Young L, the hip-hop rapper, producer and fashion designer who put the Berkeley collective The Pack on the map and helped define the look of hyphy, has died. He was 39.
He died on Nov. 11, according to a social media post by his stepmother, who helped raise him.
His death was announced on Instagram by Pink Dolphin, the streetwear clothing company he co-founded, and by Too $hort, the hyphy icon who signed The Pack to his Up All Nite imprint after hearing the group’s breakthrough 2006 hit “Vans.”
“Rest in peace Nephew,” Too $hort wrote. “You & The Pack influenced so many artists it’s impossible to measure the impact that you had on the culture. … I never heard a Young L beat that didn’t SLAP.”
The stripped-to-the-studs slap was what defined The Pack’s first mixtape, “Wolfpack Muzik, Vol. 1,” which featured Stunnaman, Lil Uno, and Lil B, who Young L met around 2004 when they were both attending Albany High. By the time they released 2006’s “Wolfpack Muzik Vol. 2” the hyphy movement was in full bounce.
In the mid-aughts West Coast rap was still associated with hard-boiled street themes. Young L and his Pack brethren felt a different kind of beat. Recording house-party music in a closet studio at his mother’s house in El Cerrito, they performed around the East Bay and San Francisco and found an audience eager for their upbeat themes.
Set to intermittent finger snaps, a spacious beat, and a big, insinuating bass pulse, their minimalist track celebrating skate culture, “Vans,” put The Pack became a massive hit. Named by Rolling Stone as one of the 10 best songs of the year, the track was played widely on West Coast radio and broke onto the Billboard Hot 100. It now has more than 8 million views on YouTube and 10 million streams on Spotify.
Over the next five years Young L worked incessantly. He produced The Pack’s debut EP “Skateboards 2 Scrapers,” which included a “Vans” remix featuring Too Short and Mistah F.A.B. On 2007’s Pack debut album he “Based Boys” he was the primary producer, a role he also played on 2010’s “Wolfpack Party.”
When Lil B and The Jacka broke away from The Pack, they often depended on Young L’s studio savvy. At the same time he was racking up credits producing tracks for Too Short, Mistah F.A.B., Mac Miller, Prodigy, and Kool A.D., while also releasing his own mixtapes.
His bright color scheme and designs helped give Pink Dolphin Clothing its snap. Drawing on hyphy and skater culture, the brand seemed to be everywhere around 2012, with dozens of cultural figures photographed in the garb. But the quick shifting sands of fashion left the company behind, and Young L was no longer involved by the mid-teens.
Born Lloyd Omadhebo, Young L grew up in a highly musical family. His mother was an early guitarist in Babá Ken Okulolo Afrobeat band Kotoja. His father was Nigerian percussionist Geoffrey Omadhebo, who landed in the Bay Area in the mid-1990s when several members of a group of Fela, Ebenezer Obey, and King Sunny Adé sidemen touring as the Nigerian Allstars decided to stay in the Bay Area. Omadhebo played a leading role on the Bay Area’s Afrobeat scene as the leader of Albino!, Lagos Roots Afrobeat Ensemble, and Fulanis Afrobeat Ensemble.
While Young L had receded from the Bay Area music scene in recent years, his role as a creative force was widely acknowledged with his passing. In an Instagram tribute, Mistah F.A.B. hailed him as “the master mind, the Architect, the creator,” while recalling him drawing up Pink Dolphin ideas at mom’s house in El Cerrito. “The Pack the trendsetters and sitting in the driver seat was Baby Bro.”
