Dilated Peoples has been a cornerstone in Left Coast Hip-Hop since the early ’90s. Back then, the three man band catered to a relentless touring campaign leading to their first full-length record in May 2000 under Capitol Records. Now, free from the shackles of a major label, the three parts of Dilated have been pursuing their respective solo projects. Rakaa is gearing up for his first solo release, Babu is busy promoting the newest installment to his Duck Season series and Evidence is putting his unrivaled work ethic into overdrive promoting his newest endeavor, The Layover EP.

With one of the most heralded albums of 2007 under his belt, Evidence has cemented himself as a shining star in the stratosphere. The Layover EP marks the beginning of a ruthless world tour and the eventual release of his second LP, Cats & Dogs. But before he taxi’s down the runway to embark on his conquest, E-V cut it up with the Crew’s own Landon A. to discuss the EP, his video blog and his future as a Dilated Junkie.

Words By Landon A.

TSS: Yo What’s going on Ev?

Evidence: How are ya?

TSS: Good man how are you doing?

Evidence: I’m doing good

TSS: Where you calling from today?

Evidence: I’m actually at the crib in Venice, California

TSS: I don’t know if you remember around this time last year being in Lexington, Kentucky…

Evidence: Holy shit with Little Brother!

TSS: Yeah with Little Brother! I interviewed you on the bus before the show that night.

Evidence: Yeah, yeah I remember man!

TSS: They actually tore that venue down this year, which sucks because no Hip-Hop really gets to come through Lexington anymore.

Evidence: That sucks!

TSS: Alright, since we last spoke you’ve done a lot of cameo’s, a lot of guest produced spots and now you’ve got The Layover EP, which has garnered a lot of hype for an just an EP, can you explain why you’ve put so much behind something that’s essentially just building toward another, bigger project.

Evidence: There’s a lot of EP’s that I came up listening to that I didn’t necessarily feel were better than the LP’s that came after them, but were no joke you know? There’s a lot of them. Pete Rock & C.L. Smooth’s All Souled Out, Ice Cube’s Kill At Will, Showbiz & A.G.’s Full Scale, Bone Thugs’ Creepin’ On Ah Come Up, Jurassic 5’s first release….ah fuck..Intoxicated Demons [The Beatnuts]… Just a lot of good ones man and I don’t just think that because it says EP it has to be a half step. I mean if you look at Illmatic, like I already knew what “Halftime” was and “It Ain’t Hard To Tell” was already out, and if you look at the intro it was just a beat and “One Time For Your Mind” was like a one and a half verse joint. Never in my life was I so happy to get six or seven songs and that goes down as one of the all time greats. I don’t want to erase the notion that just because it’s short doesn’t mean it can’t be crazy, if anything it’s harder to do.

TSS: This year you’ve had a lot of help from the blogosphere too as far as pushing your material and I heard you’re shooting a video for each song on the EP.


Evidence: Yeah, I’ve done five of them so far. We’re shooting one, “For Whom The Bell Tolls” with will.i.am and Phonte this January and hopefully that will get on major television. We’re shooting “To Be Determined” with Elzhi and Aloe Blacc as well and then after that it just leaves me “Cold Weather” and then “Rain or Shine” which should be no problem. If I could do all nine then that would be historic. I mean someone’s probably done it before but you’d have to argue the level of quality I’m doing these videos in. It’s one thing to just go get a camera and shoot a video for every song but we did some creative shit if you’ve followed it, it’s nothing to light.

TSS: Yeah, “The Far Left” video kind of reminded me of the video for “Come Close” by Common except a lot harder (Laughs)

Evidence: Bob Dylan is originally where the idea came from. And then INXS re-did it in the 80’s, and then Common. De La Soul did it too so it’s nothing new under the sun, I think we did it well though.

TSS: You’ve also kind of reached out via your youtube page. Some of those videos are the funniest shit I’ve seen in a while.

Evidence: Thanks man, I’ve got this whole side of me that’s definitely not how I’m portrayed, so I put those out there to let people know. (Laughs) I tell Babu sometimes “Wow man you’re such a fuckin’ funny dude” but if you look at our press photo’s you’d never know that.  I guess the same applies to me, I rap about dark shit, I have dark sounding beats, you might think I’m this fuckin’ dude ready to kill myself but I’m not . You know there’s funny shit that happens to us all the time and I’ve got this camera that shoots two minute videos, so I post it up and 10,000 views and two days later, it’s like fuck maybe I’m onto something. (Laughs)

TSS: Some of your interactions with Alchemist are classic, I could watch “Marijuana in room” all day.

Evidence: (Laughs) Yeah ‘cause he was so mad at me right there. Like he was genuinely upset with me, now he knows he can’t try and punch me because I’ll fuckin’ fuck him up! He’s just mad, like the world sucks. It sucks for him right there and I caught it. Someone called us the male Laverne & Shirly the other day, I thought that was pretty funny.

TSS: Yeah, and we’re all just starting to see how close you and Alc are. Like we knew you were boys because of the collabo’s you’ve done in the past but now the extent of your relationship is kind of coming to light. How’s he going to be involved in future projects?

Evidence: He did a majority of The Layover, I’m on Alchemist’s Cookbook twice, a song called “Therapy” and “Calmly Smoke” so you know we’re all over each other’s shit. Step Brothers is the group and there will definitely be an album coming soon so you know that’s going to be a lot of fun. We’re just going to capture the energy of how we actually are as friends. We’ve come a long way. He got to move to New York and show what he’s capable of, for a kid from Cali to go all the way out there and say “Hey I’m going to be a producer” and work with everyone from Nas to Mobb Deep, two years later we all ended up respecting seriously him on a major level. Like I’ve accomplished a lot with Dilated Peoples, now I’m branding myself as a solo artist and I’m getting to the level like when we hang out it’s not so much like “Hey Alchemist, who’s your homie?” “Oh, this is my homie from Dilated Peoples.” It’s more like “Yo Alchemist, oh Evidence, hey!” Like I feel like I’m kind of earning my stripes now. Like when I’m in a room with him, I deserve to be there.

TSS: Yeah, and over the years he’s kind of established himself as a crossover producer. Having done beats for Mobb Deep or Nas and more recently, Wayne on Tha Carter III. Is this something you see yourself doing in coming years?

Evidence: Yeah, I mean I’ve just did a joint for Billy Danze from M.O.P. on his solo record which is dope. I’ve done Linkin Park –the Reanimation album; the “High Voltage” single off that, and I got a Grammy co-producing “Last Call” with Kanye West from The College Dropout. I’ve had tastes of what that’s like and a couple checks to reflect that, which has been nice, but for the most part I’m known as an underground dude. I’m not really….I don’t know…I don’t care man (Laughs.) I’m just doing creative shit right now man. Whoever wants to fuck with me, lets work. I’d much rather produce Fashawn’s album and have that shit blow up and say that I put someone on the map than produce the next song for Jay-Z. You know what I mean? Not to say it wouldn’t be a rush to be a part of that, that would be the shit, I’m just on some different shit right now.

TSS: With The Weatherman heralded as one of the best LP’s of ’07, and you constantly being on tour, do you still find people who are just now learning your name?

Evidence: Yeah there’s a lot of that. There’s a lot of “of Dilated Peoples” still. Which is cool, but there’s a lot of people who really know about me now. Like when I was in Dilated I don’t think there were as many people who knew a lot about the individual members, maybe they just know the group. Now that I’m doing this there’s a lot of people focusing on the aspects of my life or things about me, not just what my favorite songs are or something like that so that’s cool.

TSS: Yeah!

Evidence: Look, I love fuckin’ Coldplay but that doesn’t mean I know what the drummer’s name is, no disrespect, I just don’t know. They might not have a drummer (Laughs) I don’t know. I just know who Chris is, the lead guy….I think (Laughs)

TSS: (Laughs) Alright so, is there a new Dilated album on the horizon?

Evidence: Yeah, I mean we stay working but it’s not time yet. Rakaa’s going to finish his solo album, Babu just release Duck Season 3, I’m going through my solo thing, when we all group up in the same room and decide the time is right, the next album will come out. Definitely not due to shortage of creativity or relationship or anything like that, we just have freedom to do what we want right now, no one’s pressing us for a deadline, we don’t have a deal, so when the right business opportunity surfaces and we make the right decisions, we’ll do it. We have three songs, which kind of sucks because I think these are three songs that  the world should be hearing but I don’t want to throw them out and have them be on a few blogs for a few days and then it just goes out as an mp3 that came out, I mean it deserves a push. When I find the right opportunity and  the right business to match the music you’ll hear some shit.

TSS: What’s ’09 look like for you?

Evidence: We got Step Brothers, Evidence and Alchemist. A European tour for the first time, supporting The Weatherman LP and The Layover EP from May into June. Cats & Dogs in the latter half of ’09, Crown of Thorns, which is Rakaa’s solo album, and I have The Purple Tape Instrumentals dropping December 9th. Really Just look out for me promoting The Layover EP, I’m really excited to get out there and perform a lot of these songs.

TSS: Before we wrap it up, what can you tell me about Kids Inc. with Alchemist, 88-Keys and yourself?

Evidence: Ah yeah there’s this kid named Mars Whiteman that I met and I told him I’d work with him and he went around telling people that he was Evidence but there’s this dude named Mars Whiteman in a group that looks like me A LOT. It’s not me. (Laughs) He is pretty dope I ain’t gonna lie. But yeah, that dude is trippin’. There’s some dude named Dewey Decimal in there he’s crazy too, and he kind of looks like Alchemist but they’re just like….yeah….I don’t know….(Laughs)

TSS: (Laughs) Interesting…alright man, hopefully we’ll speak again soon and see what’s poppin’ on down the line.

Evidence: Alright, perfect.

Listen to the title track from the album, “The Layover.”

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Evidence’s The Layover is in stores now & available via iTunes. For more info, visit www.myspace.com/evidence & www.imeem.com/evidence.

Previously Posted — Evidence – “Solitary Confinement” Video | Evidence – “Far Left” Video