Origins and early albums
The Black Eyed Peas dates back to 1988 when will.i.am (Born: William Adams) and Apl.de.ap (Born: 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 another friend of theirs, Dante Santiago, they called their trio Atban Klann. Their debut album, Grass Roots, was never released because Ruthless did not consider the social themes reflected in the group's music to be marketable to their audience.
After Eazy-E died of an AIDS-related illness in 1995, Atban Klann reformed the group as Black Eyed Peas; Adams explained on the front cover of the Monkey Business album, "Black Eyed Peas are food for the soul," hence the name; Adams 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 with Taboo (Born: Jaime Gomez). 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 (see 1998 in music). Following this, the group (and their accompanying live band, the Bucky Jonsons) earned critical acclaim. The single from the album was "Joints & Jam", and was featured on the Bulworth soundtrack. Their second album was 2000's Bridging the Gap (see 2000 in music), which featured the single "Request + Line" featuring Macy Gray.
Their breakout album, Elephunk, was released in 2003. It was the group's first album to feature the vocals of Stacy "Fergie" Ferguson, previously a cast member of Kids Incorporated and a member of teen pop band Wild Orchid. She is the replacement of background singer Kim Hill, who left the band in 2000. Though Hill was a backup vocalist, Fergie is recognized as a member of the group and is widely believed to be responsible for the Black Eyed Peas' commercial success.
From Elephunk came "Where is the Love?", featuring an uncredited Justin Timberlake, which became their first major hit, peaking at #8 on the US Hot 100, but topping the charts practically everywhere else, including six weeks at #1 in the UK where it became the biggest-selling single of 2003. The single also had similar results in Australia, staying at #1 for 6 weeks also. The album subsequently spawned "Shut Up", which peaked at #2 in the UK and topped the charts in many other European countries including France and Germany, as well as Australia, holding on to the #1 spot for 3 weeks there. Elephunk won worldwide success and went gold and platinum in the US, UK, Germany and other European markets.
The third single from the album, although significantly restyled from the original Elephunk version, "Hey Mama" hit the Top 10 in the Australia, UK, Germany and other European countries and reached #23 in the US. The song received even more exposure in 2003 when it was featured in the first iPod silhouette TV commercials.
During Black Eyed Peas' concert tour in Asia in 2004, Apl.de.ap's life story was featured in a weekly Filipino TV drama special called Maalaala Mo Kaya (Will You Remember), which explained his childhood with his poor family in Pampanga, Philippines, back then when he was teased as "baluga" (a derogatory word for Negro), before parting with them to live a better life in the US at the age of 14. "The Apl Song", with the chorus written in Tagalog, a language of the Philippines, from their album Elephunk, tells the story of Apl.de.ap. The Tagalog lyrics and backing melody were based on the song "Balita", an original composition of the 1970s Filipino folk rock group Asin. The group produced an exclusive video of the song whose distribution coincided with their tour of the Philippines as part of their album promotion.
The Black Eyed Peas' song "Let's Get Retarded" was restyled as "Let's Get It Started" for an NBA Finals worldwide commercial. ("Getting retarded" was slang for getting drunk or high, but it was considered too potentially offensive for mainstream release.) The song was quite successful on the charts worldwide, peaking at #21 on the US Hot 100, #11 in the UK, and at #2 in Australia. This spot featured Carlos Santana. The revised song had great success as a single, particularly on the iTunes music download service. The song earned the group a 2005 Grammy for Best Rap Performance By A Duo Or Group. The Black Eyed Peas were then featured in The Urbz: Sims in the City videogame as characters. They re-recorded "Let's Get it Started" and "Shut Up" as well as other songs in "Simlish", the dialect language used by 'The Sims' characters.