Exclusive: Dilated Peoples say their upcoming Rhymesayers Entertainment release, "Directors of Photography," walks "a fine line between keeping it classic and pushing things forward."

Dilated Peoples is slated to release its upcoming album,Directors of Photography, on Rhymesayers Entertainment. The trio, which consists of DJ Babu,Evidence and Rakaa Iriscience, is finalizing the collection, slated to be the group "s fifth album and its first since 2006 "s 20/20. Dilated Peoples spoke with HipHopDX about their upcoming project and its development. They also addressed how their new work is different, while still remaining true to the group "s roots.

"In this process, not that much has changed," DJ Babu says, speaking exclusively to HipHopDX. "You "d be surprised how easily you fall back into your roles and understand where you fit in with each other. Being in the studio is definitely something that we love and something that we would probably do whether we had a Dilated album to work on or not. We "re like studio rats. Ev was definitely producing the shit out of this record. All of us, but Ev was really striving for a sound. We still are striving for a particular cohesive sound that we "re trying to get. Things have changed since we "ve been around, but we "re trying to walk a fine line between keeping it classic and pushing it forward...We "ve spent a lot of time sharpening our swords and I feel like Ev "s been leading us in that direction, to really try new things while still being us."

Although Dilated Peoples has not released a new album in eight years, its group members have not stopped collaborating with one another.

"We "ve never stopped working together," Rakaa Iriscience says. "We worked on each other "s projects. We still tour around the world year-round, doing festivals and mini-tours all year. Even though we don "t do a lot of stuff out here in the States and there hasn "t been an album campaign, we still tour. So, the live chemistry and the working chemistry is there. But as far as the creative direction of what we "re trying to say and how we "re trying to say it, it "s been many years of working on solo projects, so like anything else, you kind of have to figure out where the lines are and maintain your inspiration through the that. That "s been a balancing act in itself, but I think some really dope material has come out of our ability to do that."

"I think a lot of it is also, regardless of how we get along or deal with each other socially, we "ve worked with each other," Rakaa continues. "It "s basically like we "ve gone to war together. So, we have a lot of respect and appreciation for each other. We always had different friends. We always had different social circles that we ran in, even though a lot of times they linked and overlapped. We hung out just by virtue of that, but we "re artists. We got together like this was an art crew. Out of that, we support each other, protect each other and respect each other "s privacy and private lives as well...I think that "s also the strength, the fact that if Ev is working on a solo project, I "m worried about how to help him promote that. I "m not worried about where "s mine, and vice versa."

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