By: Dove
Growing up in Los Angeles, California, Michael “Evidence” Perretta was inspired as a graffiti artist, producer and rapper through many elements of creative expression and off-beat lifestyle. By 2000, the versatile performer was cranking out songs with his partners in rhyme Rakaa Iriscience and DJ Babu, and together their group Dilated Peoples captured an international fanbase.
Just over a decade, five group albums, and several solo projects later, Evidence is still going strong with his latest endeavor, Cats & Dogs. The hard working Gen-Xer’s naturally laid-back Cali style wouldn’t be complete without a little leisure time, and watching classic flicks is one of his favorite pastimes. Therefore, it was only right to make Evidence the next UrbLife.com Movie Buff!
While Evidence had a hard time whittling his list down to a Top 7, we were able to make this work (although American Me could be #8 per a last minute add-on). Read on as Evidence takes you on his cinematic joyride!
1. Shawshank Redemption
Year: 1994
Directed By: Frank Darabont
Starring: Tim Robbins, Morgan Freeman
It’s ok to be a man and cry. If you didn’t tear up and kind of look the other way to wipe that tear, you’re probably not human. The replay value of it, it’s so many layers. It’s like a really good theater, it just keeps revealing shit. It was like the cheesiest, best shit. In Mexico, winding up on the beach with your homie, building boat and sh*t.
2. Rounders
Year: 1998
Directed By: John Dahl
Starring: Matt Damon, Edward Norton, John Turturro, Gretchen Mol
I watched this so many times. To see the mindset of high stakes poker players and really taking an interesting look on it and the underworld is really interesting. Matt Damon is like my favorite new actor of our era. He can do a lot of different sh*t. The redemption in that, and showing how being overzealous can cause destruction. Problems that a lot of people can relate to.
3. Coming to America
Year: 1988
Directed By: John Landis
Starring: Eddie Murphy, Arsenio Hall, Shari Headley, James Earl Jones, John Amos, Eriq LaSalle
I think this is the funniest movie in the history of cinema. I can’t imagine it not being funny to anybody. It’s just too classic, too much classic shit for less than two hours. I don’t think it could be outdone. They must have been dying when writing it.
4. Goodfellas
Year: 1990
Directed By: Martin Scorsese
Starring: Robert DeNiro, Ray Liotta, Joe Pesci, Lorraine Bracco
Just seeing somebody coming up, the evolution of kids getting crooked. It’s a sensitive subject, snitching. The reality at the end of the movie, you’re on top of the world, you have everything, you’re living in middle America eating pasta with spaghetti sauce instead of ketchup.
The acting of De Niro and Ray Liotta… It took me back. The wife… it’s just sick to see how they got this Jewish woman getting sucked into the Italian lifestyle and how she sees it kind of like an outsider, and how he’s half Irish and can never be fully accepted but yet he’s in the middle of it.
5. Casino
Year: 1995
Directed By: Martin Scorsese
Starring: Robert DeNiro, Joe Pesci, Sharon Stone
It’s just flawless. Ginger, she’s a bitch. De Niro proves to gangster again. He proves the opposite, sh*t is messed up, everything went bad, but at the end of the day he still calls a bet better than anyone else. Here I am in my nice home away from the sh*t, living the simple life with my big ass glasses. The come up! Mafia stories are really interesting.
6. Kids
Year: 1995
Directed By: Larry Clark
Starring: Leo Fitzpatrick, Justin Pierce, Chloe Sevigny, Rosario Dawson
That shit scared the shit out of me. AIDS is a crazy topic. At the same time, I was the same age as those kids and was doing the same sh*t, so it was a home hitter. Who hasn’t messed up once or twice with condoms? It could be anybody. That was just crazy. Rosario Dawson was my crush.
A couple of people have passed away from that movie [Harold Hunter, Justin Pierce]. They didn’t pass away from what the movie was saying, but I think the movie spun some people out of control. I’m not speculating on what happened, but I’m just saying that the sh*t was crazy.
It’s like borderline a documentary, reality. It’s like reading a really good fiction book. I love when books put you on the edge like that – is it real or is it not?
7. Star Wars: The Empire Strikes Back
Year: 1980
Directed By: Irvin Kershner
Starring: Mark Hammill, Harrison Ford, Carrie Fisher, Billy Dee Williams, Alec Guinness, Frank Oz
Darth Vader… Luke learns that he was his father, you got the new Han Solo. The snow shooters. As a kid, it expanded my mind. The visuals, the way that the guns were shooting, interplanet shit, light speed, Chewbacca, Princess Leia was looking excellent. Lady of Rage white girl afro puffs! Yoda. That sh*t was too good, historical!
Follow Evidence on Twitter @Evidence and Like him at Facebook.com/MisterEvidence
CLICK HERE to get Evidence’s Cats & Dogs on iTunes
