On Individual Roles Within The Group: "I’ma speak for the fellas. BeYoung delivers the hoes! [Laughs] Nah, I’m playing. BeYoung is the quiet, more savvy, he’s more like the AZ. [Laughs] Nah, he’s not AZ. He’s more real savvy, quiet. He’s smooth, laid back, he’s a mystery, we call him the Quiet Assassin. He’s a man of few words, but he definitely delivers a punch when he spits. Mibbs is the more animated: he’s the Redman, he’s like a Busta Rhymes. He don’t look like Busta Rhymes, his neck is thicker than Busta Rhymes [laughs hysterically]. He’s more animated, but not animated like Jim Carrey, he’s more colorful, he’s got the vocal presence. I’m like the thinker I guess. Like is the more observant. I kind of feed off of what’s going on, the reaction of everything, and I can kind of blend. … I can be quiet, and I can be vocal. But I guess I’ll be more the introspective," says Like.

On Branding The Group Early: Like: "Going off of what Mibbs said, you can’t neglect the youth. You’ve got to stay fresh, you’ve got to stay relevant to what’s happening. We as a group feel like, 'Okay, instead of complaining about the state of Hip Hop, it’s dying, all that shit is wack, it’s dying and there’s no art,' and all that, we just feel like that’s a cop out. The reason that people are really saying that is that one, those people are old and their sound is no longer relevant, they’re not creative enough. Or two, they’re just not seeing the big picture in this. You’ve got to really blend in, but stand out at the same time, if that makes sense. Ultimately, the youth dictates what the older Hip Hop generation is going to like or dislike, and it’s always been that way. So we feel like with the blogs, and pictures, and visuals and all that, that’s very necessary to stay fresh. In this new age, you have to find new ways to market and preserve your image, because that’s the new formula now. You see a lot of artists that you would think are tight in your heart, but they really aren’t marketable, and then they ultimately don’t do as well as someone who’s less talented but has a more appealing look, or who’s catchier. My thing with Pac Div is that we know how to blend it, man. … We know how to be complex and simple at the same time. It’s ultimately balance."

On Major Cosigns: Like: "It’s crazy, because we got a call from Pharrell like a month back. I guess what they see is, for one, they come out to the west. He was in a session with Snoop, and he was really stuck on what kind of beat to make. He’s like, 'Man, Snoop, what’s out here in the west? It’s wack out here, to tell you the truth. I don’t know what’s going on.' He was actually talking to Snoop’s manager, Ted Chung, who we deal with. So Ted was like, 'I’ve got some boys you need to listen to.' Ted directed Pharrell to the MySpace, and he loved it so much that he personally called me and was telling me for seven and a half minutes how dope we were, and how we were a breath of fresh air. He was comparing us to the likes of a Pharcyde, Heiro, all these fools, Tribe. I was trippin’, because I didn’t think that Pharrell knew about these people like that. I’m like 'First, I can’t believe I’m talking to Pharrell, and second of all, how do you know about all these people that we grew up on too?' … We chop it up with the The Cool Kids a lot about different things. 9^th Wonder hit us up and he was wondering what was going on, how he can be down. ?uestlove. Murs fucks with us real tough. Even Snoop shouts us out on a record. Just knowing that lets us know that we’re in the right direction, and we shouldn’t take it for granted, because if these successful, multi-platinum Grammy-nominated artists are telling us this shit, then we’re in the right direction. That adds fuel to the flame for us to continue."

On Working With J. Dilla: Like: "Nah, well, let’s clear that up. We actually didn’t work with Dilla. We have a mutual friend, and he sent the beat over and told us to bless it, and we did do that. He passed, and it was already recorded. We recorded it and it was fly. But as far as other work with Dilla, nah we haven’t. Everybody and their mama has a beat tape from him now, so it’s kinda like... it’s kind of upsetting, because you can’t really come out with new Dilla because all new Dilla is out already, at least to the people who search and dig for it. And we’ve been playin’ so many Dilla, but he knew about us, he sent the beat our direction and gave us the beat to rock it, though. I wish we would’ve met him. tapes that I don’t even think we can come creative with them beats. We never actually were in the lab with " Continued on page 3 »