Evidence released “Weather Or Not”, his third full-length solo album on the 26th January via Rhymesayers Entertainment.
As both a solo artist and one-third of Dilated Peoples,Evidence has established himself as one of hip-hop’s most accomplished rappers and producers, working with Domo Genesis, Linkin Park, Beastie Boys, Defari, Madchild and Krondon, amongst others.
His production work has already earned him a Grammy Award for co-production on Kanye West's College Dropout, and two JUNO Awards for his work with Canadian hip-hop group Swollen Members.
As fans would expect, “Weather or Not” embodies the very heart of the hip-hop culture; clever wordplay laid over heavy boom-bap production, but Evidence also exhibits his gift for weaving moments of personal and introspective reflection into his writing, whilst remaining true to his hardcore hip-hop sonic and lyrical sensibility.
The album features an array of exciting collaborations including the likes of Slug (Atmosphere), Rakaa (Dilated Peoples) and Jonwayne, plus production from Evidence himself, Alchemist, Nottz, and DJ Premier.
On the making of his new album, Evidence said: “After we made our most recent Dilated Peoples album (Directors of Photography, 2014), I was like, ‘Now what?’. Right away I started doing my weather thing again. I made this new album with loyalists in mind. There’s nothing that’s unintentional.”
Amongst the album’s stand out tracks are “Love is A Funny Thing” which muses on the things we claim to love and, along with guests Rapsody and Styles P, the three dissect the way we misuse that word’s multiple meanings and abuse its power. Evidence also provides an intimate look into his personal life on “By My Side Too” which documents how his son saved his mother’s life by indirectly discovering her cancer.
“Weather or Not” also features the viral hit “Throw It All Away,” for which the Stephen Vanasco directed video has already ranked more than 2 million views, alongside the DJ Premier produced track “10,000 Hours” also directed by Vanasco.
Evidence’s creative flair for visuals doesn’t stop there with the Nottz produced single “Jim Dean” directed by Jason Goldwatch, which narrated the lyrics by fusing moving and still images together through the creative idea of bringing t-shirt graphics to life.
Now with his fourth video to drop from the album “Powder Cocaine”, Evidence teams up with Slug (Atmosphere) for a feature on the rhymes, and production from long term collaborator The Alchemist (Eminem, Snoop Dogg, Action Bronson) at the helm. The spellbinding video also directed by Jason Goldwatch takes the viewer on an incredible journey into a world of mesmerizing visuals, and affirms the passion that Evidence also has as a photographer.
After calling on Catero to produce a hook, the singer came back with a verse that ended with, "but everything's fine if I try to remain like Powder Cocaine..."
This stuck with Evidence and Slug whilst writing, and opened the doors for a highly imaginative track full of diverse metaphors and descriptive symbolism.
Despite the title of the song Evidence has never tried the drug, he said:
"I'm like the only person in Los Angeles who didn't do cocaine, and Alchemist too. We made a pact, you know, when friends are young and we actually stuck to it. This song is not a pro-cocaine song, but rather just using the saying as an expression of being all good.”
On the album Evidence said “now that the album is finished, I can see clearly that every single song serves its own purpose. To me, it’s like a playlist, or a greatest hits collection…except that none of these songs existed before I made them.”
Weather or Not is out now:
https://rse.lnk.to/WeatherOrNot
