[Image Credit: JerryPHD]

Whether you’re on the wave right now or not, Detroit is one of the hottest cities for rap in music right now. It seems like a new artist emerges monthly if you pay close enough attention, and countless artists mimick what they see and hear from Detroit. Of course there are the big guys: Big Sean and Tee Grizzley for instance. The artist that’s probably the most consistent though, and has been around longer, is Fenkell Avenue’s Payroll Giovanni.

A member of the collective Doughboyz Cashout, which started dropping around 2010, Payroll as a solo artist has carved a die hard fan base with good reason. He’s always kept a hot 16 on deck, producing chops in his back pocket and his new alliance with Cardo Got Wings didn’t hurt him either. Payroll drops bomb after bomb and since Big Bossin’ Vol.1 has really become a force on the rap scene and a staple in Detroit music.

Last week he dropped a self produced tape, 4-1 P, and if you haven’t heard it, it’s fantastic. It’s a tape rooted in Detroit’s origins and the old Doughboyz sound. You can’t forget where you come from, and Pay goes back to the old sound for sure. We caught up with him and got to talk about 4-1 P, the roots of his production skills, Detroit rap and more. Listen to 4-1 P, below and enjoy the interview!

RESPECT.: What made you want to do a whole tape where you produced the whole thing?

Payroll Giovanni: Really just getting back to the roots, the original Doughboyz sound. I feel like that’s what the fans was missing, so I felt like I had to come with it, but make it sound bigger.

RESPECT.: Is it important for you to keep that original Doughboyz sound alive?

Payroll Giovanni: Yeah most definitely. That’s the sound that got us where we at. That’s the type of sound we most comfortable on. It’s just the essence of bringing the Detroit sound back. People ain’t understand it they thought it was some little kid sh*t, but now it’s respected worldwide.

RESPECT.: What inspired you as a producer and is it a different feeling than rapping?

Payroll Giovanni: What inspired me to make beats was really my cousin. He used to make beats back in the day. I used to go in there and freestyle after school, playing around, and the older I got and started taking it more serious I knew what I wanted my beats to sound like, but he couldn’t do it. I picked up on how to make them watching him. Eventually I got my own equipment and started making them.

The sound I grew up on was like Cash Money, Street Lordz, Eastside Chedda Boyz and all that so you probably gon hear that in my beats cause that’s what I was raised on.

RESPECT.: What’s your favorite song on the new tape and why?

Payroll Giovanni: Right now, it’s “Cartier Wishes.” It just reminds me of a time when we was younger and life was just about Cartiers and Pelle’s just hustling trying to get some money, and some of that stuff was real unreachable at that time. It really just take me back to that mind state I had.

RESPECT.: Who you think got the hardest verse on the tape?

Payroll Giovanni: Chaz (Bling) went crazy on “Tax Brackets…” “It gotta be either Chaz or Maine to me right now. Everybody came with it though, so that’s a hard question.

RESPECT.: How do you go about picking who’s going to be on what when making your tapes?

Payroll Giovanni: Usually I just be like this a song I know they a give me one on. I know they gon come with it on this one. Or, I’ll put somebody on a song where they out they comfort zone and make them go crazy on something different.

RESPECT.: You got a history of doing one producer, one rapper projects. Are there any producers you want to link with to do that?

Payroll Giovanni.: Yeah, it’s a couple. I want to do one with Zaytoven in the future. I got some in the cut that I ain’t gon throw out there yet. I got some I’m working on with some Detroit producers. I would love to do a Mannie Fresh one, Just Blaze, hella producers.

RESPECT.: How do you feel about the Detroit rap scene?

Payroll Giovani: It’s beautiful. We in the building. Our presence is known— you got celebrities throwing up Detroit artists, listening to it and some even sound like Detroit artists. I remember they wasn’t acknowledging us at all, they was biting from a distance but wouldn’t give us our props. Now they acknowledging us, it’s a beautiful thing. We making progress.

RESPECT.: Who’s a few of your favorite artists in Detroit?

Payroll Giovanni: Fasho Tee Grizzley, he putting on and making us look good. I f*ck with DZ, I be listening to everything, I be listening to everybody.

RESPECT.: So, what’s next?

Payroll Giovanni: I’m probably gon come again in like October/September. I got a couple things in the cut so I ain’t for sure what I’ma drop next, but the fall time is when I talk that stack yo paper type sh*t so for sure fall time.

RESPECT.: Did you like the response that BBV2 got?

Payroll Giovanni: Yeah, they got the picture. They got the point I was trying to get across with songs like “10 Years 1 Summer,” and all of that. It just had a message and the people caught on to it.

RESPECT.: What’s your favorite project by yourself?

Payroll Giovanni: Stack Season. It just got a classic feel to me. It had a classic feel while I was doing it. It was like my reintroduction to the rap scene cause I wasn’t on the scene for a minute, and I came with that and the fans went crazy. To this day a lot of people say that’s your best project.

RESPECT.: Right now, if you could work with somebody right now who would you work with?

Payroll Giovanni: Young Dolph. Easily, he be talking that sh*t.