Black Eyed Peas enter new era of hip hop – forget party bangers, it’s all about music with a purpose
Taboo, will.i.am and apl.de.ap have released their first single for seven years. The hip hop tune Street Livin’ is a dark commentary on gun control, prison reform and American racism
In a backstage trailer behind the politically charged Into Action gallery show in Los Angeles last Friday, three members of the Black Eyed Peas prepared to walk onstage with new music for the first time in seven years.
The gallery was packed with young left-leaning activists, radical-chic paintings and mixed-media installations, and speakers like the former Obama environmental adviser Van Jones.
For fans who only got to know the Peas as one of the biggest-selling pop acts of the 2000s, with multi-platinum, hits such as I Gotta Feeling, My Humps and Boom Boom Pow, it may have seemed a bit odd.
But when will.i.am, Taboo and apl.de.ap (long-time singer Fergie wasn’t there because she is on leave from the group pursuing solo material) walked onto the stage to introduce Street Livin’, a dark yet poignant new musing on gun control, prison reform and American racism, it felt like a return to the act’s beginnings as streetwise LA rappers.
Far East Movement: Asian-American hip-hop group on stereotypes and playing Hong Kong again
“It’s not like ‘Oh, the Black Eyed Peas are back and now they’re militant’,” will.i.am says. “Our first big hit was Where Is the Love? where we were talking about real stuff. From the brutality of the education system to prison reform, we’ve been out in the community. This is the work we’ve been doing.”
In 2018, it’s another era for the Black Eyed Peas, one that looks a lot like where they started. But in a time of so much challenging, inventive hip hop – and terrible divisions in American society – where do the Peas fit in? The top of the pop charts, the front lines of activism, or somewhere in between?
They have penned some of the stickiest pop-radio staples of the decade, but the Black Eyed Peas’ time away proved formative for how its members wanted to reset the band – and how they wanted to respond to the changes in America. “Athletes have been standing up more than musicians,” will.i.am says. “We have to start standing up too.”
Seven years is an eternity in pop music, but the Peas were far from idle. After performing at the 2011 Super Bowl half-time show, will.i.am released a solo record, Taboo overcame cancer and protested the construction of an oil pipeline on the Standing Rock Sioux Reservation in the US, and apl.de.ap opened schools in his native Philippines.