![]() There are soldiers on the street, our city is on fire, businesses are destroyed.Īpl.de.ap: There’s people fighting, you know? The actual looters and then people who have to protest and protect buildings at the same time. ![]() Will.i.am: Yeah, it feels like COVID-19 was a year ago with the rise of this new thing that we’re dealing with right now. I live in Pasadena so I’ve just been locked down at my home, with my family, and periodically I’ve been able to social distance at the studio with Apl and Will. Rollacoaster: Not rubbish at all! I’m very impressed. Rollacoaster: Hello guys, how’s it going at this crazy time? I caught up with will.i.am, Taboo and Apl.de.ap and talked about Black Lives Matter, surviving cancer, and crafting their album in lockdown… But one thing is clear, Black Eyed Peas are going nowhere. Their blueprint for success, like the thundering course of natural waters, are impossible to replicate. And when I catch up with the trio over the phone from LA, they are impassioned, and hope releasing such triumphant sounds at such a time will help their fans – explaining in a Twitter statement: “… with all the negativity, panic, pain, stress and confusion… think some sunshine and joy can lift people’s spirits…” In the palm of my hand, my phone and social media feeds are dosing out overwhelming measures of panic, brutality, and polarity. ![]() No one could have foreseen a global pandemic, or its economic repercussions, or the unjust death of an unarmed black man in Minneapolis triggering global uprising and instilling a collective conscience in people all over the world. This summer sees the group drop their highly-anticipated eighth studio album Translation – their first pop album in 10 years – this time turning their focus to a Latin-infused sound with global rhythms and internet-breaking features of Shakira, J Balvin, Nicky Jam, Latin-trap star Ozuna and more.īut 2020 has been a year of uncertainty. The forward-thinking vanguards have become an irrepressible industry institution – propelling, shaping and spearheading whatever comes next. After a years-long hiatus, their ambitious next project, 2018’s Masters of the Sun, pivoted to a new era with tech-driven ideas an intersection of an album meets a socially-conscious, augmented-reality comic book, and saw BEP trade their club prowess for a return to gritty politically-charged jazz flows in hit track “Street Livin’.” It’s a song, that no doubt – akin to “Where Is the Love?” – with its incensed lyricism and poignant indictment of the criminal justice system and police brutality, has bearing with the current Black Lives Matter protests and riots. But world domination became irrefutable with 2009’s party behemoth The E.N.D., which saw the group focus on our call for dance floor hedonism, with global hits “I Gotta Feeling”, “Boom Boom Pow” and “Meet Me Halfway”. Monkey Business in 2005 spurred on a hedonistic R&B era with the revved-up energy of “Pump It” and accessible house party fodder of “My Humps”. Their breakthrough album Elephunk in 2003 – with longtime BEP singer Fergie – saw their commercial success hit household name status with its breezy, thumping exuberance, tied off with politically-charged track “Where Is The Love?” (originally written in response to 9/11, but showcasing its heartbreakingly timeless relevance when rebooted in 2016 aimed at America’s gun violence crisis, and then again in an emotional live performance with Ariana Grande following the 2017 Manchester Arena bombing). Music industry oracles, if you will.Īnd their celestial music has soundtracked just about everything in our teen-to-adult lives. ![]() The three founding members – will.i.am, Taboo and Apl.de.ap – harbour a preternatural foresight that has consistently positioned them teetering all-knowingly at the precipice of the next zeitgeist, right before it topples over us. ![]() You see, throughout the last three decades, the salient pioneers have managed to maintain their status as one of the biggest boundary-pushing groups in the world – restlessly warping, reinventing and redefining their addictive olio of pop, hip-hop, dance and conscious rap. In the distant future, when the world has been reduced to smouldering dystopian plains, and curious extra-terrestrial life finds itself methodically dredging the decimated earth for past relics, you can count on any Black Eyed Peas record – like a cultural time capsule – to reflect exactly where humanity was at, at that exact time. ![]()
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |