Gangsta rap and underground have been the two schools of the West Coast rap aesthetic since the early 90s. They rarely cross, and although there are emcees who fall somewhere in-between the two categorizations, they’re often lost in the shuffle and receive little fanfare with the masses. (Self Scientific, anyone?)

If anyone has a shot at changing the status quo, it’s Pacific Division and Blu. We can call them sleepers for now, but there’s a good change the majors will snap these up soon rather than later, as both The Source and XXL have already given them ink and the streets are abuzz for anything new they drop.

Pacific Division is an L.A.-based group made up of brothers Likewise and Mibbs, and third emcee B. Young. The three met while playing on the basketball team in high school in Palmdale, a suburb on the northern edge of L.A. County. Although Like and Mibbs had been rapping longer and had a chance to be in the studio with some recognizable West Coast rap stars, they actually all but gave up on rap as a career because they felt pressured to talk about things they didn’t care about in their music. When B. Young came into the picture, the three emcees clicked. Influenced as much by old school raps of the Fat Boys as Nas and Tupac, the three finally were able to make music they wanted to make.

Blu, a native of San Pedro, near Long Beach, has traveled to Europe to rock shows with DJ Exile and others. The dj and emcee also collaborated on Blu’s debut album, Below the Heavens, released in August on the Sound In Color label. It showcases Blu’s ‘i’m everyman’ raps over Exile’s soulful beats.

With the release of CD The Blendtape: Sealed for Freshness in 2006 Pacific Division created an instant buzz. The “blend” in this tape comes from Pacific Division’s original lyrics imposed over beats from such classic cuts as Gang Starr’s’ “Mass Appeal” and the Tribe’s “Bonita Applebum.” While there are original songs, including the show-favorite “Act Like You Chillin,” it’s Pacific Division’s ability to freak classic beats extremely well that undoubtedly garnered them the buzz. The group’s signature song is “Women Problems,” produced by up-and-coming L.A.-based Swiff D. On the soulful track that was originally released on their MySpace page, Pacific Division share compelling stories about the opposite sex.

Following the success of the Blendtape, numerous shows, and an appearance on the Wake Up Show, Pacific Division is gearing up for the release of their debut album, “The F.A.T. Boys LP,” on indie L.A. label Two Tone Elephants. Blu is probably rockin’ a show near you as you read this. Scheme caught up with Blu and Pacific Division to find out how the West Coast rocks these days.

Pacific Division
Scheme: How did you guys get booked to get up on the Wake-Up Show?
Like: Terry, our manager has a few connections there … Actually, DJ Revolution reached out to us on MySpace and said he liked our music, and I guess word just got around the studio about Pacific Division and Sway and King Tech heard about us. I guess it was a matter of time before they ended up asking our manager if were were up to (an appearance), and of course we said yeah, we went up there. When we went out there we played the music they were impressed and when we started rapping, they were even more impressed.

Scheme: When was the show taped?
Like: March 9 was the Wake Up Show. This year.

Scheme: At that time, you had already been signed to your current label, Two Tone Elephants?
B. Young: Nah, we weren’t signed then. We just had the heavy buzz of The Blendtape.

Scheme: What kind of buzz did the Wake Up Show help create?
B. Young: Pretty much a lot of people saw us as ’smoke and mirrors.’ I guess smoke is the emcee skills we got … ‘cuz a lot of people see us as just having fun and making songs, but then they see us on the Wake Up Show. They’re like, ‘that’s the Wake Up Show,’ that’s Sway and King Tech. A lot of people recognize Sway. The Wake Up Show was a stamp of approval for how official we really are.

Scheme: Did you talk to Sway afterwards?
Mibbs: We talked to Sway for like 15 minutes after we got off the air.

Scheme: Scheme Magazine readers may not know about The Blendtape, can you give them a quick introduction?
Like: The Blendtape is a compilation of original songs and classic songs. We started selling them for 5 bucks at shows and on the Internet. That was a 2006-2007 thing. We wanted people to hear our music and our style.

Scheme: Let’s talk about your album. I’m aware DJ Khalil has been working with you, how heavy is his involvement?
B.Young: He sends us beats, comes in for sessions. He gave us two beats that we think are really fire. His involvement with the project hasn’t been that extensive, he’s an artist on Aftermath. He’s really involved with the songs that we did. And he really likes us as a group.

Scheme: And he’s got a platinum plaque sitting at the house, that’s got to feel for you guys.
B. Young: Yeah, he’s great to get to add to our arsenal.

Scheme: Will there be a tour to support the album?
B. Young: We’ll have a west coast tour for sure, we’ll probably go the south and the east and the Midwest.

Scheme: Is there a release date?
B. Young: March 18, 2008.

Scheme: Let’s have a little fun. Who’s your guys’ pick to win the NBA Championship this year?
Mibbs: Oh man, the Spurs.

Blu
Blu is lanky and light-skinned and stands out on this early evening loitering outside L.A.’s seminal Fais Do-Do club for sound check with a couple of homies. In the same spot that Sam Cooke, Billy Preston and John Coltrane played, Blu is going to rock later in the evening. And chances are, nobody’s going to be turning over in their graves.

The L.A. rapper’s debut LP Below the Heavens was released on the indie Sound in Color and was one of the the best albums of 2007, hands down. Real talk. Combining soulful beats with Blu’s blend of straight-forward East Coast-type sound with West Coast slang, the album was impressive in its musical and lyrical quality. It’s consistency comes as no surprise if considering the fact that Blu’s been grinding on the L.A. underground circuit for a minute and has taken his act overseas several times, sharing the stage with Emanon (Aloe Blacc and Exile) and other acts. Having earned his stripes, Blu is ready to be your favorite color.

Scheme: When did you come back from Europe?
Blu: At the top of September.

Scheme: It seems like you’re out there every few months.
Blu: Hell nah, that was my second time. Two years ago before then and I’m bout to be out there again and I’m going to be out there bimonthly cause I’m going to get a new girlfriend every time to get me a plane ticket.

Scheme: Does it ever strike you while you out there that you’re an L.A. rapper, you represent the real real L.A. underground, the dudes that never really got to shine?
Blu: Hell yeah, I’ve been praying I go back. Please God, let me go back, so I can make some Euros. I’m grateful for the Euro, you know what I mean? Fans, promoters, they pay. The Euro is nice, dude, I like how it stand over the dollar.

Scheme: Who is Blu? Tell me about yourself man.
Blu: What the … My real name is Johnson.

Scheme: Dick Johnson? Robert Johnson? Billy Bob Johnson?
Blu: Johnson (pause) Barnes. No “E” on Blu though, because it’s in Barnes. I always tell people that, to help them out. I’m just a normal guy, I just like to rap. I started rapping better because it makes you more cooler. The more I rapped the cooler I got.

Scheme: What in your background makes your rap standout?
Blu: You don’t want to rap about someone else’s life because you’ll run out of shit to talk about. I started writing about the normal shit I go through, and it just so happens that a lot of people don’t kill everyday. People are like, you used to go to work, I’m like yeah, I used go to work. You used to have a girlfriend, I got a girlfriend.

Scheme: You mean you don’t slang ‘caine a little bit and drive a Bentley? That’s not what your life is about?
Blu: I think about it.

Scheme: That’s the lyrical part, but what about you and Exile clicking as a team?
Blu: I think Exile is the reason people like me.

Scheme: Well, he’s got the music.
Blu: I always thought Guru was lying when he had that song on Gangstarr saying that it’s “mostly the voice that gets you up.” People buy that shit because of Premo. It’s mostly the beats that get people, I just got a cool voice. It’s mostly the beats that get you up. Some got skill but without the beats you gots to chill.

Scheme: So where did the relationship with Exile start?
Blu: I know Aloe, and then he was like, my producer is working on a production album and I was like come to show, and he came to my show and was like yo, let’s get you on the album you kind of fresh. Then we did a song, and after that, he was like, it’s never been that easy for me to work with an artist. And I was like you should do an album for me, I’m like I never heard beats like this.

Scheme: What about the beats?
Blu: It just feels authentic and the closest to shit I listened to. Everything I was rapping to previous was Just Blaze- and Kanye-inspired. I was yelling and shit trying to fit my voice over some monstrous horns.

Scheme: He’s more earthy, seems like … I don’t know how to describe.
Blu: There’s one person that said, is Exile more of a Smurf or a He-Man? I said, those two together are probably a good definition of Exile.

Scheme: Why did you name your album Below the Heavens?
Blu: I came up with that in high school and I thought I was clever because I was underground and heaven is like where everybody is trying to go to; everybody in rap is trying to go mainstream. I seen the relevance in that when I was doing a song and I didn’t have a title for it. I think it fits because I rap about what I go through on Earth.

Scheme: There’s a lot of dudes in L.A. that got albums but you got Sound in Color and Exile in your corner. How did it all really click?
Blu: It’s a lot of shit that really built up that helped it go down, so much little exposure that really built up. Emanon helped out. I was hype-man for Emanon and a bunch of other groups and did shows, for like the last four years. That helped, I started doing my own. I went on a couple of U.S. tours that helped get people open out of the state.

Scheme: How’d you get over that hump? Who’d you get caught on with?
Blu: We actually went from local to international.

Scheme: What, just pack your bags and come with us?
Blu: Yup, I hype-manned for Emanon on their European tour and they gave me 15 minutes to do my thing during their set and promoters started fuckin’ with me. And then Sound in Color had to do a little tour for Exile’s Dirty Science album and it was the first tour they’d ever done.

Photo Credit: Vince Segovia