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The Peas current album; Monkey Business has sold 7 million copies worldwide with over 1 million sales in the UK. They were nominated for Best International Group at this year's Brit Awards and won a Grammy Award for 'Best Rap Performance for 'Don't Phunk with My Heart'. Will.i.am also won Best R&B song for his collaboration with John Legend on Ordinary People.
The Pussycat Dolls - Ashley, Melody, Kimberly, Nicole, Carmit and Jessica are looking forward to playing their first live arena shows in the UK to their loyal UK fans. The Dolls will be performing their Number One singles - 'Don't Cha' and 'StickwitU' from the Debut Album 'PCD'. Will.i.am also appears on their forthcoming single 'Beep' which he co-wrote and produced and will be a treat when the girls perform it onstage as very special guests to the Peas on this tour.
Speaking about the new Black Eyed Peas release 'Pump It', Will says, "I was in Brazil doing some CD shopping and I came across this compilation and I thought it was one thing but it turned out to be something else. The Dick Dale song 'Miserlou,' was on it. At first I was angry - this isn't what I wanted to buy but then I thought, this song is hot. I said, 'we should do a song like this.' I jump-started the computer and made some beats on the train. Then we had to fly to Tokyo and I tightened up the beat on the plane. Then I recorded vocals in this park in Tokyo. And that's how we recorded the song, 'Pump It.'(Out this week in all good record stores)
Will. I .am is currently collaborating with Justin Timberlake on his new solo album and has also launched his own record label, will.i.am music group. The label will officially launch in the US on 14th Feb with the release of 'Timeless' from Brazilian legend Sergio Mendes, which will feature many of Mendes' classic tunes revamped. Other acts coming out on the label will include the much anticipated solo project from bandmate Fergie and the return of Macy Gray.
Making Monkey Business (the current album) became an effort put forth by all the members of the group - the first the foursome co-wrote together - and the more sophisticated songwriting; the layered grooves of the record and its fulfilled spirit reflect that. "This was really about all of us building a house together," says will.i.am.
Other collaborators join The Black Eyed Peas on this album, too, like Sting on "Union.", Jack Johnson is sampled on the song, "Gone Going." and their second collaboration with Justin Timberlake. The Peas also got to live something of a dream when they hooked up with the Godfather of Soul, James Brown, for the song, "They Don't Want Music."
"I think the fact that we just have fun with music is the reason why it works for us," says will.i.am. "We love music and melodies and don't try to distinguish ourselves from regular music fans. It's really that simple."
With a US and this Summer European Tour, 2006 looks set to be another huge year in the life of the Peas.
The Black Eyed Peas dates back to 1989 when will.i.am (Born: William Adams) and Apl.de.ap (Born: Allen Pineda) met and began rapping and performing together around Los Angeles. The pair signed to Ruthless Records (run by Eazy-E) after catching the attention of the nephew of Jerry Heller (Eazy-E's manager). Along with another friend of theirs, Dante Santiago, they called their trio Atban Klann. Their debut album was never released because Ruthless did not consider the positive themes reflected in the group's music to be marketable to their audience.
After Eazy-E died of an AIDS related illness in 1995 (see 1995 in music), Atban Klann reformed the group as Black Eyed Peas, named so because - as will.i.am explained on the front cover of the Monkey Business album - 'Black Eyed Peas are food for the soul'. They replaced their original third member with Taboo (Born: Jaime Gomez), and having Kim Hill as a steady background singer. Unlike many hip-hop acts, they chose to perform with a live band and adopted a musical and clothing style that differed wildly from the "Gangsta Rap" sounds of other Los Angeles-based hip-hop acts at the time. Through the mid-'90s, they performed in the local club circuit alongside fellow acts such as Ozomatli and Jurassic 5. After being signed to Interscope Records and releasing their debut, Behind the Front (1998, 1998 in music) the group (and their accompanying live band) earned critical acclaim. The hit single from the album was "Joints and Jam", and was featured on the Bulworth soundtrack. Their second album was 2000's Bridging the Gap (2000 in music), which had the hit "Request + Line" featuring Macy Gray. Their breakout album, Elephunk, was released in 2003, featuring a new female vocalist, Stacy "Fergie" Ferguson, previously a cast member of Kids Incorporated and a member of teen pop band Wild Orchid. She is the replacement of background singer Kim Hill, who departed the band during 2000.
From Elephunk came the anti-war anthem "Where is the Love?" featuring an uncredited Justin Timberlake, which became their first major hit, peaking at #8 on the US Hot 100, but topping the charts practically everywhere else, including six weeks at #1 in the UK where it became the biggest-selling single of 2003. The album subsequently spawned "Shut Up", which peaked at #2 in the UK (despite being referred to by one reviewer as "the single most vacuous, pointless, vile and generally loathsome song in a generation") and topped the charts in many other European countries including France and Germany. Elephunk won worldwide success and went gold and platinum in the US, UK, Germany and other European markets. The third single from the album, although significantly restyled from the original Elephunk version, "Hey Mama" hit the Top 10 in the UK, Germany and other European countries and reached #23 in the US.
During Black Eyed Peas' concert tour in Asia in 2004, Apl.de.ap's life story was featured in a weekly Filipino TV drama special called Maalaala Mo Kaya (Will You Remember), which explained his childhood with his poor family in Pampanga, Philippines, back then when he was teased as "baluga" (a derogatory word for Negro), before sadly parting with them to live a better life in the US at the age of 14. "The Apl Song", with the chorus written in Tagalog, a language of the Philippines, from their album Elephunk, tells the story of Apl.de.ap. The Tagalog lyrics and backing melody were based on the song "Balita", an original composition of the 1970s Filipino folk rock group Asin. The group produced an exclusive video of the song whose distribution coincided with their tour of the Philippines as part of their album promotion.
Black Eyed Peas' song "Let's Get Retarded" was restyled as "Let's Get It Started" for an NBA Finals worldwide commercial. New, less offensive, lyrics gave the tune a basketball theme, as opposed to the original's theme dealing with getting heavily intoxicated and partying, this spot featured Carlos Santana. The revised song had great success as a single, particularly on the iTunes music download service. The song earned the group a 2005 Grammy for Best Rap Performance By A Duo Or Group Black Eyed Peas were then featured in The Urbz: Sims in the City videogame as characters. They re-recorded "Let's Get it Started" and "Shut Up" as well as other songs in "simlish", the language used by 'The Sims' characters, for the game also.
Their next album, Monkey Business, was released on June 7, 2005. Much of the preproduction writing was performed on the John Lennon Educational Tour Bus while on the BEP/NERD tour of 2004. The album's first single, "Don't Phunk with My Heart", was a hit in the U.S., reaching number three on the Billboard Hot 100. The song reached the highest peak yet of their career and earned them another Grammy for Best Rap Performance By A Duo Or Group. The song also reached three in the UK, and five in Canada, and number one in Australia. (Some radio stations, skittish about complaints of obscenity, play an alternative version, "Don't Mess with My Heart".) "My Humps", another song from the album, immediately achieved commercial success in the U.S. and fairly substantial radio play despite the sexually suggestive lyrics; also reaching number three on the Billboard Hot 100. However, many mocked the song for its poor lyrical content, and the popular satirical website Something Awful gave the song the award of "Stupidest Song of the Year", stating that "the Black Eyed Peas have crafted what is without a doubt the dumbest, most obnoxious song ever to disgrace the airwaves."NETQUOTEVAR:1 Despite this, the album Monkey Business itself debuted at number two on the Billboard 200 Albums Chart, selling over 295,000 copies in its first week and was later certified triple platinum by the RIAA. As well as being a hip-hop album, Monkey Business also features some acoustic guitar playing from Jack Johnson in the single, "Gone Going".
In September 2005, Black Eyed Peas released an iTunes Originals playlist of their greatest hits, as well as some that were re-recorded especially for purchase through iTunes. The playlist includes popular songs such as "Don't Lie", "Shut Up", and a new version of "Where Is the Love?". It also has small stories containing info and commentary about the songs and how the group first met.
On November 27, 2005, Black Eyed Peas performed the half-time show at the Canadian Football League's 93rd Grey Cup in Vancouver, British Columbia. The group performed the suggestive song "My Humps".
On December 10, 2005, a Peas cover of the John Lennon classic "Power to the People", which was mostly recorded on the John Lennon Educational Tour Bus, was released by Amnesty International as part of the Make Some Noise campaign to celebrate human rights. The same day, Black Eyes Peas performed their version live on the UK television program The Record of the Year together with John Legend and Mary J. Blige.
Black Eyed Peas established the Pea Pod Foundation to help suffering children around the world. The foundation is administered through the Entertainment Industry Foundation. On February 6, 2006, at a concert in Hollywood, California to benefit the foundation, the band was joined by Sergio Mendes, Jessica Simpson, and other stars.
On March 21, 2006, Black Eyed Peas released a remix album, entitled "Renegotiations: The Remixes" to iTunes. It features remixed versions of Ba Bump, My Style, Feel It, Disco Club, They Don't Want Music, Audio Delite at Low Fidelity, and the standard version and video of Like That. The following week it was released on CD without the music video.
In April 2006 BEP hit the road again with supporting bands Flipsyde and The Pussycat Dolls. They again brought the John Lennon Educational Tour Bus on the tour with them to craft new songs for several upcoming albums, including Fergie's solo debut album and a future Peas album.
The BEP also had their first European tour in which they performed to audiences in the UK, Israel, Italy, Denmark, Switzerland, Germany etc.
