Evidence Interview

Michael Perretta, better known as Evidence (born December 10, 1976 in Los Angeles, California), is an American MC, producer, and one third of rap group Dilated Peoples. Bruce Dube of Youth Village got the opportunity to interview one of the illest rappers in the game, his favourite rapper EV . The interview touches on the Weatherman LP , his production skills, his outlook on the hip hop industry, his love for photography , some of the coldest verses he wrote on Cats and Dogs and his advise to the South African youth and African youth at large.

Youth Village: Who is Evidence?

Evidence: An extension of Michael Perretta – an alias given to me by Will I Am. My song, “It wasn’t me” kind of explains it in rhyme form, which was fun to do. Will even showed up for the video. Very cool.

Youth Village: You were raised in LA, how would you describe your childhood?

Evidence: I had a fun and youthful childhood. My parents were having drama, but they were good at keeping that kind of stuff away from me. I am an only child, so my Mom always made sure I was having friends over or vice versa. I wasn’t lonely or anything like that when I was young.

Youth Village: What inspired you to start rapping?

Evidence: My environment mostly. People were doing graffiti, break dancing, and rapping at Venice Beach and Santa Monica Pier. My friend Ethan Browne told me he liked what I was writing, that gave me inspiration to keep going.

Youth Village: Any specific challenges you faced trying to get recognition?

Evidence: Nothing different than the next person I’m sure. I had an advantage though. I lived next door to QD3 (son of Quincy Jones) where I got to see how rap music and other music in general was produced. It really opened my mind.

Youth Village: From dropping music as one third of The Dilated Peoples to standing solo and dropping your own albums what inspired you to pursue a solo career?

Evidence: We always had plans to do that. We were solo artists before we met. It was just difficult to do under our Capitol Records contract, so I waited until 2006.

Youth Village: What drives you as Evidence?

Evidence: Competition, Jealously, Weed, Creative People, Animals, Avocados, Venice Beach & Photography.

Youth Village: What inspired the album title Cats and Dogs?

Evidence: Heavy Rain. Drastic topics. Nothing really light.

Youth Village: Lets talk about your album cover..Its really out of this world what inspired it?

Evidence: It’s a flip. Animals looking other missing animals while I walk right by blurry. In our world it’s humans looking at other missing humans, while animals walk right by without a care. I’m glad you like it, I think album covers are important.

Youth Village: How has your music transitioned from The Weatherman LP to Cats and Dogs? I remember watching your YouTube videos where you were breaking down track by track off Cats and Dogs and i remember you saying you have some of the best beats ever produced by The Alchemist, how do you compare the production on the two albums?

Evidence: I think they have a common thread, but don’t think I made a sequel. I think it’s it’s own different thing written by the same person. I had a lot of great help both times. Great producers and great people around your sessions can really make it that much more notable when it’s played back. Energy is everything.

Youth Village: On The Weatherman LP you spoke about losing your mum and depression and a number of things you went through what lessons did you draw from that dark period in your life?

Evidence: Time heals in a weird way. I am by no means over that. Coping with that loss has become different, not easier or harder, just different.

Youth Village: Moving onto the red carpet “ I set it off in the sunny distance no days existed my patience led the way until the greatest love listened to me” …Pssssss… …What was going through your mind when you spit that line?

Evidence: I was just trying to paint with words. Seems like people gravitated to that first part of the verse. That makes me happy.

Youth Village: Considering the amount of positive feedback you are getting from the red carpet joint are you planning on shooting a video for the Red Carpet?

Evidence: I doubt it. Some things are just better left to imagination sometimes. I think that song should just remain audio.

Youth Village: On the track to be continued you have a verse that goes like “Cliff hanger ,my life is like I’m scaling a rock” and on the track It wasn’t me you spit the line “About to tell you who i are i came a long way and i still got so far to go, Tee off with this trademark flow after tonight ima let the whole world know, my name is Evidence” Is it just me or is Evidence is truly in his prime?

Evidence: I feel like it. The only thing that says, “No” is the amount of time I have been in the game. Some people are late bloomers and I would like to be an example of that when people talk about getting better as time goes on.

Youth Village: DJ Premier listed Cats and Dogs on number 3 in his top 25 albums of 2011 how did you interpret that?

Evidence: With a lot of humility. That is still hard to process. My baseball coach told me, “Never get too excited when you win, and don’t get too down when you lose.” I do my best to apply that to everything in life except sex.

Youth Village: You also produce beats how long have you been doing that? What software do you use?

Evidence: I have been mixing it up, but mostly still based around my ASR 10 & MPC 2000 XL. I know those the best and don’t really need to look past it. I’m into the sound of the gear, not just how fast it navigates or how many tricks it does. I do appreciate what people having been doing on Abelton Live, Logic & Reason, but I still like the hardware when it comes down to it. I did, ” I Don’t Need Love” on Reason and was pleased with the result. It really doesn’t matter what you use, but how you spill your bong water on your equipment.

Youth Village: How would you describe the state of hip hop at the moment?

Evidence: Same but bigger. Find what you like and let that be that. There are styles for everybody, nobody owns it.

Youth Village: As a person who has gone through a number of setbacks in life what advice would you give to South African youth who face a lot of obstacles trying to achieve beyond their circumstances?

Evidence: Try to stress as little as possible & hard work pays off eventually.

Youth Village: Your love for photography is it something you have always appreciated? How did that come along?

Evidence: My Mom (Mum) was one of the best Photographers I ever saw. I grew up around a lot of camera’s.

Youth Village: What are you listening to at the moment?

Evidence: Not much. Been enjoying making my stuff and then just chilling. I peep the radio in the car to check out what is going on and see the blogs from random time to time as well, but mostly been watching movies and studying the scores while they play.

Youth Village: I noticed you have/ are touring across the globe any chances you will be coming to South Africa anytime soon?

Evidence: If I get booked. I would love to go.

Youth Village: Lastly what advice would you like to give to up and coming musicians

Evidence: Don’t quit your night job.