In the case of wonder-boy Evidence, it is not just his music and production that has garnered attention but also his interest in graffiti art and the undying and passionate love for the culture in general.
Dilated Peoples – sure you’ve heard the name; if not, then you’ve certainly bounced to the music that created that special place in my heart once upon a time many years ago. And not by accident either; Babu, Rakaa and Evidence maintain a loyal legion of fans for good reason. In the case of wonder-boy Evidence, it is not just his music and production that has garnered attention but also his interest in graffiti art and the undying and passionate love for the culture in general.
“Man, don’t get me started on graffiti,” he chimes. “Graffiti in Europe – especially Germany, France or Switzerland just fucks my head up. I’m like ‘that has to be legal.’ And they’re like ‘it’s not legal.’ In New York and Cali it was like that in the ’80s and before they cleared it out, with the whole task force thing. But if you’re a graffiti artist from Europe and you think you’re getting to the USA to see some art, they get here and there is nothing.”
Coming back to music for a second though, Evidence recounts growing up in Venice Beach with Hip-Hop all around. “There was break dancing on the street and art in the Pavilion. Movies like Beat Street and Wild Style were coming out; they really influenced me. And it was something I could see. It wasn’t as though it was somebody out in the middle of the country, watching it through a TV screen. I was actually encompassed with it.”
“And graffiti man, it was really poppin’ over there at the time. I wanted to be a dancer, so I was break-dancing at a young age. I would go to the pier and put my cardboard down and do all that kind of stuff! It’s just been part of me! Later on I became a graffiti artist, then a skateboarder and later an emcee and producer. Hip-Hop’s really been the only thing I’ve ever loved my whole life. I remember when I was young I was watching Rap City; if I was running home from school I could catch the last 10 or 15 minutes of it!”
Potentially of course the biggest coup came when the People’s struck a 5-album record deal with Capitol. “They came to us,” he says. “I said in one of the songs: ‘don’t go to them, let them come to you, work the angles.’ My lawyer told me a long time ago that there was only two kinds of record deals, the one where you go to them and the one where they come to you. That’s it. The one where you go to them, you say ‘I’m hungry, I’m willing to do whatever.’ The other one is where they come to you and you have all the leverage and you tell it like it is. We had that option and chose to go with Capitol. Keep in mind we’d met with everyone except Russell Simmons and Puffy. Everyone was trying to get us. It became a bidding war between Interscope and Capitol. In the end we got the money and the creative freedom.”
And one of hip-hop’s greatest legacies began being written.
Evidence plays The Espy on Friday October 29
