Interview: Mibbs Of Pac Div On FREEBASS, New Pac Div Music, Studio Essentials, And More

Pac Div has been a group that has made noise in the underground rap community for many years now, and after seven years, Mibbs has stepped out on the solo tip. You’re probably wondering–has he left the group? No, that’s not the case at all. He’s going to be a member of Pac Div ’til death, but he decided it was time to explore the solo realm as well. His first project, FREEBASS, which was a collaborative effort with producer Scoop DeVille, came out a week ago and has gotten great response so far. We hopped on the phone with Mibbs to discuss his career direction, Pac Div, and a whole lot more. Check out the interview below. (And if you haven’t gotten FREEBASS, click here to download.)

RESPECT: Yo Mibbs, how is everything with you man?

Mibbs: Everything is good man! I’m here man, chilling in the airport right now.

Word. Well we’re not going to waste anytime to get into the interview. You just came off the release of FREEBASS. How has that been accepted so far, considering that it’s your first solo project?

It’s good man. I guess the reception of it–it’s still growing, but as far as the numbers that I wanted it to get on the Soundcloud, we got a lot of people who’s messing with it on Soundcloud and it’s just growing man. That’s all I wanted it to do before I drop the next project. It was pretty much a good project man. A lot of my homies have been hitting me back telling me it was a good project. They didn’t know what I was up to, I was away from a lot of people while I did it, it was just me and Scoop (DeVille) in the studio. The shit came out dope though man, and it’s been getting a lot of love. I’m finishing up some videos within the next couple of weeks!

How was the chemistry between you and Scoop DeVille?

It was great man! When we met, we just got a good lil’ chemistry going on with each other and for the most part, we know where each other’s head is at musically. We wanted to put out something that didn’t sound like anything else that was out there, so from the beat sounds, to what I’m rapping about, the flow, and we executed it. We pretty much gave it our own sound and we’re going to move forward with that on our next EP.

Did yall know each other prior to the project? Or did y’all meet and click instantly?

Man, what’s crazy is that we knew of each other and when Pac Div was signed to Universal, we would go to the office and they would pitch producers to us and we would hear some of there tracks. And right around the time, Scoop did “Life Of The Party”, that shit for Snoop, we got a chance to hear his beats but we didn’t meet him. The whole time we were listening, we were all sitting there like, “Damn, this dude got beats!” And he was from Cali, we just didn’t know who he was or where he was, we had never ran into him. So fast forward to 2012, my girl was his lawyer, well she is his lawyer pretty much. She does all of the legal things for his music. So he came through to the crib, we met, we talked, and we started working from then on.

Have you always had solo intentions? What made you want to test the waters on going solo?

For the most part, yeah. You know, the idea was to always come out with the crew ‘cause we’re all dope. We felt like all three of us were dope individually, and if we came together, we’d be an unstoppable force on the musical end. So, I just felt like, it was no better time but now because we’ve already established ourselves with the ground work. We’re going to always be a crew, we’re going to always put out music together, but there’s some things I may want to do on my own, there’s some things that Like may want to do on his own, there’s some things BeYoung may want to do on his own, just to prove that we have a musical identity separate from the group. I always had the idea to do it, but I guess 2013 was the perfect time.

There are the obvious differences between working solo and in a group, but what are some of the unknown differences that we might not know about?

When you’re working with other people, scheduling has to be on point. You have to coordinate things all the way. When I do things solo, I have all the time to myself to cultivate. I really do believe that when we do our own things, as individuals, it only makes it better for the whole because there’s certain things that I get recognized for, and there’s certain things that my bro Like gets recognized for, and there’s certain things that BeYoung gets recognized for, and it gets highlighted when you do it by yourself. It’s just a thing about scheduling pretty much. When you work by yourself, you have all your own rules. If you work with another person, you have to take into account that they have their own rules as well.

What are your studio essentials?

Of course, a nigga gotta have some liquid there, some water [laughs]. You know, maybe a little bit of beer because I haven’t been drinking the hard alcohol as much. And you know, gotta have some weed there, some herb. A dope little speaker set up, dope little microphone set up, and you good. Of course my iPhone, iPad, and a laptop. That’s enough stuff to write with.

That’s all you need right there.

Yeah, yeah, that’s the essentials. That’s the player pack, that’s what I like to call it [laughs].

You’re from LA, and you spent time out in Palmdale, California, correct?

We’re from LA, born and raised, the South Central area. Then we moved around to the mid-city area. When my brother was fourteen and I was thirteen, we moved to Palmdale and spent our high school years out there. It was a different kinda culture, if you know what I mean [laughs]. Like, it’s the suburbs, 45 minutes outside of LA. That’s where we met BeYoung, and he is a year under me. I met him coming into my sophomore year of high school and we all just had our thing. It wasn’t too much to do out there. For us, it was just to get better. We weren’t going to go down the slippery slope of gang banging, drug dealing, and acting stupid. You know what I mean? So, we pretty much just stayed positive and stayed on the path of being successful with the music and shit, and here we are now!

How have those places affected you as an artist?

Being from Palmdale, in high school, it definitely helped me with my imagination a whole lot, you know what I mean? When you’re living in a place where all it is, is just desert, you got the desert in front of you and you got your whole life ahead of you. I definitely got good grades and shit when I was out there just ‘cause of that [laughs]. It was no distractions, no distractions! It made me hungrier to get better with everything I did. Like, I used to hoop and shit, but that’s a one in a million type thing to get into. But the music was always in me and we were always rapping. The first rap I wrote was when I was like 11.

So besides FREEBASS, what else have you been listening to lately?

I’m going to be honest; I don’t really like to listen to my peers and my competition because I don’t want to get caught into their shit, you know what I mean? I don’t want to get caught into like, being a fan of somebody else, especially right now. Like, this is a business that I’m in and to stay on top, you kinda gotta compete. I mean, it’s enough money out there for everybody to make but you know, I just really feel like, in my heart, that I’m one of the top dudes at that this shit and I’m trying to prove it. So, I just want to stay away from listening to other people’s shit. I admire everybody, you know, we have a bunch of homies as you can see [laughs]. We have a bunch of people that we came up with and niggas that we still fuck with and we always fucked with from day one but I’m in this business for myself. I listen to a lot of alternative music, if anything.

That makes sense that you don’t really listen to anyone else’s music because FREEBASS didn’t really sound like anything that’s out right now.

Dope! Dope! And you know, to harp on that, the last time I really listened to some other people’s stuff was the day that it [FREEBASS] was released. And you know, I came out with Kanye, I came out with J. Cole, I came out with Mac Miller, and there was uh, somebody else’s album that was scheduled to drop around that time. But me, from a listening standpoint, I really wasn’t moved by any of it. And I know those dudes, they’re really cool but I wasn’t moved. So I was like cool, that was success to me because my shit didn’t sound nothing like theirs [laughs].

What’s your favorite track off FREEBASS and why?

Man, I can go back and forth. Shit, um, the title track, “FREEBASS,” just ‘cause like, that shit knocks. It puts you in a different mind state. And I’m spitting on there too! If you really listen to it, its like a real crazy sounding beat and I’m just spazzing on it, rapping wise. I’m just following the beat man. I was doing whatever the bass was telling me to do. That was the whole idea of FREEBASS. Me and Scoop got in the lab, and Scoop was just pretty much telling me “just do what the beat tells you to do”, and that’s all it was. It wasn’t like I was trying to make a project with a theme based on drugs, alcohol, or bitches, you know? I wasn’t aiming it towards anything. I was just rapping man! And I feel like that’s what cats forget to do these days. Everything is a brand for sure but I feel like the focus in the music nowadays is not really the music, and I want it to be the music.

Where did you and Scoop record the project?

Where we recorded it at was a pretty dope lil’ space. It was at one of Scoop’s really cool friends’ house up in Highland Park, in East LA. It was up on a hill. He had a lil’ backhouse in his backyard. You had to walk from the house, through the backyard, which was humongous, down a hill, through this little passageway, through some trees, and then you go into a room, which was the studio. It was a real serene experience. Anytime I wanted to spit and meditate on the rap, I would just go outside, it was a beautiful view. I could pretty much see all of LA. Me and Scoop would just be kicking it out there talking about shit, then we would go back in and finish the track.

What’s next for you as a solo artist as well as Pac Div? And do you all ever plan to release Sealed For Freshness 2?

[Laughs] Man it’s up in the air. I would love to title the next Pac Div project Sealed For Freshness 2 but um, we’ll all have to talk about that. We are doing work though. We have a couple songs in the chamber right now that we’re thinking about releasing when fall comes. We’re all working right now man, getting our chops up so we can make the movement a lot bigger and a lot stronger. We’ve been in the game now for like, I think back, for like 6 or 7 years now. We got a lot of experience and a lot of dope ass projects that we’ve dropped and shit, and we just want to keep going.

I’ve got another solo project coming out in August called Made In USA, with a whole different producer named John Mark from France. He’s ill as hell bro. I’m very satisfied with the FREEBASS shit but this Made In USA shit is on some whole other shit bro. It’s gon’ smash too! I think this might make a stronger impact than FREEBASS. No diss to the FREEBASS project, which is actually super dope but this project right here is gon’ do some damage! My goal is to do more work than I’ve ever done in a year’s span, so before the end of the year, you’re going to hear three solo EP’s from me and then you’ll hear another Pac Div project come out of the wood works in the fall.