''The Layover EP'' is the first solo

extended play An extended play (EP) is a Sound recording and reproduction, musical recording that contains more tracks than a Single (music), single but fewer than an album. Contemporary EPs generally contain up to eight tracks and have a playing time of 1 ...

by American rapper and record producer

Evidence Evidence for a proposition is what supports the proposition. It is usually understood as an indication that the proposition is truth, true. The exact definition and role of evidence vary across different fields. In epistemology, evidence is what J ...

. It was released on November 25, 2008, via Decon. Recording sessions took place at Soundproof East, Chop Shop Studios, The Ether, The Lab NYC, Dirt Class West, Daddy's Crib, Soundproof West, Studio 1, Dirty Science Lab 12. Production was handled by The Alchemist,

Khrysis Christopher Frederick Tyson (born September 7, 1981), better known as Khrysis, is an American hip hop producer and occasional rapper. He is best known as a former member of the Justus League collective, being one half of the duo The Away Team ...

DJ Babu Christopher E. Oroc, stage name Melvin Babu (born September 17, 1974), better known as DJ Babu or DJ Babu the Dilated Junkie, is a Filipino-American DJ and record producer. He is a member of DJ crew the Beat Junkies, Los Angeles-based hip hop t ...

, Sid Roams, and Evidence himself. It features

guest appearance The term guest appearance generally denotes the appearance of a guest in an artistic or pop-culture setting. The guests themselves (referred to as guest artists, featured artists, guest stars, or guest fighters, depending on context), are disting ...

s from

Aloe Blacc Egbert Nathaniel Dawkins III (born January 7, 1979), known professionally as Aloe Blacc (), is an American singer and rapper. He is known for his guest performance on Avicii's 2013 single "Wake Me Up (Avicii song), Wake Me Up", which peaked on ...

, Blu, Defari, Elzhi,

Fashawn Santiago Leyva (born October 19, 1988), better known by his stage name Fashawn, is an American rapper from Fresno, California. He first gained recognition for his debut studio album ''Boy Meets World (album), Boy Meets World'' (2009), which recei ...

Krondon Marvin Jones III (born July 9, 1976), also known as Krondon, is an American rapper and actor from Los Angeles, California. He is a member of the group Strong Arm Steady, along with rappers Phil Da Agony and Mitchy Slick. As an actor Jones is kn ...

, Phonte and

Will.i.am William James Adams Jr. (born March 15, 1975), known professionally as will.i.am (pronounced "will I am"), is an American rapper, singer, songwriter, record producer and actor. He is the frontman of the musical group Black Eyed Peas, which he ...

. The album didn't reach the ''Billboard'' 200 chart, however, it peaked at No. 27 on the

Heatseekers Albums The Heatseekers charts were "Breaking and Entering" music charts issued weekly by ''Billboard'' magazine. The Heatseekers Albums and the Heatseekers Songs charts were introduced by ''Billboard'' in 1991 with the purpose of highlighting the sales b ...

in the United States, and received generally favourable reviews from

music critics Music journalism (or music criticism) is media criticism and reporting about music topics, including popular music, classical music, and traditional music. Journalists began writing about music in the eighteenth century, providing commentary on ...

Background

The idea for ''The Layover EP'' originally came about while Evidence was on tour with Little Brother, and was originally going to be a 5 track release produced entirely by

North Carolina North Carolina ( ) is a U.S. state, state in the Southeastern United States, Southeastern region of the United States. It is bordered by Virginia to the north, the Atlantic Ocean to the east, South Carolina to the south, Georgia (U.S. stat ...

producer

for free download. He later strayed from the idea and decided to make it an official release. Evidence cites

Ice Cube O'Shea Jackson Sr. (born June 15, 1969), known professionally as Ice Cube, is an American rapper, songwriter, actor, and film producer. His lyrics on N.W.A's 1989 album '' Straight Outta Compton'' contributed to gangsta rap's widespread popu ...

's ''

Kill at Will ''Kill at Will'' (titled ''At Will'' in its censored version) is an extended play by American rapper Ice Cube, released on December 19, 1990, via Priority Records. It was released soon after ''AmeriKKKa's Most Wanted'' and capitalized on Cube's ne ...

'', Pete Rock & CL Smooth's '' All Souled Out'' and

Bone Thugs-n-Harmony Bone Thugs-n-Harmony (formerly known as B.O.N.E. Enterpri$e and also referred to as simply Bone Thugs or Bone) is an American hip hop group formed in 1991 in Cleveland, Ohio. Consisting of rappers Bizzy Bone, Wish Bone, Layzie Bone, Krayzie ...

's '' Creepin on ah Come Up'' as influences for the project, saying they were examples of extended plays "that were really quality" and served as the perfect vehicle to get the next album released shortly after.

DJ Premier Christopher Edward Martin (born March 21, 1966), known professionally as DJ Premier (also known as Preemo), is an American record producer and DJ. He has been frequently lauded as one of hip hop's greatest producers by publications such as '' ...

ranked the album 2nd in his top 20 albums of 2008 list. In the video for "The Far Left" when the Alchemist says "To the atmosphere so I can really find out" he holds up a drawing of a slug and an ant. This is a reference to the hip hop group

Atmosphere An atmosphere () is a layer of gases that envelop an astronomical object, held in place by the gravity of the object. A planet retains an atmosphere when the gravity is great and the temperature of the atmosphere is low. A stellar atmosph ...

, which consist of rapper

Slug Slug, or land slug, is a common name for any apparently shell-less Terrestrial mollusc, terrestrial gastropod mollusc. The word ''slug'' is also often used as part of the common name of any gastropod mollusc that has no shell, a very reduced ...

and producer

Ant Ants are Eusociality, eusocial insects of the Family (biology), family Formicidae and, along with the related wasps and bees, belong to the Taxonomy (biology), order Hymenoptera. Ants evolved from Vespoidea, vespoid wasp ancestors in the Cre ...

''The Layover Mixtape''

In addition with the release of ''The Layover EP'', Evidence collaborated with

DJ Skee Scott Keeney (born 15 November 1983), better known by his stage name DJ Skee, is an American artist, television host, radio personality, and entrepreneur. Skee rose to fame as the first DJ to discover and play superstar artists on the radio incl ...

to produce ''The Layover Mixtape'' which was available on Evidence's

Myspace Myspace (formerly stylized as MySpace, currently myspace; and sometimes my␣, with an elongated Whitespace character#Substitute images, open box symbol) is a social networking service based in the United States. Launched on August 1, 2003, it w ...

for free download. Other collaborators featured on the mixtape include Defari, Bishop Lamont, Chace Infinite,

Dilated Peoples Dilated Peoples is an American Los Angeles-based Hip hop music, hip hop trio, composed of rapper and record producer Evidence (musician), Evidence, rapper Rakaa, and Beat Junkies deejay and record producer DJ Babu. The group is better known in t ...

, U-N-I, Big Pooh,

, Mickey Factz, Theo, Kes Kaos, Phonte, Montage One,

Mitchy Slick Charles Mitchell (born December 29, 1973), known professionally as Mitchy Slick, is an American rapper from Southeast San Diego, California. He is a member of the rap supergroup Strong Arm Steady, along with rappers Phil Da Agony and Krondon. H ...

, Big Twin, Diz Gibran, Styliztik Jones,

, Rakaa Iriscience and

Crooked I Dominick Antron Wickliffe (born September 23, 1976), better known by his stage name Kxng Crooked, (stylised as KXNG Crooked and pronounced "King Crooked"; formerly Crooked I) is an American rapper from Long Beach, California. He formed the hip ho ...

. The mixtape track listing varies with songs from ''The Layover EP'', commercial tracks that Evidence rapped over, and Dilated Peoples' ''Fresh Rhymes and Videotape EP''.

Track listing

Personnel

*Michael "

" Peretta – vocals, producer (tracks: 5, 10), recording (tracks: 1, 3-5, 7, 10), executive producer * Phonte Coleman – vocals (track 2) *Johnson " Blu" Barnes – vocals (track 2) *William "

will.i.am William James Adams Jr. (born March 15, 1975), known professionally as will.i.am (pronounced "will I am"), is an American rapper, singer, songwriter, record producer and actor. He is the frontman of the musical group Black Eyed Peas, which he ...

" Adams – vocals & recording (track 2) *Marvin "

" Jones – vocals (track 4) *Duane A. "Defari" Johnson Jr. – vocals & recording (track 5) *Alan " The Alchemist" Maman – vocals (track 7), producer & recording (tracks: 3, 7, 9), mixing (tracks: 7, 9), executive producer *Santiago "

" Leyva – vocals (track 7) *Jason " Elzhi" Powers – vocals (track 9) *Egbert Nathaniel "

" Dawkins – vocals & recording (track 9) *Joey Chavez – additional vocals & producer (track 4) *Tavish "Bravo" Graham – additional vocals & producer (track 4) *Cat Summers – additional vocals (track 6) *Kamilah – additional vocals (track 8) * Noelle Scaggs – additional vocals (track 10) *Rakaa " Iriscience" Taylor – additional vocals (track 10) *Kurt "DJ Revolution" Hoffman – scratches (tracks: 1, 5, 10) *Chris "

" Oroc – scratches (track 3), producer (track 8), recording (tracks: 6, 8) *Christopher "

" Tyson – producer & recording (tracks: 1, 2) *Brock Korsan – recording (tracks: 2, 4, 7, 8), management *Tommy Hoffman – recording (track 9) *Eddie Sancho – mixing (tracks: 1-6, 8, 10) * Tom Coyne – mastering *Yoram Benz – cover design *Kalani Fujimori – layout design *Brian " B+" Cross – photography

Charts

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Layover, The 2008 EPs Decon albums Albums produced by Khrysis Evidence (musician) albums Albums produced by DJ Babu Albums produced by Evidence (musician) Albums produced by the Alchemist (musician)