Payroll Giovanni - Turn Into 20 (Official Video) (feat. Tee Grizzley & Peezy)

As the society around him became encaged in a pandemic-birthed nightmare, Detroit icon and street-rap hero Payroll Giovanni flipped the gloomy circumstances of confinement into an opportunity: he made his most mature and developed project yet, turning an ultimate negative into an opportunity for growth and outreach."I was just realizing what was important and what was not and that's basically what the album focused on -- growth and maturing," the Doughboyz Cashout legend explains, looking back at the recording processes that birthed Spirit of A Boss. "I analyzed my life and the things that mattered and didn't matter. I was recording a lot during quarantine."Produced by a tightly-knit, well-seasoned circle of Motor City sound-sculptors like Helluva, AK and K.I.D.D., Spirit of A Boss fully encapsulates the style that allowed its creator an upper-echelon spot in his region's circle of hip-hop heavy-hitters and represents his commitment to preserving Detroit's influential sonic signatures."I'm always open to try new beats and different producers, but I'm just at home and more comfortable on Detroit beats," Payroll explains. As a member of a group and as a solo act, he's been at the forefront of his hometown's street-rap microcosm for over a decade, and has become one of its most respected and talented torchbearers. "A lot of the producers I work with today, they produced a lot of the Detroit albums I grew up listening to -- Street Lordz, Chedda Boyz and all that. When I was growing up, it was just Street Lordz, Eastside Chedda Boyz, Rock Bottom and a few more groups. That's what we grew up listening to.""They [Blade Icewood and Street Lordz] laid down the blueprint for all of us," Payroll explains. As one of his city's foremost sages, he is one of the few relevant artists today who carries a connection to several sides of Detroit's recent musical heritage and boasts his own growing catalog of classics. "They set the tone for what a Detroit dude is all about, and we followed that blueprint and just ran with it ... It's all embedded in the Detroit sound."His newest contribution to the aforementioned lineage, Spirit of A Boss unfolds like an audio-book full of real-life stories of survival and contains the same sort of gritty lessons you might learn watching a movie about mobsters. The full-length is complete with insights on Payroll's childhood and shines a light on the teenage years he spent trying to carve out his own path in the drug game, revealing the gritty, cinematic crime-drama scenarios that followed and the positive evolution those preceding moments created. You can use it to trace the Payroll Giovanni narrative from start to today."A lot of them are personal records," Payroll shares when breaking down the themes and content of his new release. "I get something new out of it when I see how the fans react to it; I got to see what was the effect on people, that's when I'm like, 'this one touched people in a different way.' I listen to my old stuff and I was probably drunk, in the booth with 20 dudes and stacks of money in my hand while rapping -- just rapping about stuff I would never participate in today. I come from this, that and the third, but now it's about doing this and that.""You don't want to be in your 30s still thugging and living some wild life," Payroll reflects. "I don't want to preach that, because I'm trying to get away from that ... My music has always kind of been my therapy. I'd rather say how I feel in a record or two."