Payroll Giovanni & Cardo

<a href="spotify:artist:6q2peHL8h2vUGvWNbsIjii">Payroll Giovanni</a> and Cardo were independently established prior to issuing the first in a series of collaborative mixtapes detailing street hustling with slick, trunk-rattling beats. The rapper, born Dior Giovanni Petty, came up in <a href="spotify:artist:7fKiDS9ftTP9DsC9qTUhd6">Doughboyz Cashout</a>, major players in the late-2000s/early-2010s Detroit underground, and built up a solo discography with self-released mixtapes such as Get Money Stay Humble and Stack Season. Dallas, Texas (via St. Paul, Minnesota) beatmaker <a href="spotify:artist:01fz18yd7TE7WazwujZnHo">Ronald LaTour</a>, aka Cardo Got Wings and simply Cardo, was concurrently credited on tracks by the likes of <a href="spotify:artist:4LLpKhyESsyAXpc4laK94U">Mac Miller</a>, <a href="spotify:artist:137W8MRPWKqSmrBGDBFSop">Wiz Khalifa</a>, <a href="spotify:artist:20sxb77xiYeusSH8cVdatc">Meek Mill</a>, Jeezy, and <a href="spotify:artist:0NbfKEOTQCcwd6o7wSDOHI">the Game</a>. <a href="spotify:artist:01fz18yd7TE7WazwujZnHo">LaTour</a> scored his first certified-platinum production -- for <a href="spotify:artist:0Y5tJX1MQlPlqiwlOH1tJY">Travis Scott</a>'s "Goosebumps" -- in 2016, the same year he and Petty linked up for Big Bossin, Vol. 1, a mixtape that, with casual listening, could have been mistaken for a product out of Oakland, Los Angeles, or Houston instead of the Midwest. <a href="spotify:artist:01fz18yd7TE7WazwujZnHo">LaTour</a> contributed to Petty's Sosa Dreamz tape, released later that year. The duo signed to major-label <a href="spotify:search:label%3A%22Def+Jam%22">Def Jam</a>, who issued Big Bossin, Vol. 1.5 (a modified edition of Big Bossin, Vol. 1) toward the end of 2017, a year in which <a href="spotify:artist:01fz18yd7TE7WazwujZnHo">LaTour</a> also landed credits on <a href="spotify:artist:6oMuImdp5ZcFhWP0ESe6mG">Migos</a>' Grammy-nominated C U L T U R E and <a href="spotify:artist:2YZyLoL8N0Wb9xBt1NhZWg">Kendrick Lamar</a>'s Grammy-winning DAMN. All of this, along with <a href="spotify:artist:01fz18yd7TE7WazwujZnHo">LaTour</a>'s co-production of <a href="spotify:artist:3TVXtAsR1Inumwj472S9r4">Drake</a>'s number one pop hit "God's Plan," set the stage for Big Bossin, Vol. 2, released in early 2018. ~ Andy Kellman, Rovi