After WINNING A Grammy with Dilated Peoples, Evidence debuted his first solo project in 2007, The Weatherman. Keeping the momentum going, Ev recently released the highly praised Layover EP which has fans eagerly awaiting his second full-length album. How is the new EP doing? I put a lot of work into it and it’s starting to catch on more than I expected. People are holding it in the light of an album which is an incredible thing. My first LP The Weatherman came out in March, 2007. I’ve been doing shows over the last year and a half, grinding hard on the internet. People know me from Dilated but it was important for me to build the Evidence brand. So why an EP and not a full album? I couldn’t afford to go away for two years so I came up with the idea to put together an EP. A lot of EPs I came up on are classics like Intoxicated Demons and Ice Cube’s Kill at Will. I looked at it like an EP could be a classic too, even if it doesn’t have a lot of songs, so I’m really pushing this and it comes with a DVD. I’m touring and everything leading up to my next album Cats & Dogs that’s coming out at the end of this year. The song “For Whom the Bell Tolls” off the EP has an interesting guest list. How did that come about? My manager actually came up with the title. I was listening to beats and that beat had a bell ringing in it. He was like, you should call it “For Whom the Bell Tolls.” I didn’t even know what that expression meant until he explained it. So at first I was trying to put Devin the Dude on the chorus, but that was when the hurricane flooded Texas. From what I understand, he went a few weeks without power, so recording and meeting my EP deadlines weren’t priority, he was dealing with family and real life stuff. Why did you go with will.i.am? We wanted somebody who sings well but that has a quirkiness to them. I’ve known will for a long time so he did it really fast for me. Phonte is one of my favorite rappers, and Blu is from L.A. and it just all came together. We just shot the video for that. Hopefully you’ll see it on
TV soon. When you first started rhyming, did you think you’d be making songs with your favorite rappers or think you’d make it this far? Yeah, actually, I thought it would happen that year. I thought I’d be the first 15 year old rapper ever. Then I was like, aw fuck it, I’ll be the first 16 year old rapper. I thought every year was my year. Had I known it would take this long I would have never stayed with it. So why did you stay with it for so long? Because I loved doing it. But I would never have put college aside. You gotta understand, I’m really stripping myself down and starting over. I have sold over a million records with Dilated Peoples and we’ve toured the world and got a Grammy. So I’ve had a lot of success, I’m just building a new brand. I feel like after two years of doing this people are starting to have a lot of faith in me. Do you find that being a solo artist has offered you more freedom creatively? Or why did you want to work on projects by yourself? It’s no secret that all of us in Dilated Peoples are obviously different people from different backgrounds. We always told people we had our own plans and that we just came together to form something bigger… A lot of artists talk shit and say, “I can’t wait ‘til I get off my label ‘cause I’m gonna do this and that,” and then you never hear from them again. Since 2006 when I got off Capitol, I’ve put out two solid releases and a mixtape with DJ Skee that did really well. Dilated Peoples put out a DVD. I toured the world twice. My passport needs more pages, it’s lookin’ ridiculous. I’m active right now. I understand building a brand doesn’t happen overnight. Some people don’t know what it takes. Tell people what else they can expect from you. My live show is something that sets me apart from a lot of people. There’s people that might have a better spit game than me, and my fan base might not be as big as the next person’s, but when you’re at a good show that I’m doing, you can tell something’s brewing. If you can, check me out live. I also have a YouTube channel where you can see some of my videos YouTube.com/YesImEvidence. //
OZONE MAG // 33