BACK ISSUES   |    DECEMBER 2009   |    CURRENT ISSUE  

DECEMBER 2009
Music

Verus Ferreira
...................................................

They've transcended their hip-hop roots and become a worldwide phenomenon. Ever-curious and ever-confident, it's the Black Eyed Peas! The quartet of will.i.am (b. March 15, 1975), apl de ap (b. November 28, 1974), Taboo (b. July 14, 1975) and Fergie (b. March 27, 1975) are also known as the BEPs.

will.i.am (William James Adams, Jr) and apl.de.ap (Allan Pineda Lindo) met in high school and were part of a band called Tribal Nation, a breakdancing crew.




UNITED COLOURS OF BEP

will.i.am is African American
apl.de.ap is of Filipino and African American descent
Taboo is of Mexican-American & Native American descent
Fergie is of Mexican, Irish, Scottish & Native American descent
Focusing more on music than dancing, they went in for a name change — Atban Klann, an acronym for A Tribe Beyond A Nation and were signed onto Eazy-E's Ruthless Record label in 1992. But many in the Ruthless camp were puzzled by the group and the enthusiasm of Eazy, who had no problem reconciling his own gangsta style with the peace-minded breakdancing of Atban. Sadly their album was shelved by the record label that did not know how to promote an album so different from the gangsta music they were more into. The death of Eazy-E in 1995 signalled the end of any further deals with Ruthless.

Undaunted, will.i.am and apl.de.ap recruited dancer MC Taboo (Jaime Luis Gómez) and backing vocalist Kim Hill, and named themselves the Black Eyed Peas. Playing shows around L.A. they impressed hip-hop fans with their mike skills and dazzled them with their footwork. Soon signed to Interscope Records they released their debut album Behind the Front to critical acclaim. BEP's next record Bridging The Gap (2000) featured the single Request Line with guest vocals from Macy Gray. But success was still not as they expected.

will.i.am
  • His solo album Songs About
    Girls     (2007) boasts of artists
    - U2,John Legend, Nelly Furtado,
    Justin Timberlake, Carlos Santana
    among others.
  • He was the voice of Moto Moto
    in Madagascar: Escape 2 Africa and
    contributed tracks to the soundtrack.
    Played John Wraith in X-Men Origins: Wolverine.
  • Created the 'i am' scholarship to assist students who want to
    attend college but need financial assistance to make it a reality.
    • Things took a turn for the better when their third album Elephunk (2003) was released. It featured blond bombshell Stacy Ann Ferguson, known to all as Fergie, replacing Kim Hill who left in 2000. The album became their biggest hit, storming the Top 40 with Where Is the Love? (featuring Justin Timberlake and produced by Timbaland), Let's Get It Started, Shut Up and Hey Mama. Collaborators on the album included Sting on Union, Jack Johnson on Gone Going and the godfather of soul James Brown on They Don't Want Music. The album won worldwide success and went gold and platinum in the US, UK, Germany and other European markets. Let's Get It Started, featuring legendary guitarist Carlos Santana, earned the group a Grammy for Best Rap Performance by a Duo or Group.
    Fergie
  • The name of her solo album Dutchess (2006)
    is a misspelled variant of the former title of Sarah
    Ferguson (Duchess of York), with whom she
    shares a surname and the nickname ‘Fergie’.
  • Appears as a singer in The Poseidon
    Adventure     and in the 2009 musical Nine.

    • In 2004, the hip-hoppers embarked on the Elephunk Tour, hitting many countries, including several in Africa and Europe. After energizing crowds round the globe with the monster-stomp of Elephunk, it was time for them to get down to… Monkey Business (2005)! The crossover album pushed them to the top of the charts with the first single Don't Phunk With My Heart. With loose rhymes, buoyant anthemic funk and an ebullient live spirit, the album heralded a new sound for the modern age. The song earned them another Grammy for Best Rap Performance by a Duo or Group. Other hits included My Humps and Bebot (Filipino slang for 'pretty woman'), while Pump It, another out and out dance song, was their last commercially-released single from the album.

    Taboo
  • Known for his kung-fu-inspired
    dance moves (he is a practitioner
    of Jeet Kune Do and a black belt
    in Ninjitsu).
    • On December 10, 2005, the Peas performed a cover of the John Lennon classic Power To The People which was released by Amnesty International as part of the Make Some Noise campaign to celebrate human rights. In 2007, the BEPs embarked on the Black Blue and You World Tour, visiting over 20 countries, including India, where they performed at Bangalore.
    apl.de.ap
  • Started the Apl Foundation
    committed to giving back to communities within the Philippines and throughout Asia.
  • During the 2004 BEP tour of Asia, his life story was featured on Filipino TV show Maalaala Mo Kaya (‘Would You Remember’), which detailed his poor childhood in Pampanga, Philippines. It featured The Apl Song (with the chorus written in Tagalog, a Filipino dialect), from the album Elephunk.
    • Now two years later comes The E.N.D. (Energy Never Dies). Boom Boom Pow, a jump-up party anthem, became the album's first song to reach No. 1, where it remained for twelve weeks on the Billboard Hot 100. The album has a more electro-hop beat rather than the usual hip hop/R&B feeling of their previous albums. will.i.am describes the music on the album as “a lot of dance stuff, real melodic, electronic, soulful”. Another great track is I Gotta A Feeling produced by dance guru David Guetta.

    In July, Billboard.com announced that the BEPs had set a record for the longest successive No. 1 chart run by a duo or group in the Billboard Hot 100's history. I Gotta Feeling hit its fifth consecutive week at No. 1, following Boom Boom Pow's twelve weeks at the top.

  • Nicole Scherzinger, lead singer of
    the Pussycat Dolls was originally
    approached to join the Peas. She
    declined as she was under contract
    to Eden's Crush.
  • The BEPs feature as characters in
    the video game The Urbz: Sims In The City.
    They re-recorded Let's Get It Started and
    Shut Up in 'Simlish' the language used
    by the Sims' characters.
  • On September 8, 2009, the group
    performed live for talk-show host
    Oprah Winfrey's 24th Season Kickoff Party
    on Michigan Avenue in Chicago.
    An estimated 21,000 dancers in the street
    performed to I Gotta Feeling.
    • Known for releasing more of their music online, Taboo hinted that The E.N.D. may be the last BEPs album released in physical form, in favour of digital-only album releases in the future. The band recently embarked on The E.N.D World Tour to Japan, Australia and New Zealand which will end in 2010.
    This site is best viewed in IE 5.0 and above at 1024 x 768 resolution.