Kendrick dropped “Damn.” Every cut here is a keeper. Expect a Def Jam release later this year, because they’ve been signed.
Highest recommendation.
