Black Eyed Peas frontman will.i.am recently revealed that it hurts that his group’s crossover success may have hindered the way that they are perceived. Speaking with Fugees member Wyclef Jean on his Run That Back! podcast, will.i.am explained that because of the group’s pop success starting in 2004 with the release of their third album Elephunk, many don’t consider them a Black group.
“I’m a Black dude, but when you think of Black Eyed Peas, we got so big … and it hurts, it still hurts a little bit that we’re not considered a Black group … because we got that big. And when you think of Black Eyed Peas … it’s no longer urban or Black culture,” will.i.am explained. [It] is not good for the Black community that Black Eyed Peas is not looked at as a Black group because we had international success. That should be credited to the Black community.”
Will.I.Am related the Black Eyed Peas experience to musical genres like jazz, country and rock ‘n’ roll, which have their roots in Black culture. “That should be credited to the Black community more so than letting it be adopted. That’s just a thing that we suffer from all the time,” he said in the interview with Wyclef. “When you think of jazz, you no longer think of Black anymore. When you think of rock ‘n’ roll, you don’t think of Black anymore. When you think of even country, you don’t think of Black. A lot of the things that we create and we invent, we dispose of or it gets stolen from us to the point where it’s not associated with its origins.”
The Black Eyed Peas released their eighth studio album last year called Translation. Relying heavily on Latin pop-jazz infusion, the project includes the hit singles “Ritmo” and “Mamacita.” The group also dropped their new single and video with Shakira from the project “Girl Like Me,” in December.
