Payroll Giovanni - Big Bossin Vol. 1

Pitchfork 80

If Detroit underground hero Payroll Giovanni and Minnesota-born, Texas-based producer Cardo Got Wings swerved any further West on Big Bossin’ Vol 1, they’d splash down into the Pacific. The pair’s panoramic portrait of a mid-level hustler leans so heavily on classic LA gangster rap, Bay Area hyphy and hood movie mythology, it’s impossible to picture these narratives taking place anywhere else but California. Call it Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas music—a nostalgic throwback to a time when pop culture was loaded with images of palm-treed pavements, side-held pistols and fingers curled into a ‘W’ that comfortably files alongside Kendrick Lamar and DJ Mustard’s modernized takes. Chance the Rapper’s gospel-swathed Coloring Book has been called the sound of the summer, but it’s Big Bossin’ Vol 1 that’ll fill the Lowriders with octane.

Payroll’s a member of Doughboyz Cashout, whose contract with Jeezy’s CTE World imprint has more or less come to nothing, but the group has countered the stasis with concrete-tough mixtapes that bite like the Michigan winter. On Big Bossin’ Vol 1, Cardo brings in the sun. Behind the boards on all 18 tracks, his beats are built to feel like westside classics, with melodic synthesizers, silky vocoders, sour whistles, James Worthy-sized handclaps and female background vocals.

The emcee proves the perfect foil for Cardo’s grooves. His relaxed flow is slowed a couple of knots as he sinks into the beats, evoking the swagger of Too $hort and the smoothness of the late Mac Dre–if the two West Coast legends had been compelled to rap about selling drugs on every song. Pitching himself as a rags-to-riches neighborhood baron, Payroll chronicles a life of drug deals, bright jewels and warm pistols. But Big Bossin’ Vol 1 is more self-aware pastiche than hard-boiled realism. There’s no creeping menace, ten crack commandments, or cutting moral center.

The outline might be familiar, but Payroll brings his own literary deftness. His fluid rapping is matched with a close eye for detail and sharp turn of phrase. “Sell Something” sees him lay out an origin story as he recalls finding an eighth-ounce of cocaine at age 15: “It was like the crack gods were like, ‘Here young dog’,” he spits wryly. On “Day in the Life,” he recycles the concept of Ice Cube’s “It Was a Good Day,” replacing the basketball games and Goodyear Blimp with police sightings and handguns. Moving from the mundanity of his morning routine, to the tension of almost gunning down two innocents, Payroll’s storytelling paints pictures in clear technicolor.

“Successful” is the clearest iteration of Payroll and Cardo’s collaborative sparkle. The beatmaker recycles the opulent keys and fat bassline previously gifted to Nef the Pharaoh on pop number “Betta Run.” In Payroll’s hands, it’s reimagined as a brash hustler’s anthem. The rapper plays the grinning Don, laying out by his pool in the Cali sun, counting the fruits of the come-up. It’s a sound as timeless as a Bukowski novel; as iconic as the Hollywood sign. Together, the duo have coaxed out their respective strengths on Big Bossin’ Vol 1. At a time when the West is enjoying a creative surge, a couple of young outsiders are helping to carry the weight.