Hip-Hop-Urgestein, Produzent und Dilated-Peoples-Rapper Evidence meldet sich 2018 mit einem neuen Album zurück. »Weather Or Not« heißt seine vierte Soloplatte, der Nachfolger von »Lord Steppington« aus dem Jahr 2014. Mit »Throw It All Away«, »10.000 Hours« und »Jim Dean« schickte Michael Perretta, wie Evidence mit bürgerlichem Namen heißt, bereits mehrere Vorboten ins Rennen. Und die zeigen, dass der Rapper seinen Ruf als Ikone völlig zu Recht genießt. Für die Produktion von »Weather Or Not« sicherte sich Evidence die Unterstützung des »who is who« der Szene, darunter DJ Premier, Nottz und Langzeitpartner The Alchemist. Als Gastmusiker holte er sich außerdem Slug, Catero, Defari, Krondon, Mach Hommy, Styles P, Rapsody, Khrysis, Jonwayne und Rakaa ins Studio. Das Resultat ist ein 16 Titel starkes Vorzeige-Rapalbum. Nichts anderes erwartet man von einer Legende. Zufällig farbiges Doppel-Vinyl im 3fach-Klappcover inklusive 12-seitigem Booklet mit Fotos von Stephen Vanasco.
Evidence has returned to deliver his third solo album, Weather or Not, the final chapter in The Weatherman series before beginning the next saga. “As a writer and a rapper, I’ve been using the weather as a metaphor my whole career,” Evidence explains. “On the Dilated Peoples song “Guaranteed”, I had a line that said, ‘Some think I’m clever, others think I’m the one who makes too many references to weather… or not.’ Every time I would perform that song live, the crowd would always say the ‘or not’, so I knew I was on to something, and it would eventually be an album title.”
For Weather or Not, Evidence tapped a stellar cast of producers to share duties with, including Alchemist, DJ Premier, Nottz, DJ Babu, Twiz The Beat Pro, Sam I Yam and Budgie. The album also features an all-star lineup of guests and friends, including Slug (Atmosphere), Rakaa (Dilated Peoples), Alchemist, Styles P, Rapsody, Jonwayne, Defari, Krondon, Khrysis, Mach Hommy and Catero.
“I made this album with loyalists in mind,” Evidence says. “There’s nothing that’s unintentional. There are no wasted words.” While the album predominantly highlights his talent as a rapper, Evidence is also a well known producer, photographer and videographer. But, for all of his non-stop, high-level productivity, Evidence is most notably modest, a quality fully captured on Weather Or Not.
“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.”[info from label]