Pac Div

In 2006 the hip-hop trio Pacific Division, widely recognized as Pac Div, formed in Palmdale roughly sixty miles north of Los Angeles. What began as an unwieldy eleven-member collective soon tightened into a core lineup of brothers Gabe and Mike Stevenson—performing as Like and Mibbs—alongside high-school friend Bryan Young, known as BeYoung, and Canadian producer Steve Thornton, aka Swiff D. Their first independent release, the mixtape Sealed for Freshness (Blend Tape), connected through an everyday, relatable tone that favored hipster sensibilities over gangster tropes, quickly attracting listeners and landing a Motown deal. On that imprint the group issued a self-titled EP and three further mixtapes, yet the planned debut album Grown Kids Syndrome never appeared. After parting ways with the major, they joined the independent label eOne, which put out their first proper album, The Div, in 2011. Their second album, GMB, arrived the following year and included guest spots from Ty Dolla $ign, Kurupt, Mac Miller, Kendrick Lamar, and Blu. A six-year pause followed, during which Like shifted focus to production work for Lamar, Miller, Anderson.Paak, and Asher Roth while also dropping three instrumental albums and the 2016 solo rap project Songs Made While High. Pac Div resurfaced in 2018 with the album First Baptist.