“When worst comes to worst, my peoples come first.”

While the Dilated Peoples’ song quoted above wasn’t released until their second album, Expansion Team, Evidence and Alchemist have been living by the mantra since they were high schoolers in Malibu, California. Initially meeting outside of a club, they would form a friendship and cut school to record songs at each others’ houses. Evidence would help form the group Dilated Peoples, and Alchemist would be the force behind many of their seminal tracks—included the one quoted above, “Worst Comes To Worst.”

This year, even though Evidence lives in California while Alchemist lives in New York, their friendship and their musical chemistry are just as potent. Alchemist is heavily involved in Ev’s impending Layover EP as co-executive producer, while Alchemist’s much-anticipated Better Living Through Chemistry album will have cameos from Evidence as well. Little surprise then that they’re working together even more seriously as the duo Stepbrothers. In an interview with HipHopDX, the Stepbrothers talk about their friendship, their music, and schooling with Nicole Richie.

HipHopDX: How did you guys first meet?
Evidence: I knew [Alchemist] through different graffiti crews and whatnot, but I met him through Scott Caan, James Caan’s son. They were actually in a group called The Whooliganz together. We were dancing back then, skateboarding and whatnot. I met Alchemist outside of a club, where I was waiting to find if they were having an open mic or not. I was outside itching to get on, and he was out there. … Probably in ’90 or ’89. He was a short, funny lookin’ dude, with his jeans below his shoes. You know the guy who’s at the club with his jeans under his shoes, so his jeans are all fucked up at the bottom? He was that guy. We called him “Mudfoot.” That was the bum in Fat Albert, but we called him Mudfoot for a different reason: he couldn’t keep the bottom of his pants clean.

DX: Is that what everybody called him? Or just what you called him?
Evidence: That was his rap name, before Alchemist. He was publicly “Mudfoot.” I’ma go on record and say Mudfoot was a better rapper than The Alchemist. Tell him I said it, too. He was like half Grand Puba half MC Lyte [click to read].

DX: When you think back to when you guys first met, to the Dilated Peoples album The Platform, to now, talk about the differences you see in each other.
Alchemist: I know him very well, and we always make good music together. Just being able to be in different places, and being able to keep the relationship as far as friends sharp. If I was with him every day like we used to be in high school, we’d probably want to kill each other. The distance makes it [different], so when we hook up, it’s always special. We clicked through music, and I think that’s the best part about it. That makes it always fresh.
Evidence: When I first started, I was young, and I wanted to be old. Now I’m old, and I want to be young. When I was younger, I had a really high voice and I wanted to make it deeper. Now my voice is deeper, and I want to make it higher. It’s all fucked up. I’ve grown publicly. I just feel like I’ve been under public artist development my whole career. People have said my voice changed, my patterns have changed, my stage show has done this, and appearance-wise I’ve changed. A lot of things I’ve done publicly, but other artists have waited to come out the box and stayed that way. As far as what I see, I just see shit coming full circle, really. Just cycles, that’s all.

As far as Alchemist, I just see him with more gray hair. I’m just going to keep trashing Alchemist. My skill level’s not high as him, so I have to bash him. Did I mention he’s short?

DX: The Platform was a long time ago. When you listen to that now, how do feel about it? Is it still something you can bang, or do you just feel like you’ve done so much since then that it’s not your best?
Alchemist: Well an artist is always going to do that. Look at an old picture of how you were dressing and you’d probably feel the same way, but you were dopin’ off of it then! It’s similar to that. While we’re always in love more with what we’ve got now. When I listen back to shit we did even six months ago, or two years ago, it always feels like I’m progressing and like I’m looking at an old picture. We make music, and once we put it out to the world, we let go of it. It’s like sending your kids off to college and into the world: it’s not for me anymore once I release. Once the people who bought it are saying, “It’s that classic shit,” that’s all that matters. Every now and then…I don’t even get to listen to the shit the way I would listen to the shit I grew up off of, because I’m trapped inside of it. But sometimes the album will come up on its own when you’re cleaning the crib or something, and it’s like, “Aw man, this shit was dope!” But rarely do I get to listen to my own shit with that perspective. Continued on page 2 »