Westside Detroit rap outfit Doughboyz Cashout delivered gritty, detail-heavy rhymes centered on street violence, sex, luxury apparel and vehicles, narcotics, and the daily grind. The crew originated in 2006 during the members’ time at Southfield High School, emerging from the union of two established underground factions: the Doughboyz and the Cashoutboyz, also known as Cashout Rich Niggas. Its nucleus consists of Doughboy Dre, Big Quis (aka Crispy Quis), HBK, and unofficial leader Payroll Giovanni, while additional contributors have encompassed HBK’s brother Chaz Bling, Roc, Clay, Yae Yae Jordan, and Bmo Maine. Drawing from Detroit-area forebears such as Street Lord’z and the late Blade Icewood, the group upheld the city’s tradition of intricate, hard-edged narrative rap with the release of its first mixtape, We Run the City, in 2007. Two further entries in the series preceded the 2012 album Free Roc, which arrived near the imprisonment of the title-sharing member. After cultivating a loyal local audience in Detroit, the collective’s music reached Atlanta rappers T.I. and Young Jeezy. Jeezy brought the outfit aboard his CTE World imprint in early 2013, and that summer the crew, alongside labelmate YG, dropped its maiden CTE project, Boss Your Life Up Gang (aka “BYLUG”). We Run the City #4 arrived the following year, and BylugWorld surfaced in 2015. In early 2016 the ‘boyz severed ties with CTE, launching Bylug Entertainment to operate independently.
