Proving the incredible success of
Elephunk to be no fluke, the group released their fourth record
Monkey Business in mid 2005. The
Timbaland-produced album sold better than
Elephunk - an amazing feat in and of itself - and produced two Grammy winning singles,
"Don’t Phunk With My Heart" and
"My Humps". The group toured extensively worldwide in support of the album throughout 2006 and 2007, even performing a free philanthropy concert in South Africa.
Though the group has not broken up - the members are all on good terms, and continue to collaborate with each other and occasionally perform at concerts and festivals - the group is on a temporary hiatus while its member pursue solo projects. Fergie, will.i.am, apl.de.ap, and Taboo have all released solo CD’s or plan to my the end of 2008.
From Discogs:Group members are Taboo, Will.I.Am, Apl de Ap and Fergie
From Lastfm:The Black Eyed Peas are an American hip hop/pop group formed in Los Angeles in 1995. The group is currently composed of will.i.am, Taboo, Fergie and Apl.de.ap. Since their breakout album "Elephunk" in 2003, they have seen international fame for their pop/dance-oriented style of hip hop music. Black Eyed Peas have so-far sold an estimated 56 million albums and singles to date worldwide, and still counting.
Black Eyed Peas went to centenary state high school and got their start in 1988 when will.i.am (born 1975 William James Adams Jr.) and apl.de.ap (born 1974 Allan Pineda) 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 Mookie Mook (Burning Star), Dante Santiago & DJ Motiv8, they called their group A.T.B.A.N. Klann. Their debut album, Grass Roots, was not released originally because Ruthless did not consider the social themes reflected in the group's music to be marketable to their audience. A single "Puddles of H2O" was released in 1994 but no album was released until it leaked onto the Internet in the mid 2000s.
After Eazy-E died of AIDS in 1995, They changed their name to Black Eyed Peas; will.i.am explained on the front cover of the Monkey Business album that "Black Eyed Peas are food for the soul", hence the name. will.i.am has cited the Red Hot Chili Peppers as an influence and said he named his band after a food, like them. They replaced their original third member Mookie, with Dante Santiago the Peas original singer. Then Taboo (born Jaime Gomez) joined the group. Dante Santiago took on a role as a guest vocalist in the band and featured frequently on various tracks for their first four albums.
In 1996, they produced and appeared on a song entitled "That's Right" for Brian Austin Green's hip-hop album One Stop Carnival. Later, they began using 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.
The group were signed to Interscope Records and released their debut, "Behind the Front", in 1998. The album won the group (and their accompanying live band, the Bucky Jonsons) critical acclaim. The album featured the single "Joints & Jams", which was included on the Bulworth soundtrack. Their second album, "Bridging the Gap", was released in 2000; it featured the single "Request + Line" featuring Macy Gray.
After replacing their female background singer with Fergie, the group released their breakout album, "Elephunk", and their 2005 album, "Monkey Business", which featured the hit singles "Pump It", "Don't Phunk With My Heart", "Don't Lie" and "My Humps".
"The E.N.D. (The Energy Never Dies)", their fifth album, was released worldwide in June 2009 and has managed to sell 5 million copies in 8 months (Elephunk: 7 million, Monkey Business: 10 million). It already spawned 2 of the most downloaded singles of all time: "Boom Boom Pow" and "I Gotta Feeling", both were downloaded 5 million times only in the USA. The 3rd single "Meet Me Halfway" was downloaded 2 million times and the 4th "Imma Be", which was just released, already sold 1 million. "Rock That Body" is the 5th single.
User-contributed text is available under the Creative Commons By-SA License and may also be available under the GNU FDL.
From Wikipedia:The Black Eyed Peas are an American hip hop group, formed in Los Angeles, California in 1995. The group is composed of rapper and multi-instrumentalist will.i.am, rappers apl.de.ap and Taboo, and singer-rapper Fergie. Since the release of their third album, Elephunk, in 2003, the group has sold an estimated 27 million albums worldwide, 20 million singles and 47 million copies with both sales combined.
The group scored their first worldwide hit with "Where Is the Love?" in 2003, which topped over ten charts worldwide. Another single was the European hit "Shut Up". Their next album, Monkey Business was also a worldwide hit, certified 4× Platinum in the U.S., and spawning two hit singles, "My Humps" and "Don't Phunk with My Heart".
In 2009, the group became one of only 11 artists to have ever simultaneously held the #1 and #2 spots on the Billboard Hot 100, with their singles "Boom Boom Pow" and "I Gotta Feeling", with the next single "Meet Me Halfway" achieving similar success, from the album The E.N.D. Combined, these three singles also topped the chart for an unprecedented 30 consecutive weeks in 2009. The album later produced a third Hot 100 number-one placement with "Imma Be", making the group one of few to ever place three number one singles on the chart from the same album before being followed with "Rock That Body" which managed to peak in the Top 10 of Hot 100. "I Gotta Feeling" has become the first single to sell more than 1 million downloads in the United Kingdom.
Before becoming part of the Black Eyed Peas, will.i.am and apl.de.ap were in a group called Atban Klann, signed to Eazy E's Ruthless Records. The Black Eyed Peas were ranked 12th on the Billboard's Decade-End Chart Artist of the Decade, and 7th in the Hot 100 Artists of the Decade. The group has been nominated for "Most Popular International Artist" in the ARIA Music Awards.
In November 2010, they released their album The Beginning. The first single of the album was "The Time (Dirty Bit)". The song topped the charts in many countries. In February 2011, the group performed at the Super Bowl XLV halftime show. The album's second single was "Just Can't Get Enough" and it was released in February 2011. The music video was filmed in Japan one week before the 2011 T?hoku earthquake and tsunami. The song was dedicated to Japanese friends.The third single,was "Don't Stop the Party" and it was released in May 2011.A music video for the single was about the group on stage and backstage footage during their 'The E.N.D. World Tour'.