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. Read the rest of this entry »

Once served solely as an appetizer, the EP has unofficially became the main entrée for several Hip-Hop fans lacking the attention span to stomach an entire album’s worth of artist’s material. Looking to prove they have the recipe to give the people more for less, fraternal twins-in-rap, Evidence and The Alchemist have jumped on the short order bandwagon with their latest EPs The Layover and The Alchemist’s Cookbook respectively. Seeing that neither of the producer/MCs are the most electrifying rappers around, the technically-sound, soundmen still whip up a batch of delectable bangers that will assuredly tide hungry fans over for the time being. Read the rest of this entry »

Featuring Krondon & directed by Decon’s Jason Goldwatch.

The Layover EP/DVD hit stores today.

Words By Jason Hortillas

Two for one post seeing that The Alchemist has been busy… Read the rest of this entry »

New Evidence off his upcoming EP, The Layover (Decon, holler!). As a bonus shot to feed you beasts, Read the rest of this entry »

The Layover EP is definitely on my most anticipated for 08 list.

While I consider EV to be a very sub-par MC, most of the time anyway, I find his choices in production and his taste for collaborators to be quite the opposite. Read the rest of this entry »