TEAM PLAYERS: Dilated Peoples
Jan 1, 2002 12:00 PM, By Chris Gill
Sitting on a couch in the control room of a Burbank recording studio, Evidence exhales a thick cloud of Tangerine as he listens to the playback of a track he's probably heard a thousand times. Snapping his eyes open, he leans forward and waves a finger at the huge monitors that are cranking out the fresh joint.
“You hear that swelling sound right there?” he asks. “It's from this record.” Ev digs through a pile of about 30 records stacked on the couch and extracts an LP bearing the faded picture of some Middle Eastern violin player. He points to the $9.99 price sticker. “That sound cost me ten bucks.” Hopefully the violinist's lawyer isn't a hip-hop fan, because that brief sample could potentially cost Evidence a lot more money than a Jefferson.
“As soon as I heard that, I knew I had to use it somewhere,” he continues. “I spend days going through stacks of records to find that kind of shit. I'll get up early in the morning, smoke some herb, and convince myself that I'm going to have fun.”
Dilated Peoples may have just put finishing touches on their sophomore effort, Expansion Team, a few days before, but Evidence is already hard at work on a new tune he's producing for a Bomb Records compilation. On a table near the studio's Neve console sits Ev's workhorses: an Ensoniq ASR-10 sampling keyboard and an Akai MPC 2000XL. The instruments are well worn, but there's not a speck of dust on them.
“I'm all about the ASR-10 because of the effects in it,” he explains. “I like the delays and reverbs. I even use the delay on my vocals. The MPC is the sharpest drum machine right now. The SP-1200 may be the heaviest hitting, but the MPC has the best swing and it's the easiest to work with. You don't have to be a genius to run that machine. But the ASR-10 lets you put more of your own personality into it, so I use that the most.”
Evidence closes his eyes and sinks back into his track. At the other end of the couch, DJ Babu flips through several contact sheets of photos for the Expansion Team CD booklet, stopping when he comes across a series of shots of him with his fellow Beat Junkies — J-Rocc, Rhettmatic, and Melo-D. Babu mentions that the turntablist crew is working on its own album. “It's good that I have that outlet available,” says Babu. “We did a DJ song with the Beat Junkies on this album, ‘Dilated Junkies,’ which Ev and I coproduced. But there are things that I can do with the Beat Junkies that I can't do with Dilated.”
It's hard not to be impressed by Dilated Peoples' enthusiasm and tireless work ethic. Less than a year after releasing their Capitol Records debut, The Platform, and without stopping for a break after coming off the road from the Warped tour and gigs opening for Rage Against the Machine and D'Angelo, Dilated Peoples began work on their follow-up effort. Seven months later Babu, Evidence, and Rakaa emerged with Expansion Team, an appropriately titled album featuring cameo appearances by guests such as Tha Liks (“Heavy Rotation”), DJ Premier (“Clockwork”), Black Thought (“Hard Hitters”), and ?uestlove (“War”). The album showcases the Dilated trio expanding beyond their underground roots and emerging as leading forces behind a hip-hop movement that's challenging the genre's status quo.
But while Dilated Peoples have moved above the underground, they still haven't gained the mass acceptance enjoyed by the most popular mainstream hip-hop artists. Although Dilated Peoples attract an impressive draw as a headlining act, they still accept offers to open for other artists, such as their recent tour with Linkin Park, to attract new fans. “A different generation of people are becoming the masses,” says Babu. “A whole generation of kids who grew up on different things are now the ones who are coming into control. We're a product of the early '80s to '90s. Ev is 24, I'm 26, and Rakaa is 28, so we have a common relation of growing up in the generation of Reaganomics, the hip-hop explosion, skateboarding, and all these different things. The music climate is different right now. You look at commercial radio and video and it's pretty crazy. We're not hatin' anybody. We've got much love and respect for all artists out there, but we do our thing one way. There's definitely more than enough room for all of us to get up there and do our music, especially when it's music from the heart.”
Evidence agrees: “A lot of emotion goes into what we do. Not all of it is positive, either. But a lot of creativity comes out of honest expression. It's just something that we work at 24/7 all year around.”
“We don't use a particular formula,” says Rakaa. “If someone asked me to describe our sound, it would be really hard to do. We just make what feels right. When it feels right, we know it.”
Even more than its predecessor, Expansion Team possesses that indescribable-yet-undeniable Dilated Peoples sound from start to finish. What makes this consistency impressive is that the album features a wide assortment of guest artists, and the individual tracks were recorded with different producers, including the Alchemist, Da Beatminerz, Juju, ?uestlove, and Joey Chavez, in a variety of studios.
“The Dilated sound just happens by fortune,” says Evidence. “At first we were going to use one engineer in one studio, but it didn't work out like that because of all the different producers we used. Instead of fighting it, we just let it be. We recorded some things in my studio at my house and other things at big studios. The different producers used different drum machines and outboard gear. But we can take our sound with us no matter where we go. That came from learning what we like early on. People like Muggs of Cypress Hill and DJ Lethal, who was producing House of Pain, introduced us to good production values at an early stage and set the tone for our future.”
Evidence's home studio is modest compared with some of the commercial studios in which he recorded about half of Expansion Team, but the results are as impressive as an SSL board with Flying Faders automation. Evidence still uses the 20-bit ADATs he purchased while working on The Platform; a 24-channel, 8-bus Mackie mixer; Genelec monitors; a T.C. Electronic M1 multi-effects unit for reverb; a T.C. Electronic D2 delay; a Manley Vox Box mic preamp; and a Demeter stereo compressor through which he runs all his mixes. An Audio Technica 4033 condenser mic is Ev's personal favorite for spitting rhymes, whereas he prefers to record Rakaa's vocals with a Neumann U47.
Evidence credits the quality of his vocal recordings not to any particular mic, preamp, or processor but to his favorite recording locale: his bathroom. “Vocals come out best in the bathroom,” he says. “I have a soundproofed vocal booth in my bedroom, but the bathroom sounds much better, especially when you put up some towels and pillows in the right places. We brought Black Thought to the house when we recorded ‘Heavy Hitters.’ He saw me setting up my microphone in the bathroom and said, ‘You want me to sing in there?’ But he really liked the sound. The vocals are rough and raw.”
Babu recorded many of his cuts at home on his Pro Tools system. “If I can afford it, I prefer to record to 2-inch tape in a nice studio,” he says. “I've been experimenting with recording things in the studio first, then dumping that to my Pro Tools system, which gives me the editing power and flexibility I need. I plug my turntables straight into the computer. I'm pretty raw about that. It's important to keep it well mixed but I love keeping it raw, too.”
Recently Babu switched from his be-loved Technics SL-1200s decks to a pair of new Vestax PDX-2000s. “I love them to death. The 1200s will always have a place in my studio, but the 2000 is inspired by the kind of DJing that goes on now. The Ultra-Pitch is ridiculous. When you're in the big studio you're lucky if you're able to speed up or slow down the tape. Say I'm scratching a sample that's too fast for the beat I'm working with. Ultra-Pitch really helps with that problem. The major thing with scratching hip-hop records is getting the samples on time.”
Rakaa surveys the various works of graffiti covering the walls of the Third Rail clothing company's downtown L.A. headquarters. It is now a few weeks before the album's release, and Dilated Peoples are participating in a photo shoot. “I dig graffiti,” says Rakaa with a smile. “I started off doing graffiti, and from that I got into DJing. From DJing I got into rhyming.”
Evidence mentions that he started off in a similar fashion, “I was into dancing and graffiti, and from there I got into rhyming and producing.”
“Rhyming and graffiti are very similar,” says Rakaa. “They're both about expression. Good graffiti and good rhymes have composition and balance. There's a background, highlights, fill-in color schemes, outlines, and characters. Sometimes I might jump in a circle or hit a radio station real quick, and that's like bombin' — it's rhyme bombin'. Sometimes I might hit a little ‘What's up,’ and that's like a tag. I love to paint what's around me with words. I love to tune in, tune out, and express. To me rapping is part sport and competition, and it's part expression. But I don't always feel like expressing competition.”
Rakaa spit some of Expansion Team's heaviest rhymes, particularly on the tunes “Proper Propaganda” and “War,” a dramatic cut completed long before September 11, 2001. Rakaa raps: “War is the shape of things to come/But war is suffering, war is bluffing/What is it good for, absolutely nothing.”
“Coming from an MC and rapping standpoint, I'm more aware than a lot of people I'm in contact with about what's going on in the world,” Rakaa says when asked how he feels about his prophetic words. “I grew up doing speech and debate. I grew up in church. But I'm not necessarily a preacher or teacher. I'm as much a student.”
Rakaa mentions that he prefers to improvise his rhymes right up until he goes into the studio. But even once he's committed a rap to tape, he still likes to freestyle when performing live. “I would go crazy if I had to memorize something. It's easier for me to improvise because I started off freestyling on stage. I also listened to a lot of jazz where improvisation is very important. A lot of the lyric styles that you hear, particularly on the West Coast, are very influenced by jazz rhythms and lines.”
Most onlookers witnessing the photo shoot ignore the proceedings. A couple of young bohemian-looking types approach Dilated's record label publicist, but it turns out they're just film students looking for info on how to get clearance to use the location for their own project. But the hip-hop trio could care less whether anyone recognizes them or not. Their cooperative, nonchalant demeanor shows that they care more about promoting their music than becoming big stars.
“Capitol would probably love for us to do a song with Puff Daddy,” says Evidence. While he notes that the group's record label has been very supportive and has given them total creative freedom, he says that he has to remind himself that being signed to a major label is still a business deal. “We just can't make records for ourselves in our bedrooms every day. They want us to put out something that they think they can sell. We want to sell records, too, but we want the people to come to us instead of us going to them.”
As their low-key street attire of T-shirts and jeans attests, Dilated Peoples aren't all about the Benjamins — and probably never will be. “We're not going to have dancers and singers on stage with us,” says Babu. “We're not going to have jewels on and be all blingin'. I'm not going to be pouring out champagne on stage. But that's what some people think hip-hop is all about. You turn on the radio and everything under the sun is considered hip-hop. The bottom line is that good, honest, real music is universal. There are a lot more outlets for music to get heard other than radio or MTV, so we'll find our audience eventually.”
“Until we go Platinum, we're still going to be underground to some people,” says Rakaa. “To someone else, as soon as they read about us in a magazine they think that we sold out. We'll just keep pushing forward, growing and expanding, and hopefully we'll be able to touch the entire world and make our presence known. We want to give everyone the opportunity to pick up on what we're doing. Even if you're Michael Jackson and you've sold 100 million records, you still haven't scratched the surface of the 6 or 7 billion people on this planet. We're not trying to make everybody happy. We're just doing what we do. We try to bring people quality music and intensity. But we also want to ring the alarm a bit to wake people up. That's more important now than ever.”
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