Words by Moi
Photography by Chris Vallejo

10:15 PM Wednesday night @ Venue on Granville. Hip-hop enthusiasts start slowly filing in trying to be fashionably early for once, and for one reason only – to see the opening act for the evening. South Cali straphangers, Pacific Division, weren’t just the openers, they were half the reason fans bought tickets to the show and they did not disappoint. Mibbs, Like and Be Young were purely animated with ample crowd interaction and an impromptu cypher, and I hate to make comparisons but their energy as well as their catalogue really are a throwback to the Pharcyde/Souls of Mischief era. The one downside of the night had to be that their set only lasted about 30 minutes, when really their track record, pun intended, is at a caliber that parallels, or in my eyes surpasses, that of the Cool Kids. But whatever, that didn’t matter, it’s just a beautiful thing to see these two groups recognize the power of a collaborative stint on the road together. Pac Div did all the joints that the crowd wanted to hear including “Whiplash”, “Paper”, “Shutup” and their sonically-NWA-inspired record, “Mayor”. I don’t know if you see it but it seems like Pac Div is pulling inspiration from both sides of the old 90′s Westcoast dichotomy.

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