Pac Div Recaps Their First New York Performance

Last night, New York City welcomed Pac Div to their first performance. The West coast trio of Mibbs, Be Young and Like took center stage, ripping through their fun-filled get-fresh anthems at the Big Apple’s underground nightclub Love. And love is what the guys got from the crowd of fans and special guests that came out in support.

So far, so good since Complex first met Pac Div. They came to New York a few months back with hopes of landing a major label deal, and they did just that, signing with Universal Records and landing co-signs from legends like Q-Tip. Before they hopped on a plane back to L.A. this morning, the group phoned in to give their reaction to their warm welcome, and briefly discuss their forthcoming debut, Grown Kids Syndrome…

Interview by Richard “DJ Treats” Dryden

Complex: What up, what’s good?

Mibbs: We’re at the airport on 9/11, it’s weird, it’s empty up here.

Complex: Really? Is there really nobody in the airport right now?

Mibbs: We’re at JFK on 9/11, about to leave for L.A. How ironic is that? It’s all good though, I like it. [Laughs]

Complex: You know that you’re safe.

Mibbs: Yeah, I know this time.

Complex: How often do you guys go back and forth to L.A.?

Mibbs: This was our second time in New York. Our second time this year, and our second time, period. We hope to make it a more often thing.

Complex: Your stays have been real short every time you come out here.

Mibbs: Our stays are always real short. I dunno, it’s always for quick business, like for a show and head home, and that’s it.

Complex: You guys did your thing last night.

Be Young: Thanks. I appreciate it. Last night was the first real performance in New York. We were supposed to do something [at SOB's], but it fell through, so last night was the first. The first show in New York, you get Q-Tip to come out and rap at the end; I guess that’s pretty cool. Q-Tip was there and he came up on-stage and spit an a capella towards the end.

Complex: What’d you think of that spot, Love?

Be Young: It was crazy. We walked in, it looked like a cave, like some Flintstones shit. It was cool man. People in there had a lot of energy.

Complex: At one point, you got off the stage and you were rapping in the crowd.

Be Young: Yeah that’s how we like to do it. We like to get up-close and personal man. We don’t like to separate ourselves from the people that come to see us. We like to have fun. There’s been points where we don’t do the “Poison” thing [Ed. Note: The group performed a dance routine to the BBD classic], we might do Michael Jackson. I’ll break into this whole Michael Jackson thing and start moonwalking.

Complex: Do you guys really take a lot of time out to practice your stage show?

Be Young: We do. We take pride in that, man. We know people paid money to come see us so we don’t wanna disappoint them. People take money from their work paychecks, we don’t want nobody to leave mad, so we put a lot of thought into our show.

Complex: How different was last night compared to some of your other shows?

Be Young: It kind of depends. For instance we didn’t have our regular DJ, so it was a slight difference in our show. Sometimes it’s a little bit more grand but we still came out and did what we did.

Complex: You started the show, coming out to the sample used on “F.A.T. BOYS ‘08?”

Be Young: Yeah that’s where the hook came from, the Audio Two song. He says, “I get money, money I got/I got a pocket full of paper, sneakers on my feet.” And then “BAM!” Expect the unexpected, that’s how we like to tell people.

Hit “NEXT” to hear more about Pac Div’s plans to work with Q-Tip, Mickey Factz and Asher Roth and how their album is shaping up.