“What
it is one time, Pac D##!” Hailing from the West Coast, Pac D##
consists of brothers Like, Mibbs and longtime friend BeYoung. The trio
are putting their stamp on the West Coast sound with songs like the
anthem, The Mayor and Pac D##. In 2006, Pac D## released
Sealed for Freshness: The Blend Tape
and their latest, released earlier this year, Church League Champions,
generated an enormous buzz through out the LA scene forcing Hip Hop
to take notice. Legendary acts ranging from Legendary Roots Drummer
Questlove, Hometown Hero Snoop Dogg to even Millionaire Mogul Diddy
couldn’t deny the “Pac”, and their hustle managed to gain
attention from the major record label, Universal Records and the trio
is prepping to change the tide of the industry with their debut release,
Grown Kid Syndrome in the first quarter of 2010.
AllHipHop
sat down with the hilarious trio to discuss internet rap, CA Hip Hop,
their album and what to expect from them in the near future.
AllHipHop.com:
Break down your new album Grown Kids Syndrome. What’s the new
record gonna reflect?
Like:
The Grown Kids Syndrome reflects a lot of honesty coming from
a place as three young men in their mid-20’s who didn’t graduate college,
who didn’t pursue their parent’s dreams, who didn’t live in college
dorms but junky apartments, it speaks to all the people that have no
plans basically to show them that the idea that syndrome comes in, we
have friends in our mid 30’s, we have friends who are complete dead
beats in their life, it’s still a syndrome because they still eat their
parent’s food at the house. They still don’t have a job, that’s grown
kid’s syndrome. We know all about that.
AllHipHop.com:
Tell me a little bit about some of the tracks on the record.
Mibbs:
We have a couple of joints on Grown Kids Syndrome,
actually it’s not even done with the recording process. We are about
70% done. The Mayor record is on Grown Kids Syndrome.
We have a joint on Grown Kids in which we are talking where my
brother just explained people get pink slips, we got a song on there
called Chaos where it describes the recipe for chaos, anything or any
type of situation where it can become chaotic. Like Like talk’s about
how I just had a girlfriend I broke up with and I accidently sleep with
her friend so stuff like that. [Laughs] She gets me drunk and
we sleep together. Yeah, that’s what it’s about, like, those are a couple
of the tracks that we have on the album.
AllHipHop.com:
Take us through your creative process of making music, what do you think
about?
BeYoung:
In the creative process, we try not to put any pressure on it, we gotta
let it come, as normally and free flowing as we can, we don’t try to
make it into “Oh, I gotta do this, oh, I gotta do that.” We
just like to play off of the emotions and feelings that we get from
the track we’re doing and we just channel it.
AllHipHop.com:
Let’s talk about the idea of internet rap, Pac D## has used the computer
as a major marketing tool for artists with no deals, you’ve been able
to create such a buzz with the computer, how did you use the computer
to your advantage?
BeYoung: We didn’t have any restrictions. I mean at the time, as we were saying,
our paychecks worked to shoot our own videos, we would’ve taken those
paychecks and going straight to shooting videos, and putting them on
the internet, going to the studio, taking pictures, just making sure
the quality of our image match the quality of the music so that we can
put it on the internet so that we can broadcast it to the world.
AllHipHop.com:
What about the transition from net mc to budding label stars? How different/hard
is it?
Like:
It’s not difficult, we don’t look at difficulty. Everything is just
done naturally and it’ll take it’s natural course. We don’t consider
ourselves internet stars, or label stars or any of that. We just do
what we do and let it flow naturally.
AllHipHop.com:
If you hadn’t chosen to have gone down the path of making music, what
would you be doing with your lives right now?
Like:
I don’t know, somewhere making money or trying to. [Laughs] We’re
doing that no plan, plan. I would be at my parents house, with my Dad,
eating his food, stealing my Mom’s car keys driving somewhere.
AllHipHop.com:
What, if anything, has changed and/or evolved in your music – your sound?
Mibbs:
Life happens, I mean just things that happen in your life, just changes
you as a person and as rappers, we were rappers from day one, like,
we been knowing how to rap, so like, we understand how to adapt to the
times and how to adapt to the changes and just get better as a rapper
every time, every day and things that happen to you, just brings more
honesty into our music. It becomes, like the person that we are, who
we are, it comes out of our raps.
AllHipHop.com:
What, if anything has changed about your approach to the industry,
your lifestyle(s) from 2006 when the three of you as Pac D## began to
take offs and your release of the Sealed For Freshness Blendtape,
to 2009; the recent release of your mixtape Church League Champions
and your upcoming debut, Grown Kids Syndrome?
Life:
Whooo! Yeah, there is a change of lifestyle a little, we don’t work
at jobs anymore, we are under a constant pressure, not in a bad way,
but to perform at every opportunity, I don’t know, just opportunities,
more opportunities come our way, at our door steps and we take advantage
of it. It’s no rush but this is what we signed up to do and we like
it, we enjoy it.
AllHipHop.com:
The legend goes that Biggie had to have fried chicken in the studio.
What is unique about your studio experience?
Mibbs: In the studio,
man, all we need is some water and maybe a little bit of Hennessey,
and just clean air. [Laughs]
Like:
We don’t really need much, just give us a mic and we got protools or
whatever, we use, it gotta be a nice beat, that’s pretty much it really.
We’re not really super picky guys like that, we don’t really need a
dream catcher, or anything like that or boiling pots, [Laughs]
just music, just a good microphone, a good mic.
AllHipHop.com:
What are some of the musical elements outside of what most would define
as Hip-Hop that have helped you build your craft?
BeYoung:
Everything. Everything from the older music, to the legends of the older
music. Prince, Michael Jackson, Frank Sinatra, those type of guys, it
might be our uncle. The inspiration can come from anybody. Anybody has
something that they going through. So we just draw from all that and
incorporate it into the music.
AllHipHop.com:
Let’s talk about CA Hip Hop, how has it influenced your rhymes?
Mibbs: How it has influenced
our rhymes is that the lifestyle out here is very laid back, the air
is cooler, I mean it’s not really cleaner, the air is nice out here,
like, we don’t got to stress about it snowing, it’s not cold out here,
it’s pretty chill, it’s a pretty easy place to live in, yes, it comes
out in your raps, it comes out in everything you do, the way you walk,
the way you talk, it’s just easy. Everything is laid back and easy out
here.
AllHipHop.com:
So talk to us about 2009/2010. What can we expect from you?
Like:
Just expect it all, just expect the world’s introduction to Pac D##,
the production to international notoriety. It’s going to be everybody’s
introduction to who we are and what we are about and I think people
are going to really like, gravitate towards it because its honest, its
fun, it’s real, it’s energetic. it’s authentic, it’s Pac D##.
AllHipHop.com:
Is there a release date?
BeYoung: We are probably
looking at the first quarter of 2010.