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By Brandon Perkins   Photography by Sam Gezari

11/25/08 :: URB 156

At the bottom of every water bottle is a number that references the plastic’s toxicity and rate of decomposition. It may be a governmental band-aid akin to the color-coded terrorism warning system, but it’s a constant reminder of America’s lust for unnecessary waste. For every 7/11 liquid purchase, there’s a 1-7 scale of faux-environmental fuckery. The lowest end is more biodegradable, while the highest end might be less toxic. It’s a scale of green that amounts to varying shades of gray. That 99-cent Arrowhead bottle will recycle better, but the plastic’s toxin will “leach” into your water supply after just a few refills. on the other end, the closer a bottle gets to “7,” the thicker it gets and the more room it occupies in this nation’s many landfills. Oh, and 7 is also banned in baby products in many states…because it’s toxic? maybe the moderate position is the safest and most ecologically sound, maybe the 3-4-5 markings are the sweet spots, or maybe you’re still drinking from a poly-based danger lurking in the shadows. These are the intricacies to every facet of life, but few people obsess over them the way Evidence does.
 
In his ever-expanding house in Venice, CA, the hip-hop veteran enthusiastically details the pros and cons of each grade of plastic. His girl got him a “7-other” coffee cup because it has the most recycleability and the least toxins. In everyday life, it’s a $2.99 to-go mug from Starbucks. In Evidence’s life, it’s a fairly apt analogy for his art.
 
Evidence’s album titles are supported by encyclopedic references. His concepts have their genesis deep in his decade-plus catalog. Names have reasons. To a grip of early-‘00s rap fans, Dilated Peoples kinda sounded like a diseased, furry pencil topper...a Weeple. But to Evidence, when triangulated with bandmates Rakaa and DJ Babu, “Dilated Peoples sounded like an army.” the back of genuinely energetic shows and a classicist underground ethos, Dilated built the fervent kind of fan base that makes six weeks in Europe a payday and not some U.S.-dollar-be-damned vacation. It became international. But even though Evidence liked the group’s moniker, he didn’t yet care for concepts.

“Throughout my whole career, Rakaa was always adamant about a concept,” Evidence says. “He didn’t really wanna write unless we had a topic, and I was very much like, ‘Let’s just spit 16 [bars] each and it’s free that way. People enjoy us and it doesn’t seem bogged down.’ Now, I’m getting older and I’m really starting to understand what he was talking about...I don’t think I can really approach anything unless I have a concept. That’s not to say the concept can’t be ‘wreck shit,’ but it is playing a huge direction in my new vision of myself and how I’m perceived.”
 
Evidence’s new direction came in two steps. His debut solo album, The Weatherman LP—released in 2007—was the first part. critically acclaimed, especially in independent hip-hop circles, The Weatherman was a concerted effort to reflect on the man that he had become. In the sincerest of fashions, Evidence turned the microphone microscope inwards, away from a patented dissection of wack rappers and towards the trials and tribulations of his own life.

“Since that day I’ve really had a difficult time rapping about rapping,” he says.

The second step came while riding high on the success of that LP. Thinking ahead to the next project, he told his manager—the same man that Ev credits with coaching him into this new period of self-reflection—to “step his game up.”
 
“[I told him] there’s 30 people right now on mySpace that would move to cali, do everything for free and hustle, just to have the opportunity to be my manager. They would show me how bad they want it,” Evidence says. He isn’t afraid to get animated in conversations. “He was like, ‘I respect that and, yes, I’ll step it up. But you need to step your fuckin’ game up.’ And I leaned back, I almost dropped the phone. I was like, ‘What do you mean? I have one of the most celebrated albums of 2007 on the underground, I haven’t stopped touring since, I have my merch set up, I’m on my every day, my website’s being built...what more could I possibly do?’”

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