[2] Payback was promoted by an appearance by Swain on Late Night With Jimmy Fallon alongside the Roots one week prior to the record's release.

Swain spent the remainder of 2011 assembling tracks intended for a digital download album to be released through Interscope.

One week prior to the album's release, Swain performed "Evil" on Late Night with Jimmy Fallon with the Roots as his backing band.

[18] The production on the album was unanimously acclaimed by critics; Slant Magazine deemed the beats "undeniably savvy".

[22] Swain recanted this stance on his subsequent album, The Book Of Daniel, acknowledging that Payback was "cartoonishly entitled" and conceived during a "very, very dark time in [his] life".