Pac Div Recaps Their First New York Performance

Complex: Did you guys plan to have Mickey Factz, Asher Roth, Amanda Diva, and Peter Hadar on-stage with you?

Be Young: It was loosely planned. They all said they would come out. So we were like, “Yo come out. If you feel the need, get to the stage and party with us.” Earlier in the day when we were running around, doing our meetings at Universal we saw Q-Tip. We knew he was gonna come out, but we didn’t know he was gonna come on stage. It ended up getting real crazy as you can see.

Complex: Are you going to be working with any of those folks?

Be Young: Definitely. We possibly have something in the works with Q-Tip and Mickey Factz, and we’re possibly going to get in some work with Asher Roth too.

Complex: How is your album shaping up?

Like: We’re about halfway through he recording process. The title of album is called Grown Kids Syndrome. [It's] just highlighting the realities of being on a “no plan plan” as I call it. You know in life when you graduate from high school, and you’re stuck in the idling position of not knowing what the hell you want to do in life. [You're] staying with your parents, next thing you know you’re like 25 years old, scratching your ass on your mom and dad’s couch, flipping through talk shows (daytime), making grilled cheese sandwiches, eating all the food in the fridge. Then coming home and they tell you you’re a deadbeat. That’s basically Grown Kids Syndrome, a lot of people go through it. You’re young-minded but you’re grown in age. You should have a career, a lot of your friends have careers, they graduated from college, so and so forth. But, you’re still trying to figure out what you’re trying to do.

Complex: That actually reminds me of a Chris Tucker stand-up routine from Def Comedy Jam.

Like: We actually used that skit too on one of our records. It’s funny that you mentioned that. It’s gonna be a little comical, but it’s so real. You’re gonna get a blend of both.

Complex: Who do you have producing your album?

Like: We’re working with DJ Khalil, our in-house producers Swiff D, another cat out of L.A. called Phonic'pretty much our own sound that we’re accustomed to. We’re deciding to let any outside production come natural.

Complex: You just released a video for “Taste.” How did you come up with the treatment for that?

Like: We’re actually not really promoting it. One of the homies made a collage of work and put the song behind it. So a lot of people are saying, “That’s the official video.” Nah, we weren’t even planning on doing a video for that song. But the song was so fresh to us, we were just like, “Lets put a visual behind it. ” It’s a song that’s been lingering for a while, and we just put it out.

Complex: I see. So being on Universal, you’re one of the few artists in your circle that have a major label cosigning you. How has that affected the group?

Like: We’re bringing a lot of our ideas to the majors and they make it more structured. We covered it on a more grass roots, organic base, and they’ll be able to hit in areas that we weren’t able to reach. So it’s a marriage, we’re using them their muscle to expand. And they understand that. Major labels care about sales, we care about our earth, so it’s about finding common ground. So it’s about knowing what people’s strong points are. Universal knows that best that’s why we chose them.

Complex: So then there’s not much of a difference?

Like: No image changing, no consulting, none of that shit. It’s the same way when we didn’t have a major label backing us. We’re gonna stay in our element. They came at us because they liked what we were doing already. We already came packaged, they don’t have to mold us, they don’t have to tell us what music to make. They keep telling us to be ourselves, and they’re gonna use their muscle financially, and the position they have to let the world hear it in ways we couldn’t.

PAC DIV “TASTE”