Evidence released Weather Or Not, his third full-length solo album on January 26, 2018 via Rhymesayers Entertainment. The project features the viral hit “Throw It All Away,” for which the Stephen Vanasco-directed video has logged more than 4.2 million views. Featuring collaborations with Slug (Atmosphere), Rakaa (Dilated Peoples), Alchemist, and more, as well as production from Evidence, Alchemist, Nottz and DJ Premier, among others, Weather Or Not is a familiar turn of phrase for his die-hard fans.
“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,’” Evidence explains. “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.”
As fans would expect, Weather Or Not embodies the heart of the hip-hop culture; clever wordplay laid over heavy boom-bap production, but Evidence also exhibits his gift for weaving moments of personal and introspective reflection into his writing. On “Love is A Funny Thing”, he muses on the things we love and, along with guests Rapsody and Styles P, the three dissect the way we misuse that word’s multiple meanings and abuse its power. Evidence also provides an intimate look into his personal life on “By My Side Too,” which documents how his son saved his mother’s life by indirectly discovering her cancer.
As a solo artist and one-third of Dilated Peoples, Evidence has established himself as one of hip-hop’s most accomplished rappers and producers, working with Domo Genesis, Linkin Park, Beastie Boys, Defari, Madchild and Krondon, among others. His production work earned a Grammy Award for co-production on Kanye's College Dropout and two JUNO Awards for his work with Canadian hip-hop group Swollen Members.
Through it all, he’s remained true to his hard-core hip-hop sonic and lyrical sensibility, which continues on Weather Or Not. “After we made our most recent Dilated Peoples album (Directors of Photography in 2014), I was like, ‘Now what?’ Evidence states. “Right away I started doing my weather thing again. I made this new album with loyalists in mind. There’s nothing that’s unintentional.”
Evidence has also emerged as a world-renowned photographer with more than 335,000 Instagram followers. His work has been featured by numerous streetwear brands, including Diamond Supply and V/SUAL, as well as Dos Equis, and is currently on display in the Watts, California restaurant, LocoL, owned by celebrity chef, Roy Choi.
