ALL STAR 2011 - Ozone Magazine

dance flavor. The album is called WolfpackParty, so it’s designed in a way that people canjust put the CD in and keep the party going.Lil Uno: Personally, I’d say I’m pretty consistent.I feel like the album has more of a maturesound. It all depends on the beat, you know,and that’s how I vibe to it.Do you think that expanding your sound isbroadening your audience?Young L: I think it could broaden the audiencemore towards people who like dance music,because it’ll attract those kinds of people toour music. Also, I think it’s just kinda the righttime for us. So yeah.Have you been getting more attention frommainstream outlets aside from just the “urban”side of things?Young L: A little bit. It is geared towards someof the electronic dance music kind of thing, soI’m sure there are some new people that fuckwith us now.What have you been working on independentlyof the group?Lil Uno: I’ve been working on this LUT project.It’s not really a group, they’re just like familyand we make music together. The LUT standsfor Loyalty, Unity, and Teacher.Young L: I am putting out some solo shit. Idon’t really want to go into too much detailabout it, but I am doing some deep shit. I’vegot a lot of beats on the project The Jacka isdoing with Freeway. I’ve also got a lot of songswith Husalah. I’m doing a lot of stuff also in myown camp. We’ve been doing some mixtapesjust to keep the online shit poppin’. I couldmake beats all day but I can’t write raps all day.I do more production than anything. I alwayswanted to be a rapper but the way my personalityis, I had to kind of put that on hold for awhile. That’s why I was the last person in thegroup to start rapping. The way my personalityis, I don’t enjoy rapping at all. I’m not really anoutgoing person. I felt like I had an opportunityto do it so I should do it, but my first lovehas always been producing. I like to get in thatzone. I can make the most beats from 12 atnight til like 3:30 in the morning. That’s when Imake the most beats.When you go into the studio for a sessionwhat are a few things you need to help getyou in that zone?Young L: To keep it real, I don’t need anything.I only need my energy. I’m the kind ofperson who sleeps a lot and I don’t have a lotof energy in general, but when I get to thatpoint later in the day I get more energy. If I’mdriving home listening to music and I makesome [beats] in the house, you know, all I needis some energy. I’m not a person who needsalcohol or pills or anything like that to makebeats. It comes naturally to me.A lot of people expect that Hip Hop groupswon’t last too long since they always seem tobreak up. Even though you all have branchedoff and done other projects, what do youthink has kept The Pack together?Young L: I think one thing that has kept us togetherwas knowing that we couldn’t really besuccessful without each other at that time. Wewere aware of the fact that we needed to doa Pack album before any of us could have anysuccess solo. That kept us together, and I thinkdedication as well. You don’t want the group tothink of you as a traitor. And we all know eachother very well. Nobody knows us as well aswe do. There’s a lot of history that we would beshitting on if we were to break up. The reasonwe stay together is more on a personal tipthan the music thing.Lil Uno: From my point of view, I’d say we’re allin this because we know what we want to dowith our music and how we want to go aboutit. We all have a unique sound, so when we putit all together it sounds good. It’s fun and everybodyelse likes our music too. But we werefriends first before anything. We have a lot ofmemories. Between the music, the past, andthe relationships we’ve formed, we understandeach other. I know what makes everybody inthe group mad. I know which buttons to pushand which buttons not to push. And we allknow that about each other because we’vebeen together for so long. I grew up with Stunnaman.I met him in seventh grade when I wasskateboarding. I met D - Uno - in high school.I spent more time with D in high school thanwith any other guy that I knew at the time.That’s really how we got to know each other.So I see you’re the one who called in on timefor the interview. Are you the responsibleone of the group? (laughs)Young L: I just make sure I handle the shit thatneeds to be handled. If we go to a club, we goto the club promoting our records. So if we goto the club I’ll be the one to pick up Uno onthe way. If I have to pick up whoever, I’ll pickthem up. I’m just trying to make shit happen.I don’t want to say that [the other members]aren’t responsible but I would say I’m prettyresponsible when it comes to handling stufffor my group or for music in general.You guys were at the forefront of the wholeskater style/movement.Young L: We definitely were at the forefront of40 // OZONE MAG