Send "Evidence " Ringtones to your Cell 
| Popmatters |
 True hip-hop can be defined by the ear of the listener. Some may say it has revived itself as of late with J. Cole, Wale, Drake and Kendrick Lamar, among others. Others will say that the age of true hip-hop has come and gone. But there are rappers celebrated by fans and critics alike who still make great music and still produce good hip-hop, such as Nas, Jay-Z, and Raekwon. They still record and release great music as if they never will retire. They are true rappers and artists who respect the craft of hip hop so much.Then there are rappers, such as Tech Nyne, Royce Da 5’9 and Common who are regarded by many as great rappers, but still overlooked by a lot as well. In hearing Cats & Dogs, I became instantly convinced that Evidence, originally from Dilated Peoples, should also be in this group, not just as a rapper, but also as a respected artist in the hip-hop game who won a Grammy producing for Kanye West. He’s such a good artist, that Cats & Dogs is a must hear for anybody who is a hip hop fan. Even those who like ‘Lil Wayne, Lil B or Gucci Mane will instantly give Evidence credit. Cats & Dogs provides the lyrics and charisma of a highly skilled MC. The first quarter of the album sets the tone with heavy samples, dark beats, a great overall sound and great lyrics. “The Red Carpet Treatment”, featuring Raekwon and Rass Kass, is easily one of the albums standouts and “It Wasn’t Me” is when it becomes clear that Evidence has an album worth listening to. The second quarter of the album features dope cuts like “I Don’t Need Love” and “Fame” featuring Prodigy from Mobb Deep. The second half of the album also has great tracks such as “Crash”, “Falling Down” and “Well Runs Down” with Krondon. But the best track on the album is “James Hendrix”, an obvious allusion to the late great Jimi Hendrix, which sounds like pure hip-hop in its art form....full text |
| Djbooth |
| Truly successful rappers don’t have fans, they have friends; and this fans vs. friends dichotomy is actually the key to understanding the modern rap game. Think about it like this. You run into a guy you went to high school with at the bar– he was cool, but you were never really friends. At the end of the night he asks for $10 to take a cab home and you…lie and say you just spent your last $10. Same bar, only this time you’re with your homey from way back in the day. At the end of the night he asks for $10 but all you have is a $20 and you…give him the $20. In a day and age where free albums are just a Google search away, no one’s going to cough up $9.99, let alone $120 to go to a show – for some cool guy. But for a friend? Of course, I got you, and the next drink’s on me. And how does a rapper convert fans into friends? Friends, for better or worse, know you. The real you; or at the very least a version of the “real” you that you display so often it becomes the real you. Since the inception of Dilated Peoples the L.A. crew has been been friendlier than most, but even five group albums and a solo effort, Weatherman, from Dilated co-founder Evidence, we never felt like we truly knew the Venice Beach native. Not only is Ev’s new album Cats & Dogs one of the more carefully crafted projects to hit our eardrums in recent memory, it consistently displays a willingness to reveal the pain and joy behind the man behind the mic. I don’t know about fans, but the man’s definitely going to have some more friends after listening to Cats & Dogs. We might as well jump right into the deep end. On I Don’t Need Love, a record Evidence called the most personal song on the album, he uses a self-produced beat to trace the death of his mother to the resent-fueled collapse of his relationship with other women: “I trashed every girl I had since…I don’t need love any more, I need pressure / pain, my veins, feelin’ so electric.” Those are exactly the kind of lyrics the casual fan doesn’t want to hear, but a friend will stay up late night listening to. Well Runs Dry walks in the footprints laid down by Don’t Need Love, peeling back whatever artistic artifice he previously employed even further: “I’m makin placements but livin in my basement / what’s a verse if I don’t really say sh*t.” From the more head nodding but still personally revealing You to the narrative, super-collab Late for the Sky featuring Slug and Aesop Rock, two dudes who aren’t exactly strangers to letting listeners inside, Cats & Dogs isn’t the work of a rapper, it’s the work of a person. A real person. Make no mistake though, this “new” Evidence hasn’t replaced the “old” Evidence. The same “I’ll wreck any emcee in my path” side of Ev that had him going toe to toe with Eminem back in the day is still very much alive, and makes multiple appearances on Cats & Dogs. Strangers is nothing but head-nodding aggression, although some part of Ev’s flow always sounds relaxed (what else would you expect from a SoCal native?) and James Hendrix finds him simply having fun alongside his brother from another hip-hop mother Alchemist. Crucially though, Evidence is too complicated to divide the album into such easy categories like deep hard. He, and the album, are best when both sides of his rhyme skills are in full display. On Red Carpet he joins legends Raekwon and Ras Kass, and while a younger Ev might have overreached in an effort to impress, the 2011 Ev is confident enough to both hit his bars hard and embed his words with enough layers to reward repeat listens. It’s the same story on Where You Come From, a cut that on the surface sounds as dark and threatening as any, but a closer listen will reveal nothing short of a statement track....full text |
| Thephoenix |
| As competent as Evidence has always been with mic skills, he's no lyrical miracle. In fact, he was the anomalous underground MC to escape the aughts without perpetually popping tongue-twisting linguistic feats at the expense of sense and substance. Evidence sometimes calls himself Mr. Slow Flow — a fitting moniker no doubt, but one that should perhaps be changed to Mr. I Think About My Raps Before I Breathe Them. Hip-hop substance is a long-gone phenomenon — both above and below ground — leaving this Dilated Peoples person as one of the few artists who curates albums that both massage primal rap receptors and elicit emotion. As in his titanic solo debut, The Weatherman, here Evidence juxtaposes focused collaborations like the operatic Alchemist-spun "Red Carpet" next to faster moving solo cuts like the DJ Premier zinger "You." All the while, on tracks like the coming-of-age nostalgia piece "I Don't Need Love," he dishes further tales about the path he rode from the beaches of Los Angeles to your headphones. That's the Evidence difference: unlike liars, fakers, and bullshit artists, he backs up his name and claim with anecdotal gems aplenty....full text |
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