Words: Krishtine de Leon
Photos: Gabriela Hasbum
The Pack has the kind of metabolism you wish you still possessed as a growing boy. A steady diet of junk food from the corner store, graphic locker room talk and good old-fashioned hood snaps remind us how it felt to indulge before that Freshman 15 hit like a ton of bricks. Damonté Harris, 17, aka UNO, Keith Jenkins, 19, aka Stunna, Brandon McCartney, 17, aka B, and Lloyd Omhdabeo, 19, aka Young L, compose the young Berkeley-based rap group that flipped its skateboard hit “Vans” onto the scene way before that Fiasco guy became skate rap’s doting poster boy.
Mulling about in a Berkeley studio kitchenette lovingly provided by an old, white homie in the industry, the four young boys split this afternoon’s menu: A BLT and shrimp scampi. While Uno watches on as B and Young L stick to the tried-and-true after school snack, Stunna borrows mom’s scrimp recipe and begins clattering pots with gusto—a sight rarely seen for teenagers this age. “I cook for myself, but of course, when my momma’s home, she cooks for me,” says Stunna, as he scoots the half-pack of shelled prawns to the bubbling sauce he’s prepared. Adjacently, B takes the bacon he hasn’t even bothered to separate into strips and throws it into a sizzling pan, splattering grease onto every surface of the stove. Between sentences, B looks over at Stunna’s shrimp and offers unsolicited tips. “It’s a marination process, bruh,” the older Stunna retorts at his younger members’ lack of finesse in the kitchen. “Why is you messing with me? I be messing with you cooking yo’ easy ass bacon? Look at you splittin’ bacon, I’m out here cookin’!”
“When you in the industry and you don’t have a lot of time to eat, a BLT is just a quick meal,” explains Uno about his food fix. “They got ‘em at every airport. I love bacon, I love tomatoes, I love lettuce. And I do a little something else—I add cheese to my BLT.” And then he goes back to his Sidekick. It’s a hard enough task to get Uno’s attention away from his Sidekick, but bring girls into the equation and he’s all yours. “If a girl can cook, that’s beautiful. That means she can feed me when I’m hungry! I can watch her cook naked.”
As older-brotherly as one might feel about the group’s blatant and graphic references to sex, we forget two things: 1.) half of the group is barely legal with raging hormones 2.) Too $hort is the Leader of The Pack. No wonder impressing the ladies is more reason to brush up on their culinary skills. An acquaintance of Uno’s father in the early-’80s, Too $hort heard a mixtape with a Pack cameo and immediately wanted to work with the young rappers. With over a hundred songs already recorded out of Young L’s closet studio, they were prepared for this kind of break—even though half of the members still haven’t finished their senior year in high school.
Stunna stirs the butter-drenched entree at a measured pace as he confides his mom’s tips for perfect shrimp. “With the shelled prawns, you gotta prepare the sauce first. And you cook them with the shell because my mom says it captures the flavor,” he says, reaching over to place the lid on the pot to lock in the steam. Usually Stunna is happy with five dollars to buy him a Red Hot Burrito, Flaming Hot Cheetos, an Arizona iced tea and Top Ramen, but it’s a special occasion to celebrate.
The group is the youngest to get signed out of the Bay Area in many years (they were signed to Zomba/Jive in mid-2006), they’re gearing for an early ’07 album release, and Rolling Stone named their single #5 of the Top 100 songs of 2006. Although they only received a free pair of Vans each for their blatant brand promotion, the guys are pretty happy with themselves. And rightfully so. When you were this age, you were still figuring out how to get with college broads.
Don’t even bother talking to the guys about eating healthy. Besides “cashing out” at Jack in the Box, they know what they won’t eat: chitlins (“I can’t even eat them ’cause of the smell,” says Uno), escargot, although B has never even tried it, and macaroni and cheese with fish, which earns Young L a look from the group that expresses: even the ’hood can’t get down with that ghetto gourmet concoction! Uno finally tears away from his Sidekick to assemble his BLT with cheese. No toasting of the bread here (they like it cafeteria, not deli style). B puts the slices of tomato, lettuce and bacon on the bread, while Young L is more than happy to fall back and let B do the “BLTing.” You know what they say about too many cooks in the kitchen.
Maybe all the home-cookin’ reminds them of the lady they love most. “I like to compare ’em to my momma,” says Stunna, as he drizzles the finished sauce over the prawns, Stunna insists that, although he’s becoming a star, all the advance money he earned from the Zomba/Jive deal is going to his mother’s back rent and college fees he’s accrued. Endearing as it is, one prays that their moms don’t hear the nasty lyrics on songs such as “Quiet Down” off of their new EP Skateboards and Scrapers. Hey, but if their biggest supporter is Too $hort, they definitely got the recipe for longevity. As long as they leave the cupcaking to the fans and the beat making to Young L, everything is all gravy.
