It’s been six years since Dilated Peoples released their last album – 2006’s 20/20 – as a complete group. Now, after a bevy of solo albums from Evidence, Rakaa Iriscience and DJ Babu, it looks like the California trio is back with a brand new LP Directors of Photography.

In a recent interview with AllHipHop, Ev discussed the seminal group’s recording process as of late. He explained that while their reunion LP is in many ways a return to their roots, he feels their time spent on solo efforts will help them create a unique sound for this upcoming album.

Directors of Photography is the next Dilated Peoples album and I’m excited about it, nervous about it, everything in between. We never broke up or anything like that, we’ve been supporting each other on our solo missions,” he noted. “Most people who know the details about Dilated know that we’re solo artists who came together to make something bigger and this is just a return to genesis so to speak…sometimes we’ve got to be conscious of each other when we’re in a group because not all of our views reflect each others’ visions all the time. So it’s been fun to just do what we wanted to do in these off years, solo, expressing ourselves. I think our next Dilated record could really be a great sound because of this freedom we’ve had. I’m looking forward to it.”

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Dilated’s new album is the only project Ev has lined up, however; the Rhymesayers rapper also gave an update on his long-awaited Step Brothers collaboration with the Alchemist. He said that the project may actually get a release before Directors of Photography, although he doesn’t make any promises on a release date.

Step Brothers might even happen before Dilated, because it’s not one of those ‘stop the world’ type of albums,” he said. “I don’t want to say it’s a novelty record or side project, because it has the potential to be much more but it’s something that can live amongst the other campaigns…that’s a project that we’ve been talking about for a long time, so that’s almost done but after Cats & Dogs, I don’t want to promise dates anymore ‘cause it puts you in a weird predicament as an artist.”

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