The Ashcan

With Fergie gone, the Black Eyed Peas may have a chance

Posted on 28. Jun, 2010 by jessekg in Music, Uncategorized

Step one: get rid of Fergie. Step two: work on those photo shoot poses

The Black Eyed Pea’s most recent album The E.N.D. (Energy Never Dies) might now stand for, quite simply, the end. Rumours that Fergie is leaving the band due to disputes with Will.i.am’s ego (and always spelling his name wrong), as well as her wanting to get pregnant, are making the rounds and they sound pretty convincing. But most of the headlines are missing the true angle of the story. What this means is that the Black Eyed Peas have a chance to actually be good again. I think everyone has heard that Fergie changed the Peas (for the better or worse is totally subjective), but had no idea in what capacity. Here is a very brief history.

In 1992 a group of kids form the L.A. based hip hop group The Atban Klann, (ATBAN: A Tribe Beyond a Nation), which has overt references to a highly influential NYC-based hip hop Tribe formed in 1985. The funniest thing about Atban though is that they were signed to Eazy E’s label, Ruthless, who didn’t want anything to do with the positive lyrics and wouldn’t release the Klann’s debut album.

Go forward to 1998, when positive hip hop was already a big part of the music scene, and the newly named Black Eyed Peas (Will.i.am, Taboo and Apl,de.ap) put out Behind the Front. This was a total backpack rap record, full of positive lyrics, completely devoid of gangsterisms, and almost entirely played on college radio stations. They toured with bands like Jurassic-Five, and the highlight to their career was probably appearing on the Bulworth soundtrack (a terrible movie better known for it’s hip hop soundtrack, especially the ubiquitous Ghetto Superstar lead single).

In 2000, the Peas release another solid hip hop album, Bridging the Gap, gaining plenty of credibility (guests on the album included De La Soul and Mos Def), but probably not much else in terms of funds. Credibility can get you into a night club, for instance, but it can’t pay for drinks.

Then 2001 hits, and they release Elephunk, an album that I personally couldn’t wait for. After being turned onto the Peas sometime between the first two albums I was constantly playing them and burning cds for other friends. I actually purchased Elephunk, not yet aware of the possibility to download, and listened to the first 30 or so seconds of each track, forwarding to the next one in search of something, anything, that sounded like the Tribe Called Quest-inspired group that I had become a fan of. At one point I actually rifled through the liner notes, just making sure that this wasn’t some OTHER band called the Black Eyed Peas. It wasn’t, but yet it totally was. Fergie had joined the group and almost instantly they had gone from hip hop to whatever the crap is they put out today. The lead single of that one? Where is the Love? How do you go from this, to where is the love, which, when you compare to their more recent stuff, isn’t even that bad. Although Fergie can’t totally be blamed (at first), because she was actually approached to sing on Shut Up (which shows they were going to put out a shit single with or without her), her influence definitely shone through on all of their most recent work. The original Peas were essentially relegated to back up singers, or good for the occasional echo.

Not only that, but even the entire message of the Peas changed throughout the aughts, and you don’t even have to go back too far for an example. As recently as Where is the Love (and to reiterate, it featured Fergie, but was conceived pre-Fergie), which refers to people being too money obsessed, among other things, designer label driven songs like My humps or cash-obsessed lyrics in I gotta feeling (“I got my money. Let’s spend it up”) have slowly taken all that ’90s hip hop cred, and diminished it to the point where, for example, they actually feud with Perez Hilton (As opposed to completely ignore him.) Arguing with an annoying gossip blogger because he says bad things about you is a low point in terms of authenticity if there ever was one. That said, bonus points for at least giving him a black eye.

Despite all this, and fortunately for the Peas, since Fergie joined the group has sold 35 million albums worldwide and 41 million singles. Clearly a winning combination, cash wise. But please guys, no more Monkey Business. Please. Just put an E.N.D. to this.

What I’m saying is that it might (might) not be too late for them, and since they are already filthy rich, they can abandon the cheesy dance tunes and go back to making some decent hip hop. They have accumulated so many 13-year-old girl and frat boy fans that people will eat up anything they put out, and it will take their fans at least one or two albums before they realize that, “wait, I can’t dance or fist bump to this, and what’s with all the words? I’m more of a 10 words over and over and over again kind of listener,” and tune out to the Peas forever. Perhaps by that point they could have some of their old school fans back, essentially trading the ones who spend money for the ones who don’t, but gaining some credibility in the process, as well as doing the world a favour by ridding it of one extremely annoying thing, i.e. the pre-2010, post-’90s Black Eyed Peas.

Come on Peas. Say goodbye to Fergie, reconvene in one of your many mansions and gold-plated recording studios, and craft up something worth listening to. What are you waiting for, lets do it, and do it, and do it and do it, let’s do it, and do it and do it do it do it, Just do it, and do it, I do it, you do it, they do it, it do it, do it do it do it do it do it do it do it do it do it do it do it do it do it do it do it do it do it do it’ – I gotta feeling, 2009.

Tags: behind the front, black eyed peas, boom boom pow, de la soul, fergie, I gotta feeling is a terrible song, Mos Def, my humps, tribe called quest, where is the love, WillI.Am