Evidence

Interview by: Martin Bauman Coming of age in California in the late eighties, it's natural that Evidence says he was raised by N.W.A. Their sound dominated the West Coast and epitomized the gangsta rap era. As a teenager, living next to Quincy Jones III and seeing his rap idols right outside his window, it seems like destiny that years later, his own music would come to raise the next generation of West Coast hip-hop heads through the groundbreaking group Dilated Peoples. Forming in 1992, the Los Angeles crew captured the imaginations of the hip-hop underground and managed to survive throughout the years, even as those around them rose and fell from fame. It's a testament to their longevity that twenty-two years later, the group is back with 2014's Directors of Photography, an album that sounds as good as -- and perhaps even better than -- anything they've done to date. We caught up with Evidence to talk about avoiding the pitfalls of fame, growing up on N.W.A, why he thinks the world could be a better place, and much more. Listen to the podcast above and read the interview after the jump.