Music / The Black Eyed Peas

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The Black Eyed Peas (also known as Black Eyed Peas or BEP) are a Los Angeles-based hip-hop/dance-pop group, initially composed of members will.i.am, Taboo, and apl.de.ap. Formed in 1995, they began as a less violent, socially conscious alternative to the gangsta rap acts of the time, though they were ironically signed by Eazy-E of N.W.A fame. Two albums were released in 1998 and 2000 to critical acclaim and modest sales.

In 2002, they were joined by a fourth member, Fergie,^note Not to be confused with the wife of Prince Andrew formerly of the girl group Wild Orchid. By the release of their next two albums, Elephunk and Monkey Business, in the mid-2000s, the group had changed entirely, moving towards a pop sound with much simpler lyrical content intended to appeal to a wider audience. Their new style earned them numerous #1 hit singles and multi-platinum sales, to the point where some people didn't know they did anything pre-Elephunk.

The group took a hiatus from 2012 to 2014 before resuming work in 2015. In 2018, Fergie departed the group, reportedly to focus on her personal life and solo career. In the same year, The Voice Philippines finalist Jessica Reynoso started touring with the group, adopting the stage name J Rey Soul. Their output since has included throwbacks to the group's original hip-hop sound and ventures into different styles of popular Latin music.

Fergie, will.i.am, and Taboo have branched out into acting careers, and Taboo has also written comics. Meanwhile, apl.de.ap works to alleviate poverty in the Philippines through a foundation made in his name. will.i.am and apl.de.ap are also coaches on different national versions of The Voice.

Members:

Current members in bold.

• will.i.am (1995-present)
• apl.de.ap (1995-present)
• Taboo (1995-present)
• J Rey Soul (2018-present)
• Fergie (2002–2018)
• Dante Santiago (1995)
• Kim Hill (1995–2000)
• Sierra Swan (1998–2000)

Albums:

• Behind the Front (1998)
• Bridging the Gap (2000)
• Elephunk (2004)
  • "Where Is the Love?"
  • "Let’s Get It Started"
• Monkey Business (2005)
  • "Pump It"
  • "Don’t Phunk With My Heart"
• The E.N.D. (2009)
• The Beginning (2010)
• Masters of the Sun Vol. 1 (2018)
• Translation (2020)
• ELEVATION (2022)

And the bass keeps tropin', tropin':

• The '90s: The band started in 1995 and released their debut album in 1998. Fergie also originated in the 90s in Wild Orchid, and her successor J. Rey Soul was born in this decade.
• Album Title Drop: "Pump It"
  Girls be all on us from London back down to the US
  S-S, we rocking it (contagious)
  Monkey business (outrageous)
• all lowercase letters: Both will.i.am and apl.de.ap forgo capitalization in their names.
• Analogy Backfire: "Imma Be", in which sperm banks are for withdrawals only, and not deposits.
• Anime Hair: The 90 degrees hairstyle will.i.am had in the late 2000s and early 2010s as well as Apl's unique mohawk around the same period.
• The Artifact: The change from "Let's Get Retarded" to "Let's Get It Started" brought some minor lyric changes, but there are a few lines that remain the same despite obviously having the original chorus in mind:
  In this context, there's no disrespect
  [...]
  We got five minutes for us to disconnect
  From all intellect and let the rhythm effect
  [...]
  Get started, get stupid
• Author Vocabulary Calendar: Pretty much every song on The E.N.D. features the word "rock" or some variation of it at least once.
• Auto-Tune: A frequent feature in their music, to the point that they were practically the poster child for the practice (and, potentially, a reason for its decline).
• The Baby of the Bunch: J. Rey Soul is naturally this, given that she was born two decades after her bandmates.
• The Band Minus the Face: Some see the Peas as this following Fergie's departure, as while their albums before her entry were more lyrically coherent, her era was the peak of their commercial relevance.
• Black and Nerdy: A part of will.i.am's persona.
• Blind Musician: apl.de.ap was legally blind due to nystagmus, which was surgically corrected in 2012.
• Bowdlerise:
  • "Let's Get Retarded" was changed to "Let's Get It Started" on the radio, and the lyric "Bob your head like epilepsy" was changed to "Bob your head like me, apl.de." This version became so ubiquitous that many people don't know the original version of the song.
  • "Hey Mama" was also edited quite a bit for the radio. Besides some instrumental changes, some of the more questionable lyrics were altered for the radio version:
    • "The true niggas know that the Peas come through" was changed to "The true people know...".
    • "And then drop bombs like we in the Middle East" was changed to "And then drop bombs 'cuz we shaking to the beat", likely to due to it being too close for comfort with the War on Terror going on at the time.
    • "No need to carry nine-millimeter clips / Don't wanna squeeze triggers, just wanna squeeze tits" was changed to "I don't discriminate, I please chicks / Asian, Caucasian, Black, I squeeze...", with the last word being replaced by a female moan.
  • "Don't Phunk With My Heart" was censored as "Don't Mess With My Heart", largely due to radio stations concerned about the word "phunk" sounding too close to a Precision F-Strike, though most radio stations (especially those outside the States) did play the song unaltered. Interestingly enough, the Russian metalcore band Amatory covered the song as "Don't Fuck With My Heart".
• Broken Record:
  • Todd in the Shadows decided to count how many times "Imma Be" is Title Dropped. It goes 106 times.
  • Really, most choruses from The E.N.D. are this.
    I gotta feeling that tonight's gonna be a good night, that tonight's gonna be a good night, that tonight's gonna be a good good night... (repeat 12 times)
• The Bus Came Back: In their 2022 album Elevation, Fergie makes a brief cameo in the track titled "In the Air", which is a remix of "Boom Boom Pow".
• Buxom Beauty Standard: "DOUBLE D'Z", in which J. Rey SOUL sings about how much many men and herself love her breasts.
• The Cameo: Jasmine Trias from season 3 of American Idol plays apl's little sister in "Bebot".
• Continuity Nod: In a nod to Elephunk, will.i.am rides an elephant in the music video for "Meet Me Halfway".
• Creator Provincialism: A number of songs and/or verses from apl.de.ap mention his country or its culture at least in passing.
• A Day in the Limelight:
  • "The Apl Song" and "Bebot" both focus on apl.de.ap instead of will.i.am or Fergie.
  • "Fly Away" is mostly focused on Fergie's vocals.
  • "Mamacita" highlights J. Rey Soul for a decent portion of the song.
  • "In The Air" has Taboo delivering most of the vocals.
• "Days of the Week" Song: "I Gotta Feeling" goes through them all (and Saturday, twice).
• Driven to Suicide: The last few bars of "APL Song" ("I guess sometimes life's stresses get you down/On your knees oh brother, wish I could have helped you out") is in reference to apl.de.ap's younger brother Arnel who committed suicide, with apl lamenting at how he was unable to come to his brother's aid before ending his life.
• End of an Age: The Beginning marked both the end of the "Fergie Era" and a lot of their mainstream success.
• Flanderization: As their careers went on, so too did the likelihood of them singing about being In Da Club over other topics.
• Four-Temperament Ensemble: will.i.am (phlegmatic), apl.de.ap (sanguine), Taboo (melancholic), and Fergie (choleric).
• Five-Token Band: Jamaican-American will.i.am, Afro-Filipino apl.de.ap, and Mestizo Taboo. Continued with the addition of J Rey Soul, another Afro-Filipino.
• Fun with Acronyms: The E.N.D., which stands for "The Energy Never Dies".
• Game Show: The music video of "Don't Phunk with My Heart" is a spoof of television game shows with the male members competing for Fergie's affection.
• Genre Shift:
  • Compare "BEP Empire", released in 2000, to "My Humps", released in 2005. You'd be forgiven if you thought they were from two different projects.
  • See also: "Beautiful Dangerous," Fergie's collaboration with Slash of Guns N' Roses fame.
  • Translation is a Latin pop album before a rap one, which is quite different from the album before it, which took them back to their 90s sound and featured artists like Slick Rick and Nas.
• Grand Finale: "Don't Stop The Party" serves as their final "Fergie Era" single.
• Hyper-Destructive Bouncing Ball: In the video for "Pump It", Will.i.am uses a bowling ball to fight off the underground thug gang.
• I Am the Band: With the exception of the Fergie era, Will.i.am is the only active member of the group. This is how many perceive the group anyway, and his performance at the Silver Jubilee confirmed this.
• In Da Club: Most of their songs released while Fergie was still a member in the 2000s are examples, with their lyrics emphasizing partying and having a good time. The E.N.D. is the strongest instance of this, with Elephunk, Monkey Business, and The Beginning also providing this to a lesser extent. This same principle applies to will.i.am's Songs About Girls and #willpower and some of Fergie's solo work.
• Intergenerational Friendship: J. Rey Soul is an entire generation younger than the others.
• Irony:
  • The song the page quote belongs to? It was released in March 2009. Who's two-thousand-and-late again?
  • Also, the alleged reason for Kim Hill's departure from the BEP (and subsequently from the record label) was because of her music not being 'black' enough. She was replaced in the group, of course, by Fergie...who is white.
• Kids Rock: "Where Is The Love?" includes this as part of the song's Think of the Children! ethos.
• Lesser Star: Taboo and apl.de.ap, at least now - in their pre-Fergie days, they did just as much as will.i.am.
  • Mostly Taboo, both have been reduced to a rap part in the songs (his ostensibly small role is spoofed by The Key of Awesome), but Apl has more of them, and has even made a couple songs that feature only him with will doing the music.
  • Todd in the Shadows tagged them as "Andrew Ridgeley" and "Pras" in his review of "Imma Be".
  • Compared to Fergie and the commercial/cultural heights the quartet saw during her era, Kim Hill and J. Rey Soul aren't nearly as synonymous with the group as she was.
• Local Reference: Apl tends to do this at times where he brings in references to his home country in some songs.
• Long-Haired Pretty Boy:
  • Taboo with his impressive head of hair back in the day.
  • will.i.am had long dreads before he cut them sometime after Monkey Business.
• Love Triangle: In the music video "Don't Phunk With My Heart", the guys in the band compete with each other over Fergie, but are all unsuccessful at getting her affections due to the game show host messing up their dates.
• Male Band, Female Singer: During the Fergie era.
• Ms. Fanservice: Fergie. J. Rey Soul took this part when Fergie left.
• Multilingual Song: The group has a few.
  • "The Apl Song", whose Tagalog-language chorus is borrowed from the 1979 song "Balita" ("News") by folk rock band Asin ("Salt").^note Rough translation: "Come closer, friends, and listen. I bring news from my homeland. I wish to share the stories and events happening in the promised land.".
  • Translation is all about this, featuring a more Latin sound and guest stars.
• My Sister Is Off-Limits: In the second music video for "Bebot" Apl.de.Ap does this for his sister Jasmine.
• New Sound Album: Elephunk, which featured a more radio-friendly pop sound; The E.N.D., which sees them incorporate dance and techno music; Masters of the Sun Vol. 1, which sees the group go back to their early sound; Translation, which features a reggaeton sound.
• Off-the-Shelf FX: In the music video for "Rock That Body", the "stereo guns" the band members use are Nerf blasters that have been painted dark gray and modified to superficially resemble loudspeakers and subwoofers. The blasters are as follows:
  • An unloaded Longshot CS-6. Used by will.i.am.
  • The barrel attachment that's boxed alongside the aforementioned Longshot. Used by Fergie.
  • The Maverick REV-6. Dual-wielded by apl.de.ap.
  • The Firefly REV-8. Used by Taboo.
• Only One Name: will.i.am, Taboo, and Fergie each use one name for their stage personas.
• Parenthetical Swearing: "Don't Phunk With My Heart".
• Protest Song: "Where Is the Love?", "Union" and "Street Livin'", the latter being a Take That! to Donald Trump where he is depicted in the music video as riding a limousine while protesters snarl at him.
• The Quiet One: Taboo is probably the most reclusive of the group and on several songs, he has either the shortest verse or no verse at all.
• Race Fetish: "Latin Girls" and "Girl Like Me" imply that the male members have a thing for Latin women. At least one commentator noted the apl.de.ap song "Bebot" to be needlessly objectifying towards Filipino women, too.
• Reformulated Game: The Black Eyed Peas Experience is this as the Wii version is a Just Dance clone with the Xbox 360 version being more similar to Dance Central.
• Reluctant Fanservice Girl: One of the reasons Kim Hill departed the group as its original female member was her disinterest in the corporate attempt to make her over sexualized.
• Remix Album: Renegotiations: The Remixes (2006) includes remixed versions of some of the tracks from Monkey Business.
• Revisiting the Roots: Masters of the Sun Vol. 1 is the first album since Fergie's departure from the group, and sees the original trio go back to the boom bap sound of their first two albums while still maintaining a degree of pop sensibility.
• Rhyming with Itself: They seem to do this trope frequently. "Where Is The Love?" rhymes "Mama" with "mamas", and "I Gotta Feeling" rhymes "up" with "up".
• The Roaring '20s: will.i.am's "Bang Bang" and Fergie's "A Little Party Never Killed Nobody" are both based on the 1920s and are included in the soundtrack for The Great Gatsby.
• Sampling: Given that they're an (alternative) hip-hop group, this is inevitable. Some of the more notable songs from the group which made heavy use of sampling are "Pump It" ("Misirlou" by Dick Dale), "Don't Phunk With My Heart" ("I Wonder If I Take You Home", written and composed by Full Force, and "Ae Naujawan Sab Kuchh Yahan" and "Yeh Mera Dil Pyaar Ka Diwana", both recorded by Asha Bhosle, composed by Kalyanji Anandji, and with lyrics written by Indeewar), "The APL Song" ("Balita" by the Filipino folk rock band Asin) and "Bebot" (guitar riff from "Ang Bayan Kong Sinilangan", also by Asin).
• Scatting: "Ga Ra Ta Da" and "Friddy Dope", both for Urbz: Sims In The City.
• Second-Person Attack: In the video for “Pump It”, Taboo punches the camera to end the video with a record stopping sound.
• Self-Empowerment Anthem: "Imma Be" which means "I'm going to be". Or so it seems. The Word Salad Lyrics make it hard to tell.
• Sex Sells: "My Humps" became one of their biggest hits, despite (or possibly because of) its highly sexual content.
• Shameless Fanservice Girl: Fergie and J. Rey Soul are more willing than Hill was to serve as eye candy in music videos and performances with the band.
• Shout-Out: The wireframe heads in the video for "Boom Boom Pow" and the cover of The E.N.D. is an allusion to Kraftwerk's Musique-Non Stop and cover to "Electric Café/Techno Pop".
• Sixth Ranger: After the original male trio, Kim Hill, and Fergie, J. Rey Soul is the sixth major member of the group. She joined the band as the youngest addition once they were already established as a household name.
• Skyscraper Messages: The music video for "Where Is The Love?" has lights spell out a question mark.
• The Smurfette Principle: The band has had a single female vocalist, Kim Hill from 1995 to 2000, Fergie from 2002 to 2016 and J. Rey Soul from 2018 to the present.
• Space Episode: The music video for "Meet Me Halfway" has each of the four members in a different part of outer space.
• Spicy Latina: will.i.am seems to have a thing for these, as evidenced in some songs, most notably "Girl Like Me", a collaborative single with Shakira, pays tribute to that image of Latina women, with the lyrics talking about them being passionate women and great lovers.
• Spin-Off Babies: The Superbowl commercials for Chatter feature them as this with apparently a whole series of it at an associated website.
• Step Up to the Microphone: "TONTA LOVE" is all performed by J.Rey Soul.
• Stuffy Old Songs About the Buttocks: "My Humps", a song about a woman who uses her breasts and buttocks to get what she wants.
• Take That!:
  • A possibly unintentional example in the beginning of the music video for Imma Be, where the group has an argument about computerized "AI" music, which acts by inputting one's voice and the lyrics, and the process taking all the soul out of the music. Sounds pretty familiar, huh?
  • The music video for "Street Livin'" ends with a shot of Donald Trump in the presidential limo as a riot ensues outside.
• Talent Show: Fergie was a presenter for The Four, while will.i.am has been a coach on the British and Australian versions of The Voice and apl.de.ap was on the Filipino version. J. Rey Soul was also a contestant on a season of The Voice of the Philippines.
• This Is a Song: During their remix of "Mas Que Nada," will.i.am says "We took a samba song and remixed it."
• Those Two Guys: Taboo and apl.de.ap fit this as the two members of the band who get the least individual attention.
• Three Minutes of Writhing: Fergie in most music videos.
• Token Trio: The main trio consists of a Jamaican-American black guy, an Afro-Filipino guy, and a Latino guy with indigenous ancestry.
• Token White: Fergie was this, being the only major member of the band to be white.
• Token Wholesome: Original female member Kim Hill had no interest in being used as eye candy in any of the music videos, in contrast to her successors, Fergie and J. Rey Soul.
• Truck Driver's Gear Change: "Imma Be", "The Time (Dirty Bit)" and "Just Can't Get Enough" all feature (slightly unexpected) song changes.
• Turn of the Millennium: Their music is pretty synonymous with the 2000s.
• Twofer Token Minority: apl.de.ap and J. Rey Soul are both Afro-Filipino.
• Unusual Euphemism: "Let's Get Retarded," the lesser-known original version of what would become "Let's Get It Started." To "get retarded" is another term for getting drunk and having careless fun (basically what the expression "get turned up" became), hence the other lyrics "Let's get ig'nant, let's get hectic" and "Get into it, get stupid." It's safe to assume why the band isn't too bothered by this version being forgotten.
• Visual Pun: Guess what the cover art◊ for the "Imma Be" single is. Go on, guess.
• Vocal Tag Team: Both Fergie and will.i.am have had several turns on lead vocals, while apl.de.ap and Taboo sometimes throw in a rap too. Also on "Hit It" Will and Lele Pons share vocals on the chorus.
• Yiddish as a Second Language: In "I Gotta Feeling", possibly in reference to the Moroccan-Jewish DJ David Guetta, who produced the song.
  Fill up your cup! (Drank!)
  Mazel tov!
  (L'CHAIM!)