#no hook

A few years ago, Payroll, a leader of BYLUG gang, and Peezy, a leader of Team Eastside gang, had a beef over something they both probably couldn’t remember now. Since then they made peace, in life and in music, they have recorded “2 Quick” together and Payroll appeared as a guest on Peezy’s No Hook 2. The more fleshed-out collaboration was in the making, as Peezy had to go to the feds for some time. So Ghetto Rich Niggaz in its sound and structure reminds one of Payroll’s solo efforts with Peezy acting as a visiting artist. Helluva and David Wesson produce most of it. These are Peezy’s two favorite producers, yet sonically they differ quite radically from the beats Peezy usually uses on his tracks. Payroll is quite conservative in his arranging a song’s structure since his BYLUG days, and it shows here, when he goes for the standard verse-hook model and when he invites female vocalists for choruses.

Peezy, on the other hand, a fine hook man himself, almost completely abandoned the verse-hook pairing, and recorded two albums with telling titles No Hook and No Hook 2. Both laid a blueprint for the whole new no hook wave (ironically, another #Boyz Entertainment signee, Rio Da Yung Og, was the originator of another wave, namely shit talking as rapping).

So, with this arrangement not quite in his favor, Peezy with easefulness steals the tape from Payroll. Payroll remains in the shadows on it so often, one has to remind oneself it is a collaboration, not Peezy’s solo album with Payroll an executive producer. Songs on Ghetto Rich Niggaz are far from Peezy’s finest efforts, yet he’s animated and cocky as usual (he does a lot of self-plagiarizing, as, for example, on “That’s All” which is a remake of his “One of a Kind” off Roalty One).

Payroll, when he does go out of the shadows, here lazily plays his big boss persona. On “Paid In Full” he raps: “I’m back with more shit to talk, somebody please record me.” But it’s quite the opposite: instead of shit talking he goes for a recount of his respectful and well-calculated deeds. He better stick to them, instead of rapping.