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Major Takeaways
Young L, born Lloyd Omadhebo, was the founding producer and the oldest member of Berkeley group The Pack.
Too $hort, the legend who signed the group, announced the death on Thursday and praised his ear for beats.
No cause of death has been released, and his family has not issued a public statement yet.
The Pack scored a national hit in 2006 with Vans, a song four teenagers built in a bedroom.
Young L also helped create the streetwear brand Pink Dolphin, giving him a legacy in fashion as well.
Young L, the Berkeley producer who built the sound of The Pack and turned a song about skate shoes into a national hit, has died at 39.
The news reached fans on Thursday, November 12, and it hit the Bay Area like a wave. The man at the center of it was only 39 years old.
No cause of death has been released. His family has not spoken publicly, and the exact day of his death has not been shared.
A Mentor Breaks the News
Too $hort shared an old photograph of Young L and wrote a short message that said plenty. “Rest in peace Nephew,” he wrote.
He added that he never heard a Young L beat that did not slap. In another post he said Young L and The Pack influenced so many artists that the impact cannot be measured.
Pink Dolphin, the clothing company Young L helped build, confirmed the loss in its own statement. “We are sad to announce that the founder and creator of Pink Dolphin has passed,” the company said.
How Young L Built The Pack
Young L met Stunnaman in the sixth grade, two Berkeley kids bonded by skateboarding. They later linked with Lil B at Albany High School and with Lil Uno, and in 2005 the four friends formed a group first called The Wolfpack.
The oldest of the four, Young L became the engine of the crew. He had been making beats since he was 15 and built his tracks from scratch instead of leaning on samples.
Their earliest songs were recorded at his house, inside a closet in his bedroom. There was no studio budget and no open door in the music business. There was a computer, a closet, and a sound nobody else had.
Vans Put Berkeley on the National Map
In 2006 the group released Vans on the mixtape Wolfpack Muzik Vol. 2. Young L cooked the beat in about five minutes, and Lil B rode it with a hook that praised cheap skate shoes over pricey sneakers.
The record moved fast. It pulled heavy radio play across the West Coast, reached number 58 on the Billboard Hot 100, and critics ranked it among the five best songs of 2006.
One major network first balked at the video, worried the song played like an ad for a shoe brand. An edited version aired anyway, and the song kept climbing.
Too $hort heard Vans on the radio and came looking for the kids who made it. He signed The Pack to his Up All Nite imprint through Jive Records, and a bedroom project became a major label act.
Young L produced the group EP Skateboards 2 Scrapers, released that December. It carried a Vans remix that featured Mistah F.A.B. and Too $hort himself.
The album Based Boys followed in 2007, with Young L behind most of the production. The album never matched the success of the single, and the major label chapter closed sooner than anyone in the group wanted.
A Sound That Traveled Far Beyond the Bay
Young L made full songs out of a few spare parts. Finger snaps, deep bass, and cool electronic textures left wide open space in the music, and the energy never dipped.
That sound lived inside the Bay Area hyphy movement, and it also pointed somewhere new. Producers who came after him, in Los Angeles and far beyond, built chart hits on the same kind of space and bounce.
He kept creating after the group slowed down. His 2011 single Loud Pockets earned a following of its own, and he released a steady run of solo tapes in the years that followed.
His gift traveled through other artists as well. Across his career he made records with Too $hort, Mistah F.A.B., The Jacka, and Mac Miller, among many others.
Pink Dolphin and a Second Legacy
Around 2008, Young L pointed the same instinct toward fashion. He helped create Pink Dolphin, a streetwear brand that began with plain tees printed with a simple dolphin logo.
The name grew out of long talks with Lil B. Within a few years the dolphin was everywhere in youth culture, seen in school hallways, on album covers, and in music videos.
For a generation of young Black fans, Young L stood as proof of ownership. He was not only making the music they loved. He was building a company they could wear on their backs.
The Bay Area Says Goodbye
Tributes poured in through Friday from across the culture. Mistah F.A.B. called him a young legend and named him the mastermind and the architect of the group sound.
Lil B shared a photo of the two of them from their school days. Ty Dolla $ign, Kreayshawn, and Casey Veggies were among the many artists who honored him in public posts.
Much about his final days remains unknown, and answers may take time. What is already certain is the work he left behind and the doors it opened for kids who look like him.
A teenager in Berkeley turned a bedroom closet into a hit factory and gave the Bay Area a sound the world still borrows. Urban City Podcast sends love to his family, to The Pack, and to every fan who ever skated or danced to that beat. Rest in peace, Young L.
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