Coming from the sunny beaches of faraway Los Angeles where cool dudes drive their jeeps and bikini-clad girls show off their figures, Dilated Peoples will be making their way to the Be2gether Festival. The fields of Norviliškės will experience rugged street music that is based on the best West Coast Hip Hop traditions and free of fluff.
The Dilated Peoples story started in the early ‘90s when the talented Evidence and Rakaa met at a Hip Hop based store that hosted open mic freestyle sessions. Later DJ Babu of the World Famous Beat Junkies joined the duet to form the line-up that is stil going strong today. The band locked itself up in a studio and the first fruits of their labor received serious attention. Their song “Work the Angels” became an underground rap hit, while their effective live performances paved the way to signing with Capitol Records. By masterfully fusing street melodies and meaningful lyrics, Dilated Peoples quickly earned a reputation for making quality hip-hop music, including the classic Alchemist-produced “Worst Comes To Worst” from their Expansion Team album (2000). Kayne West helped to record the album Nieghborhood Watch in 2004. The famous rapper also appeared alongside soul phenom John Legend in the song and video for Dilated Peoples’ “This Way”.
“These days not many people care about what I want to say with my music. Most are more interested in knowing how much I make from it. We used to experiment constantly: we played with a multitude of artists and fused varying ideas, but we always tried to stick to the roots. Our task is to create the purest form of hip-hop that we can, to talk in words that say something,“ says Evidence about the work of Dilated Peoples.
After releasing 4 group albums, Dilated Peoples decided to take time to focus on recording individual solo projects while still performing as a group worldwide. Now that Evidence has released The Weatherman LP (2007) and The Layover EP (2008), Babu has released three volumes of his highly acclaimed Duck Season series, and Rakaa is putting the finishing touches on his eagerly anticipated Crown Of Thorns album, Dilated has already started to sketch out the next group project. This trio from Los Angeles has participated in numerous festivals and is considered to be one of the best groups in the world for live Hip Hop performances.
Dilated Peoples@Official website
Dilated Peoples ft Kanye West - This Way: