Dilated Peoples

Dilated Peoples have made a career out of reinventing the familiar. Though the Los Angeles hip-hop trio would not release their first album, The Platform, until 2000, they were a known quantity in their hometown’s underground scene for years beforehand. The group’s MCs, Rakaa Iriscience and Evidence (who also handles some production), met doing graffiti on L.A.’s Westside and were soon joined by DJ Babu, a member of the legendary Beat Junkies DJ collective. But their music quickly became about more than preserving the five elements. From their mainstream high-water mark—the 2004 single “This Way,” which helped break Kanye West to national audiences—through focused records like 2014’s Directors of Photography, Dilated Peoples have worked with underground stalwarts from both coasts to push hip-hop’s fundamentals in daring directions through heady rhymes and razor-precise technique. As the rappers take turns saying on “Service,” from their debut: “My DJ’s so nice, he don’t slice—he severs.”