Posted on 12/01/2008
Evidence, the microphone proselytizer of Dilated Peoples (alongside Rakaa Iriscience), has dropped his own EP, The Layover, and it’s doper than rainbow sprinkled crack. The ten-track release, produced by Khrysis and a slew of fine gentlemen like Alchemist, Sid Roams (2 gentlemen to be exact), Babu, and the Cali bred emcee himself, broadcasts Evidence at his most astute. The EP represents a pad of cerebral rhymes and budding artists like Blu, Elzhi, Phonte that Ev finds simpatico. Anyway, a “layover” can be the time between airplane flights or the time between shows on a tour. So in a freakish way to connect that definition to the theme of the EP, Evidence got the third degree with “time” related questions.

OKP: How much time has passed between you and your favorite MC… or, rather, what’s the age difference between you and your favorite emcee’s age?

Evidence: 7 years. It works both ways. My favorite rapper is Jay-Z. He’s 37, 38 right, and then going 7 or 8 years backwards is somebody like Blu who’s like 23, 24 and I’m 31.

OKP: What things do you do in the time between getting ready for a show and actually going on stage?

Ev: Cut out the weed (laughs). Two hours before the show, I’m working on my breath control, but smoking on the stairs right before we go up.

OKP: How much time passed between finishing the lyrics and recording The Layover?

Ev: About five minutes max. You know, “Yo, hit the recorder, I got this shit.” (Laughs). In fact, a lot of the rhymes were incomplete ‘cause I recorded myself for a lot of it. I would listen to those four lines and do another four. Start building it before I finish it, listen back to it and keep it all as one.

OKP: What has changed in the time between this release and your last one?

Ev: Really becoming comfortable with what I’m doing. I have a formula and I’m sticking to it. I don’t have to do this for a record label. I don’t have to do it, wondering when my next mortgage payment is coming from. I’m in a really good situation where I can really be creative.

I evolve and I hang out with really talented people, people who are constantly pushing me to a higher level. I don’t like to surround myself with people worse than me. I’m constantly humiliating myself, getting my ego shot down, doing shit that I did when I first started, basically wanting to get better. Elzhi is gonna make you wanna get better, you know what I’m saying?

OKP: So you got Phonte, you got Blu, and you got Elzhi on the EP with you. How much time pass between chilling with them and actually recording with them?

Ev: Elzhi, I didn’t chill with him because he wasn’t there. Phonte didn’t chill with him either because he wasn’t there. Blu, I didn’t chill with him either because he wasn’t there. All of us spent excessive time in our studio, in Alchemist’s studio. I toured with Phonte heavily and Will.i.am who I grew up with. I dealt with them long enough to call and explain to them what this was about. “For Whom the Bell Tolls” is a song I had already done concept and everything, so I was just telling them where I wanted them to go and everything. As far as Elzhi goes, he’s been to my crib before, touring with Little Brother, chilling with him and Joe Scudda, in Detroit shows and stuff.

OKP: How much time passed between the time you recorded the first track of the EP and the last track of the EP?

Ev: A little while because three of the songs, “To Be Determined,” “For Whom the Bell Tolls” featuring Will.i.am, Blu, and Phonte and this song called “The Cold Weather” were all for my next album. I recorded those in the middle of 2007. “To Be Determined” was really two verses I wrote. I‘ll let those versions go a little bit later when the album comes out, but those have been recorded for a little while, so maybe 8 months.

OKP: What things must you do in the time between now and when you retire?

Ev: Continue to just follow the model, get fat and move to Miami.

- Sidik Fofana