Speaker 1: West Love Supreme is a production of iHeart Brady. Yeah,
Speaker 1: look at Fonte team, my man, what what up? Fonte? Brother?
Speaker 1: Good to meet you, man, good to meet you. It's
Speaker 1: an honor to meet you. Brother. No, no, I mean
Speaker 1: what you've done. I mean from from the Slum conversations
Speaker 1: with T three to the Daylight conversations. Bro, your name
Speaker 1: is synonymous, You're clue as synonymous, and I always have
Speaker 1: to show my salute, my ultimate respect to pioneers like yourself.
Speaker 1: Oh man, that's love, brother, Thank you so much. I
Speaker 1: received that. Man. Likewise, thank you for sure. Bro. You
Speaker 1: just don't know how much your music means to all
Speaker 1: of us man, like you know, um us being sons
Speaker 1: of Daylight Tribe and just coming from that cloth groups
Speaker 1: like yourselves like you Slum Village, you guys. You guys
Speaker 1: definitely continues with the gone and I'm proud of you
Speaker 1: everything that you've done, even transition into this new medium.
Speaker 1: It's really dope. Thank you so much. Man. So I
Speaker 1: guess we just started the episode already. We started with flowers.
Speaker 1: I started with humility, brothers, because you guys, you guys
Speaker 1: are always giving people flowers. Now it's time for you
Speaker 1: to know what you mean to hip hop culture and
Speaker 1: to two hip hop kids like myself that started as
Speaker 1: b boys breakdancers on the block, wanted to put on
Speaker 1: for our communities, uh you know, our ancestry. Unfortunately, hip
Speaker 1: hop was the conduit. You know, breaking was the first
Speaker 1: thing I got into. Then I got into graffiti, m seeing,
Speaker 1: I met my tribe where I am an apple the
Speaker 1: app and we became uh you know, he became brothers
Speaker 1: and became black eyed peas. So when I see folks
Speaker 1: like yourself, like a mirror and fante who set the
Speaker 1: tone for hip hop culture, I always got to give
Speaker 1: you the flowers. That's love, brother, than thank you. Wow.
Speaker 1: This is the first time where the guests actually winds
Speaker 1: up entering the show. Ladies and gentlemen of the internets,
Speaker 1: welcome to another exciting episode of Question lest Supreme. I'm
Speaker 1: your host, Question Love. We have Fine Tikolo in the house. Brother.
Speaker 1: How's it going all right? Man? I'm cool, just resting
Speaker 1: and uh yeah, getting ready for Thursday and Friday of
Speaker 1: this week. This will it'll have been passed by time
Speaker 1: this air, but yeah, we Boston in New York this week,
Speaker 1: So I'm just resting getting ready. Man, is this a
Speaker 1: major tour or is this? Uh No, I mean it's not, well,
Speaker 1: it's not major in the sense of it's a lot
Speaker 1: of dates. We just did San Diego in Orange County
Speaker 1: last weekend, and then this week it's uh Boston in
Speaker 1: New York. Um June we play Roots Picnic and yeah,
Speaker 1: it's fuck this. I'm back in the house like really,
Speaker 1: oh yeah, do you wait? Wait, I gotta ask, do
Speaker 1: you do you feel like you? You? I know that
Speaker 1: of all of us in this on this show that you,
Speaker 1: more than anyone, has been extremely like almost it's Fort
Speaker 1: Knox level protective of not catching the VID. And you
Speaker 1: went out and then you you you, you got caught
Speaker 1: out there. I called that my first time leaving the house,
Speaker 1: my first run and three years my first it'll be run.
Speaker 1: You know that We went and we did San Diego
Speaker 1: in Orange County and yeah, I got hit. Well now
Speaker 1: that you got I mean, was it like for me
Speaker 1: it was like just having a cold. Was it that
Speaker 1: way for you or was it like a little worried there?
Speaker 1: Of Um, it was like having a cold, But for
Speaker 1: me it was more so it wasn't necessarily just having
Speaker 1: a cold. It was just participating in the delusion that
Speaker 1: this shit is gone right, and like that's the part
Speaker 1: that I just refused to do anymore. Like it's not
Speaker 1: in terms of what touring is now, touring pre COVID
Speaker 1: and turn post COVID, it's just very different, and it's
Speaker 1: like now, particularly for artists like us, I mean, where
Speaker 1: you're pretty much doing everything like motors don't really do
Speaker 1: shit no or so for me, I just looked at
Speaker 1: from the standpoint of'm like, okay, I gotta play promoter, producer, performer,
Speaker 1: curator and the fucking CDC. Fuck this, dude, No, damn,
Speaker 1: I'm good, I'm paid. Bill. I went to get cigarettes again.
Speaker 1: I went to Australia. I'm back. You went to Australia.
Speaker 1: I was in Australia for a few weeks to put
Speaker 1: up a show. Now it's up. Now show. Uh it's
Speaker 1: called and Juliet. You haven't seen it yet, but you've
Speaker 1: threatened to a few times. It's on Broadway. Now it's
Speaker 1: in Australia. Wait, you guys are making it worldwide already.
Speaker 1: Global domination, my friend, blob domination. That's how we do it. Well, Dan,
Speaker 1: with the songbook, I would suspect that and Juliet will
Speaker 1: probably be a five to ten years staple. I hope.
Speaker 1: So that'd be nice for my kids college tuition and all.
Speaker 1: That's what's up, man, That's what's up? U Sugar, Steve Esteemed? Uh,
Speaker 1: jazz label head? What what's going and all? How are you? Um?
Speaker 1: Everything's okay? I We finished three records this past weekend,
Speaker 1: one of them yours. Yes, we finished mixing David Murray,
Speaker 1: Ray Angry and Questla, a four platter box set that
Speaker 1: you can look forward to. She ends up making my
Speaker 1: second jazz offering in my life. Are we calling the
Speaker 1: Philadelphia Experiment the first one? Yeah, that's the first one, okay,
Speaker 1: so I don't necessarily called jazz, but you know this
Speaker 1: one was actually probably I have more fun doing this one.
Speaker 1: I think there's a lot of treats in there. So
Speaker 1: you're saying it's a box set that we're releasing, Yeah,
Speaker 1: four platters and a seven engine side and it's gonna
Speaker 1: be coming later this year. Son, shit, I might have
Speaker 1: to do a news for that. Uh. Have we lost
Speaker 1: our queen today? Yeah, she's on stage doing something something
Speaker 1: for Jill. Okay. He came and set us up that's nice,
Speaker 1: ladies and gentlemen. I will say that our distinguished guest
Speaker 1: today has checked many a bucket list fulfillment since having
Speaker 1: entered our lives some twenty five plus years ago, as
Speaker 1: one third or one fourth how you want to look
Speaker 1: at it, as one third member of legendary, legendary hip
Speaker 1: hop outfit, having created over nine studio albums that have
Speaker 1: worldwide sales over a thirty three million yo. Just looking
Speaker 1: at the stats made me feel like I'm not working
Speaker 1: hard enough. Ninety seven Platinum Awards. I was way too
Speaker 1: lazy to keep total of the gold awards, but I
Speaker 1: stopped counting after one hundred, over a twelve major world tours,
Speaker 1: over sixty sixty various awards from the AMAS to BTS,
Speaker 1: Soul Train Awards, Latin Awards for bill Board, for even
Speaker 1: the En double ACP Awards, six Grammys, six Grammys, countless
Speaker 1: MTV awards. But you know, it's not even about the quantity,
Speaker 1: ladies and gentleman's. It's to me. The achievements are cool.
Speaker 1: But you know, in this episode, we get to know,
Speaker 1: We aim to get to know the person behind the
Speaker 1: achievements and get to know them. And you know, many
Speaker 1: of us were pretty much a majority of us were
Speaker 1: unaware of his of his advocacy work. Now, the thing is,
Speaker 1: when I start talking, I feel like I exposed myself
Speaker 1: when I try to talk sports, Shut up Steve, or comics,
Speaker 1: shut up Steve. Okay, yes, I'm the guy that says
Speaker 1: the sports, the comics, but I you know, I will
Speaker 1: say that with uh, you know, having created indigenous characters
Speaker 1: and it's sort of expanding the world of Marvel is
Speaker 1: a wonderful thing, be it the Red Wolf series or
Speaker 1: the Deadly Neighborhood spider Man. He's also an author of
Speaker 1: a kid's book about identity, and most importantly, he's been extremely,
Speaker 1: extremely vocal in his memoirs and his interviews being an
Speaker 1: advocate for surviving cancer and using this platform to connect
Speaker 1: and encourage others that share that same experience. And at
Speaker 1: the end of the day, you know, I will say
Speaker 1: that he's just an overall a signing light and a
Speaker 1: really cool dude. And please welcome to QLs MC. Author,
Speaker 1: political activists, actor, dancer, singer, songwriter, producer, and yes, survivor.
Speaker 1: Jamie Gomez aka Taboo of the Black Eyed Peas, welcome
Speaker 1: to Thank you a lot Yo. First of all, I
Speaker 1: got acknowledged Steve for being a comic head. Steve, salutes
Speaker 1: to you brother, the fact that Emir had passed it
Speaker 1: on to you and said sports comics not my thing.
Speaker 1: It's all good, all good, and salute to you, Steve.
Speaker 1: And then Bill, you had me at two daughters. I
Speaker 1: don't know seriously when you said I'm a father of
Speaker 1: two daughters, my I would say my greatest gift is
Speaker 1: being a husband and a father, because there's no motives
Speaker 1: behind that other than love. And I'm not trying to
Speaker 1: be Kumbaya a Hallmark card, but this is real. This
Speaker 1: is who I am. All the accolades and all the
Speaker 1: stuff that's monetary and all that stuff where you're battling
Speaker 1: cancer ladies and gentlemen, that shit's so irrelevant. That shit
Speaker 1: is so irrelevant because you're like, YO, just give me
Speaker 1: one more chance to be with my kids, Let me
Speaker 1: hug my wife one more time, Let me get on
Speaker 1: that stage one more time with my crew so that
Speaker 1: I can perform and bring healing to people that need it.
Speaker 1: So I just wanted to get that and be transparent
Speaker 1: and candid about how much love I have for life
Speaker 1: beyond any music, beyond beyond any career. I'm enjoying just
Speaker 1: being able to have opportunities like this to give my
Speaker 1: testimony and meet people like you, Bill, and meet people
Speaker 1: like you Steve, who you know, I've met a mirror.
Speaker 1: I'm a fan of fante. I know what they bring
Speaker 1: to culture. I love them for what they bring and
Speaker 1: who they are as human beings. But to be able
Speaker 1: to see the team that brings us all together and
Speaker 1: give you your flowers and salute you for what you
Speaker 1: make this whole team happen. You guys got to know
Speaker 1: that too, So I just wanted to kind of put
Speaker 1: that out there. I'm all about that, man. I'm telling you,
Speaker 1: humility is freaking key. A lot of people get caught
Speaker 1: up in their own ship and I'm not trying to
Speaker 1: do that. Brother. I surrendered evil a long time ago.
Speaker 1: And so how all your daughters, man? Well, I have
Speaker 1: one daughter. Guess what, I have three boys and one daughter.
Speaker 1: My daughter was born as a miracle baby after my
Speaker 1: doctor said you're not gonna be able to have any
Speaker 1: more children because you have stage two testicular cancers. So
Speaker 1: the chemotherapy so going to be so aggressive, intense and
Speaker 1: it's gonna break down everything that's good in your body
Speaker 1: to kill that one thing that's bad in your body.
Speaker 1: And so he said, unfortunately, you're probably not going to
Speaker 1: have any more children. So my daughter, my one and
Speaker 1: only daughter, jet Juliana, was born as a miracle baby.
Speaker 1: And so when you said that, Bill, I was like, Yo,
Speaker 1: There's only been one other person that has inspired me
Speaker 1: like that, and that was Kobe Bryants. I had a
Speaker 1: chance to build my brother Kobe, and his love and
Speaker 1: his appreciation for being such an amazing girl dad was
Speaker 1: something that sparked me to become a writer of books
Speaker 1: and comics and be a storyteller and really focus on
Speaker 1: my kids and kids around the world, bring inclusion, bring
Speaker 1: a mosaic of cultures that's represented through storytelling, and do
Speaker 1: it in a way where it's fun, there's music, there's art,
Speaker 1: there's culture, and has done very genuine and authentic. So
Speaker 1: let me ask you for you for your life, women,
Speaker 1: was the paradigm shift in which you had this awakening
Speaker 1: and this zest for life. For people that remember the
Speaker 1: earlier work as a black Eyed peas I was, I
Speaker 1: looked very different back then because I wasn't taking care
Speaker 1: of myself. I looked more depleted. My check bone structure
Speaker 1: was very profound. I had long hair. I was like
Speaker 1: weighed like one hundred and ten pounds because I was
Speaker 1: using it and abusing. And I'm very candid about it.
Speaker 1: When I when I became sobers, when I found that
Speaker 1: first moment of clarity for myself. And I only speak
Speaker 1: for me because I was going crazy, but I was
Speaker 1: living the rock star lifestyle. I went from sleeping on
Speaker 1: mom's couch to having my first you know whatever success
Speaker 1: with whereas of love, and that was in two thousand
Speaker 1: and three. So from two thousand, from nineteen ninety five
Speaker 1: when we started Black Eyed Peas to two thousand and three,
Speaker 1: I was building this like bravado and this energy, you know,
Speaker 1: hip hop grabbed your crotch all that shit. I'm an MC,
Speaker 1: I'm a b boy. I'm gonna battle you, yah yah
Speaker 1: yah yeah. Right, you're building this provader. You're confidence sometimes
Speaker 1: turns into ego, especially when you're going crazy with over indulging.
Speaker 1: And so I started over indulging, started getting money over indulging,
Speaker 1: and I wrote a book about it, another book before
Speaker 1: I wrote the Kid's book about identity. Because I wanted
Speaker 1: to help people that have addiction or going through addition.
Speaker 1: And in two thousand and seven, March twenty seventh, that
Speaker 1: was the day that I changed my whole perspective because
Speaker 1: I wanted to live for my kids. I was living dangerously.
Speaker 1: I was living recklessly, and you know, I had a surrender.
Speaker 1: That was my first moment of surrendering because my ego
Speaker 1: is out of control and it kept saying You're the shit,
Speaker 1: nobody could fuck with you, You're unstoppable, You're part of
Speaker 1: this mega crew, YadA, YadA, YadA. But in actuality, I
Speaker 1: was just a human that was trying to fill void
Speaker 1: with alcoholism and drug use. And I'm candid about it
Speaker 1: because I want people to take inspiration from this, even
Speaker 1: if they're like, wow, we didn't know that you were
Speaker 1: going to that. Well, I never really publicly talked about it.
Speaker 1: I actually did the work and the due diligence and
Speaker 1: the ways to be able to give back and to
Speaker 1: be of service. And so from that point on, my
Speaker 1: first step of moment of clarity was sobriety. So now,
Speaker 1: going on sixteen years of being removed from that time period,
Speaker 1: in twenty fourteen, I get hit with cancer and as man,
Speaker 1: we don't talk about that ship ever. I ain't got
Speaker 1: to get tested. Man, my testicles, we mean touched my nuts?
Speaker 1: What do you mean go to the doctor and I'm
Speaker 1: gonna go on tour. I got tours. I got shows
Speaker 1: to do, right, So that was the mentality. I got
Speaker 1: shows to do. So I had this back pain and
Speaker 1: my right testicle is hurting, but I was like, oh,
Speaker 1: that's cool, it's it's a it's wearing terrible of the road.
Speaker 1: And so in twenty fourteen was the year that it
Speaker 1: all came crashing down for me and I got diagnosed
Speaker 1: with stage to testicular cancer, which it went to my
Speaker 1: two lip notes to my fine, and I did have
Speaker 1: to go into aggressive chemotherapy six days a week, well
Speaker 1: excuse me, six hours a day, five days a week,
Speaker 1: many many long, strenuous hours of torture and trauma, mental
Speaker 1: and physical. I've only probably really been close to one
Speaker 1: person that had to go through testing and that stuff
Speaker 1: with leukemia. Shout out to Rich Nichols, who even then,
Speaker 1: like Rich was such a hard ass cynic that he
Speaker 1: didn't want to burden us with the human side of
Speaker 1: what it felt like. But what what does what is
Speaker 1: the process of going through that level of chema where
Speaker 1: six hours every day? What is the what is the process?
Speaker 1: It's different for every type of cancer. You know, for
Speaker 1: the Kids Unit, which is the cancer treatment center for
Speaker 1: kids m McDonald's Center in Los Angeles, they have different
Speaker 1: varieties of chemotherapy that some of them are aggressive, but
Speaker 1: also you don't want to you don't want to bring
Speaker 1: trauma to the kids so much that it causes permanent damage.
Speaker 1: So with me, it was like, I'm going to go
Speaker 1: aggressive because I want to be back on stage. So
Speaker 1: I opted to do aggressive chemo because it was spreading
Speaker 1: at such a rapid rate that if I didn't do
Speaker 1: it the way that I did it with five hours
Speaker 1: a day, I mean, excuse me, six hours a day,
Speaker 1: five days a week, then it would have prolonged the
Speaker 1: process and I probably it probably would have went from
Speaker 1: my spine, my lungs, and then my brain and I
Speaker 1: would have died. And that was how the doctor explained
Speaker 1: it to me. How long from the moment that you
Speaker 1: found that you had it, how long did it take
Speaker 1: you to acknowledge it? And like, all right, let me
Speaker 1: start treatment from I got checked in on a Thursday,
Speaker 1: I was doing chemo on that Monday, so I had
Speaker 1: surgery Friday to get my right testico removed. So as
Speaker 1: you were concerned, you were just like, damn, man, like
Speaker 1: my back is killing me. I can't dance like I
Speaker 1: used to. Let me go get the spicks, and then
Speaker 1: that's how you found out you had cancer or well,
Speaker 1: it was like I had pain in my back, and
Speaker 1: it was more about like being able to pick my
Speaker 1: kids up more than dancing. Okay, it was something very
Speaker 1: innate to my life, Like the dancing thing is only
Speaker 1: like an hour or two hours when I'm on stage, right,
Speaker 1: I live a daily life of being a father, and
Speaker 1: so something as simple is like trying to bend over
Speaker 1: to picking my kid. I had the sharp pain in
Speaker 1: my back. So I was like, yo, there's something wrong
Speaker 1: with me. I just don't know what it is. Maybe
Speaker 1: it's wear and tear of being on tour. Tell my wife.
Speaker 1: My wife says, hey, if this continues to get worse,
Speaker 1: you need to go to the AR. Unfortunately, at twelve
Speaker 1: midnight it got worse, so I drove. I don't know
Speaker 1: how I did it. I got in my car, drove
Speaker 1: to the AR and I went straight into getting m
Speaker 1: I cat scans, CT scans, and by seven am they
Speaker 1: told me I was diagnosed with cancer. They didn't tell
Speaker 1: me what type of cancer. They just said, Um, we
Speaker 1: found a mass which is four centimeters wide four centimeters
Speaker 1: long like a tennis ball, and it's in your spine
Speaker 1: and it came from your right testicle. Run in your family?
Speaker 1: Is it hereditary? That was the first one, brother. Wow,
Speaker 1: So so let me let me just give you guys,
Speaker 1: because I know this is a fun show and everybody's beaten.
Speaker 1: No no, this is a human no, no, no, a
Speaker 1: human show and there's a human show. Normally I just
Speaker 1: start with your creative life, but you went there, so
Speaker 1: I want to know this for me. Yeah, so so,
Speaker 1: so I just wanted to give you guys, uh, the
Speaker 1: ultimate connection to me as a human being, because I
Speaker 1: love what you guys do with the show, how you
Speaker 1: guys take journeys of like the dark side the light,
Speaker 1: the career triumphs. But this one for me was the
Speaker 1: thing that kind of shape and molding who I am
Speaker 1: today as a father, as a husband, as a storyteller,
Speaker 1: as a creative because I probably wouldn't have understood being
Speaker 1: a voice to indigenous communities if I didn't go through
Speaker 1: this trauma. Because after I beat this horrible disease, I
Speaker 1: said to myself, what's my higher purpose beyond being an entertainer,
Speaker 1: beyond doing music? Wait a minute, I think I gotta
Speaker 1: go and be of service. So I went to Standing Rock.
Speaker 1: Standing Rock was a they say it's a protest. We
Speaker 1: call it a protection of sacred land. At that time,
Speaker 1: which is sing rock to tribe, they were trying to
Speaker 1: bring build the oil pipeline that would eventually bring oil
Speaker 1: into the water drinking water of the trafic community surround
Speaker 1: that you were part of those protesters that I went
Speaker 1: there as Jimmy Gomez, an activist, as a Native kid
Speaker 1: that just wanted to standing solidentity wasn't about Black Eyed Peas.
Speaker 1: It just me. I took my oldest son, Josh, and
Speaker 1: we were there as as Native activists of giving back
Speaker 1: to the community, trying to just be of service. And
Speaker 1: then I figured out how I can be a voice
Speaker 1: and really use this huge megaphone that is Black Eyed
Speaker 1: Peas to bring more eyeballs and more visibility to tribal issue,
Speaker 1: whether we're talking about you know, pipelines or we're talking
Speaker 1: about indigenous people's seeing Los Angeles, we're talking about the
Speaker 1: Native Nation's march, or bringing more conversation in mainstream media
Speaker 1: that has an indigenous lens that's very genuine and authentic
Speaker 1: and not stereotypical like we've seen in the past. And
Speaker 1: so that was kind of like my AHA moment to
Speaker 1: be that guy. He's like, Yo, black Eyed Peas, Yo
Speaker 1: wheels all about technology, Apple's all about the Philippines. Yo,
Speaker 1: I'm going to be about this. I'm going to activate
Speaker 1: this amazing opportunity to inspire the youth in tribal communities
Speaker 1: in the Latino community because I'm Mexican as well. Why
Speaker 1: don't I use this energy that I've been putting on
Speaker 1: stage for so many years and now bring light to
Speaker 1: the fight against cancer, advocating for indigenous communities and actually
Speaker 1: do something to bring light and hope to the people. Yeah,
Speaker 1: I was going to say that. In doing research for
Speaker 1: your story, and you know, having just turned fifty two
Speaker 1: two months ago, I'd suddenly asked myself a question. I'm like,
Speaker 1: wait a minute, I think when you turned fifty you're
Speaker 1: supposed to start getting test to see you know, because
Speaker 1: I'm one of those people. You know, I have been
Speaker 1: living with like stage two LYMPHIDEMAUM for about yeah, like
Speaker 1: since like ninety eight, like for twenty five years. Answer
Speaker 1: with you about something. Yeah, I noticed that. I noticed
Speaker 1: that about you because I saw the fluctuating of your
Speaker 1: health and my friend from Afar seeing you at certain events,
Speaker 1: I'd be like, yo, you know, just going through my
Speaker 1: struggles in my illness. Same thing that happened with Dave
Speaker 1: in Peace for Boy, I had that same conversation, and
Speaker 1: it was so candid and it was so on a
Speaker 1: human level that he inquired me more than any day
Speaker 1: I saw track or any song or any message or
Speaker 1: any lyrics because we we bonded as brothers. And so
Speaker 1: you know, I noticed that about you, and I gotta say, man,
Speaker 1: like you without even knowing you, you are one of
Speaker 1: those warriors that have inspired me too. Thank you, man,
Speaker 1: thank you. You know at the time, I just ignored it,
Speaker 1: and I never heard the term limpid demon. I was
Speaker 1: just like, damn, I got fat, like suddenly, I gained
Speaker 1: seventeen pounds overnight, Like how has that happened? And I
Speaker 1: didn't realize, like, you know, every day I have massive
Speaker 1: swelling and like in different limbs or whatnot. Just every day.
Speaker 1: It was sort of like a roulette. Change of a
Speaker 1: roulette will result of all, right, what's going to be
Speaker 1: affected today? Oh my arms? Okay great, That's why I
Speaker 1: asked you, like from the time you were diagnosed to
Speaker 1: the time that you immediately wanted to get it checked out.
Speaker 1: Like it took me nine years, nine years to finally
Speaker 1: and it's only because of mistake, Like I was changed
Speaker 1: before a video. My manager saw me and like, what
Speaker 1: the fuck happened to your legs? A mirror and then
Speaker 1: like he rushed me into the hospital. So um, you know,
Speaker 1: and I know I'm at that age now where every
Speaker 1: my mental health and my physical health is like paramount,
Speaker 1: and so like I took my first and I had
Speaker 1: a fear. You know, sometimes ignorance is bliss sometimes with people,
Speaker 1: and I had a general fear like kept putting it off. Okay,
Speaker 1: when I turned fifty one, I'm gonna get the testament,
Speaker 1: get the testament due my my my cancer test and
Speaker 1: all that stuff. So I definitely knew that before we
Speaker 1: started this interview. I didn't want to have to face
Speaker 1: you and been like hiding, like uh, yeah, I've been
Speaker 1: putting this off for two years. I finally got I
Speaker 1: did my test like a week and a half ago.
Speaker 1: So you know, I'm good, clean bill of health. But yeah,
Speaker 1: I just but I do know that because of our
Speaker 1: unwillingness to catch it earlier or that sort of thing,
Speaker 1: or to even find out, we'd rather just live in
Speaker 1: bliss and then it's too late and your body starts
Speaker 1: talking to you and then you have that that pain.
Speaker 1: So but yeah, I will say that in doing research
Speaker 1: and seeing your story, then I guess that kind of
Speaker 1: pushed me over the ledge, like all right, man, just
Speaker 1: start doing your test, bro, Like get this together. So well.
Speaker 1: We need we need we need more heroes without capes
Speaker 1: and our communities that activate just you know, health as
Speaker 1: wealth man. And I learned that the heartbreak. I'm not
Speaker 1: a preacher. I will never preach health and wellness, but
Speaker 1: I will shine light on it and be like, yo,
Speaker 1: we need that more hip hop community. I see a
Speaker 1: lot of our pioneers that are not taking care of themselves. Yeah,
Speaker 1: I'm like, yo, you know what I'm saying. And I'm
Speaker 1: a fan of these pioneers and some of them just
Speaker 1: you know, and it's sad because with a little bit
Speaker 1: of prevention with a little bit of a conversation and
Speaker 1: communication which can hope bring that light. Like that's something
Speaker 1: that you know, I would like to do that for
Speaker 1: for communities, just like just like what Lance Armstrong and
Speaker 1: I know the whole scandal was whacking. It just ended
Speaker 1: up like bullshit, right, But if I can be that
Speaker 1: conduit of hope with my experience so that folks don't
Speaker 1: have to go through it and can prevent it, just
Speaker 1: like what you said a mirror, You're like, oh, I
Speaker 1: saw your story and I'm like, fock, okay, it's fifty one. Okay,
Speaker 1: I'm gonna do it. Maybe it was a little nudge
Speaker 1: that you didn't even expect it. Maybe because you saw
Speaker 1: what I went through, You're like, you know what, all right,
Speaker 1: let me go get chests. Definitely a nudge. It is
Speaker 1: the nudge that finally made me call my doctor and
Speaker 1: being like all right, I'm coming in let me you know,
Speaker 1: so I want to credit you with that. Yeah, man,
Speaker 1: it's a conversation that that I think is healthy to have.
Speaker 1: It's holistic. It's a way that we can we can
Speaker 1: bring something that that you're you're trying to support and
Speaker 1: nurture the idea of just wanting to see your people
Speaker 1: succeed and not only music or art, but also in
Speaker 1: taking care of themselves. Now, I'm really going to start style.
Speaker 1: Where were you born? I was born in East Los Angeles,
Speaker 1: Ball Heights, California. Okay, yeah, what's your what's you know
Speaker 1: for you? What's your memories of what your childhood was?
Speaker 1: My grandmother, my grandmother was a beautiful Native woman from Jerome, Arizona.
Speaker 1: She represented her roots to the to the tea. She
Speaker 1: was all about being a service, sometimes to her own detriment,
Speaker 1: her own health, which taught me a lot about like, hey,
Speaker 1: I'm gonna help, but I'm not gonna put my health
Speaker 1: before anybody else. Um. She was all about the arts
Speaker 1: and music and dancing. It goes hand in hand with
Speaker 1: our ancestry. You know, we used dancing as a way
Speaker 1: of prayer healing. If you look at an old power
Speaker 1: out style dancers, a lot of it is just stories
Speaker 1: that are being told through their their style and their expression,
Speaker 1: and they use that as a former healing in prayer
Speaker 1: and so growing up, my grandmother kind of instilled that
Speaker 1: that dancing performing mentality at five years old, and I
Speaker 1: would be dancing to like you know, craft work and
Speaker 1: African Bambada and you know, um, I got into craft
Speaker 1: work because of African Bambada and soconic Force. I started
Speaker 1: understanding studying where that whole electronic style came from. And
Speaker 1: then after that I saw, you know, when we saw
Speaker 1: breaking and he saw what's the name doing the freaking? Like, Yo,
Speaker 1: what's that? Oh wait, that's craft work? Wait a minute.
Speaker 1: So I started doing a deep dive into like not
Speaker 1: just hip hop culture, but also where it comes from
Speaker 1: and where that electronic vibe came from, so you know,
Speaker 1: and and growing up, I started really sharpening my swords
Speaker 1: as a b board breaking being inspired by breakers like
Speaker 1: Crazy Legs and the rock Steady Crew from from New York,
Speaker 1: but also a lot of dancers from from the West
Speaker 1: Coast like Popping Pete Boggaou Shrimp Um, Jeffrey Daniels who
Speaker 1: was part of Shelamar, he was doing Feller, you know
Speaker 1: what I'm saying, Like he was ill with it. He
Speaker 1: taught Mike MJ a lot of the stuff. Um, but
Speaker 1: also like Leg one, Leg two, MC Lights Dancers, Mission
Speaker 1: Impossible Special LEDs dancers, Uh, you know kid in play
Speaker 1: to scheme team, which is Divine Stylers dancers, So Brothers
Speaker 1: that was Deaf Jeff's dancers. Yeah yeah, yeah, the far side,
Speaker 1: you know, and I mean the mop tops from buddhas
Speaker 1: Stretch from from New York. Like, I had such an
Speaker 1: innate love for for freestyle dance, and then it got
Speaker 1: into housing. Once housing came in, I was like, Yo,
Speaker 1: what's this Because when I heard the Ginger Brothers said
Speaker 1: say girl, our house you I was like housing. And
Speaker 1: I started doing research on like soho and hot hot
Speaker 1: music music Hot from Doom Dude. I was like, Yo,
Speaker 1: what's that style? So I started seeing these different styles
Speaker 1: herp Alpert North on South Street, watching those videos and
Speaker 1: really immersing myself in the art foom a dance. And
Speaker 1: then I started studying the great Nicholas Brothers, James Brown,
Speaker 1: Sammy Davis, Bob Fosse, all these amazing dancers that came
Speaker 1: from from the past, and I started incorporating these styles
Speaker 1: and wanted to bring this this hip hop clash of
Speaker 1: like all these unique frequencies of movement. And so that
Speaker 1: was my upbringing. Man, That's what I that's what I remember.
Speaker 1: This is before me even meeting Will and Apple. Before
Speaker 1: we even became Black Eyed Peas, I started a group
Speaker 1: called Divine Tribal Brothers, and of course who were sons
Speaker 1: of tribe, and we loved the Jungle Brothers. So Tribal
Speaker 1: Brothers right right, Will and Apple were tribal nation because
Speaker 1: Zulu nation and you know trip call quests. So eventually
Speaker 1: we became a crew and the name of our crew
Speaker 1: was Grassroots. And when we're trying to do like the
Speaker 1: Native tongues in the West Coast, because we were so
Speaker 1: inspired by the native tongues. It wasn't just your grandmother,
Speaker 1: was it mom and dad in the picture? Like who
Speaker 1: was who was it? My mom was in the picture,
Speaker 1: but you know she was she was born in East La.
Speaker 1: Very typical mom from from East La. She she was.
Speaker 1: She didn't see it like my grandmother saw it. She knew.
Speaker 1: She's like, you get on the stage and you give
Speaker 1: the best version of yourself and don't ever stop fighting
Speaker 1: when you're on that stage. Right, So that b boy mentality,
Speaker 1: that killer, that apex predator mentality, battle came from my
Speaker 1: grandmother's will and her energy. Like, yeah, I loved Michael
Speaker 1: Jordan and you know Magic Johnson and all these sports
Speaker 1: figures and Bruce Lee was a big, huge inspiration. I
Speaker 1: love Kung Foot movies, Marsha black Bell Theater, loved Billy
Speaker 1: Jack Um you know, love watching those old school eighties
Speaker 1: movies too. But my grandmother was my superhero. And that's
Speaker 1: I think that's why I kind of really got into
Speaker 1: storytelling and being a superhero advocate because my grandmother was
Speaker 1: my hero. Without a cape. You mention hot Music by Soho.
Speaker 1: Just found out that um Soho was basically are you
Speaker 1: are you? You remember pal Joey, Pal Joey and the House?
Speaker 1: I did not know so pal Joey, who was kind
Speaker 1: of an engineer for Kariss One. So I guess around
Speaker 1: the time when they're making Sex and Violence. I think
Speaker 1: D Nice told me the story that basically all those
Speaker 1: patches belonged to d Nice and Kariss One, like that's
Speaker 1: how he made hot music. But Pal Joey is making
Speaker 1: like house records on the side, just you know, for
Speaker 1: extra cash or whatnot. So wow, and I did not
Speaker 1: know it. That's kind of like how we looked at
Speaker 1: when we when we started getting that frequency of international
Speaker 1: EDM electronic music around the world, whether it was Justice
Speaker 1: or the the you know, uh David Getta who were
Speaker 1: traveled the world, and we're like, yo, remember that era
Speaker 1: of like go out house you and the technotronic plump
Speaker 1: up the gym? Y remember remember so who hot Hot.
Speaker 1: We started talking about how we can connect and bring
Speaker 1: whatever was happening around the world and bring that same
Speaker 1: frequency that Jungle Brothers was doing when they did throw
Speaker 1: a House you, but just doing a black eyed Peace
Speaker 1: style and utilizing those inspirations and those sounds and those
Speaker 1: frequencies that were electronic that were popping in around the world.
Speaker 1: That in turn became the Boom Boom Pals and the
Speaker 1: I Gotta Feelings and those big records that we did
Speaker 1: in two thousand and eight to twenty eleven. And so
Speaker 1: all we did was just regurgitate the inspiration that came
Speaker 1: from Jungle Brothers and and and those folks that were
Speaker 1: transitioning into that, Yeah, a lecture of music. Music. Yeah.
Speaker 1: When I talk to anyone from LA that's a dancer,
Speaker 1: the first thing they always tell me is that, you know,
Speaker 1: it wasn't Vogan. It's called whacking. There's a whacking culture.
Speaker 1: Whacking culture whacking like what was I guess him outside
Speaker 1: of her standpoint. I mean, I'm a DJ, but I
Speaker 1: don't really get many opportunities to do like house parties
Speaker 1: like on frequently, maybe like four or five times a
Speaker 1: year some club will hired me to do a house
Speaker 1: set or whatever. But you know, were you at all
Speaker 1: part of the whacking community like those? It was a
Speaker 1: pretty tight niche We were part of the freestyle the
Speaker 1: Adrian Youngs. You know Adrian Young before he became a producer. Wait, yeah,
Speaker 1: before Adrian Young became a producer with Ali Shahid Muhammad Yo.
Speaker 1: This dude was an incredible dancer. Bro Like, he had
Speaker 1: the dreadlocks. My man, Adrian Young was one of the
Speaker 1: illest dancers and we all came up together. You know.
Speaker 1: So shout out to Adrian Young for his transition into
Speaker 1: becoming an amazing cultureist of the culture. He just he's
Speaker 1: just such a big inspiration because he did start as
Speaker 1: a dancer. He started as a freestyle dancer with us.
Speaker 1: So were you part of the good life community at
Speaker 1: all or was that like sort of before we had
Speaker 1: our own thing. We had our own thing called Peace
Speaker 1: and Justice Center, which Black Eyed Peas spawned out of it.
Speaker 1: We also had pump gated heead we used to come
Speaker 1: out of there. Um. Not a lot of main artists
Speaker 1: came out of there, but we had love and appreciation
Speaker 1: for the abstract roods and the fellowships and you know,
Speaker 1: uh Medusa and all those folks. Yeah, Medusa. Um, But
Speaker 1: we weren't that part of La. We weren't in Lamert Park.
Speaker 1: We were in East La Glendale, Sangibo Valley, Los Felis,
Speaker 1: Like that was our world. That was our stomping grounds,
Speaker 1: and we were more in the Filipino community because of
Speaker 1: apple apples. He was the guy that would bring us
Speaker 1: to the hip to Filipino parties. So okay, that's kind
Speaker 1: of where we We were sharp sharpen our swords and
Speaker 1: battle other crews. My idea of battling really just stems
Speaker 1: from watching Beach Street and that sort of thing. But
Speaker 1: you know, when you go to a function, like take
Speaker 1: us back to nineteen ninety or ninety one, If you're
Speaker 1: going to a function, are you going there to flex that?
Speaker 1: I will dance out dance to all of you, like
Speaker 1: how does a battle start? It's more of a spiritual warfare, bro,
Speaker 1: more than our battle out dance you. It's more like
Speaker 1: when you know when you see the X men battling
Speaker 1: Scratch Pickles, or you see the beat junkies battling these
Speaker 1: other DJs and they're going there, they're killing. It's the
Speaker 1: same mentality for for dancers or B boys or freestyle dancers,
Speaker 1: like we are in there as apex predators to see
Speaker 1: who's got the illest shit? How dope are you repid?
Speaker 1: What's the what's the dopest moves that you're bringing to
Speaker 1: be able to show that you're representing your crew. And we,
Speaker 1: you know, we watch movies like Umu Rack Shot by
Speaker 1: the mop Tops and and Wild Style, and you know,
Speaker 1: we learn from the greats watching the battles between rock
Speaker 1: Steady and the other crews and seeing how they would
Speaker 1: go into it and be able to present this beautiful
Speaker 1: art form that was ghetto gymnastics that we would do
Speaker 1: in our backyards practicing, and then we would bring it
Speaker 1: to the stage and it was a performance. Basically, it
Speaker 1: was like people were watching us battle. And then Will
Speaker 1: would get on the mic and battle on the MC tip.
Speaker 1: He was a killer. He was a killer on the
Speaker 1: MCATs on the freestyle tip. And so there was this
Speaker 1: club called Ballistics which Bud Bundy Ak David Faustino used
Speaker 1: to put out and there was a hip hop club
Speaker 1: and basically we would have, you know, crews from Pasadena,
Speaker 1: from LA from South Central come to battle at the
Speaker 1: spot in Hollywood, and that's where Buckwheat was at. That's
Speaker 1: where the Far Side exhibit Robin Dick Haul of Patton,
Speaker 1: Leonardo DiCaprio. We all came to Alyssa Milano. We all
Speaker 1: came to this club when we were all teenagers and
Speaker 1: black eyed peas. That's where we met and that's where
Speaker 1: we started kind of like conjugating at this club called Ballistics.
Speaker 1: When these battles happened, Like is there at ticular crew
Speaker 1: or a person to whom you were like, nah, man,
Speaker 1: I'm a destroyer when I see him next, or that
Speaker 1: sort of thing, Like like what's the battle mentality to
Speaker 1: to discredit another dancer? Not discredit another dancer, but like,
Speaker 1: how does one determine who won a dance battle? Um?
Speaker 1: I think it's more about the cruise, you know, and
Speaker 1: and and just getting the name up and getting your
Speaker 1: name because the crew would give you married in every
Speaker 1: city if you're if you're dominating these battles. Um it
Speaker 1: wasn't about money. Back then. There was no money. It
Speaker 1: was like you know when you watch eight Miles, like
Speaker 1: Eminem just battling. There was no like it's like, Yo,
Speaker 1: you're battling for reputation, right, and then you're battling At
Speaker 1: that time in the eighty nine ninety it's like, Yo,
Speaker 1: I might be seen by somebody that I can probably
Speaker 1: make this a living, right because we don't know. We're
Speaker 1: like we see people on television, we see people in
Speaker 1: the movie. He's like, oh, yeah, I'm a dancer, I'm
Speaker 1: a b boy. Maybe I can get a foot loose opportunity.
Speaker 1: Maybe I can be on David Letterman, like the way
Speaker 1: that Crazy Lads was, you know what I'm saying. So
Speaker 1: this just as a kid from the inner cities, you're
Speaker 1: just like, Yo, this is my opportunity to express myself.
Speaker 1: At that time, I wasn't rapping. I would just break
Speaker 1: dancing or freestyle dancing. And then I started elevating my
Speaker 1: mentality to be able to utilize performance dancing. And then
Speaker 1: with the guidance and the strength and the leadership of Will,
Speaker 1: I was like, Yo, maybe I can do this thing
Speaker 1: too and represent and utilize this as another weapon, production, songwriting,
Speaker 1: breaking and like the way Chris Brown was. You know,
Speaker 1: Chris Brown had that same type of philosophy as like
Speaker 1: I could be a triple threat, break it down because
Speaker 1: he wasn't just a regular dancer or not just a
Speaker 1: regular dancer. He's actually one of my favorites because he's
Speaker 1: able to do street dancing and not you know, he
Speaker 1: can do choreography, but he can also have his own
Speaker 1: freestyle bounce to it. What was the point in which
Speaker 1: you knew or seriously pursued like, Okay, this is what
Speaker 1: I want to do for a living. What was your
Speaker 1: life into your daily life into pre entertainment, like as
Speaker 1: far as school or a job or that sort of thing.
Speaker 1: My first first job was at Disneyland picking up Horseman
Speaker 1: after the electrical parade, which was I was dealing with
Speaker 1: a lot of ship back then, ladies and gentlemen. I
Speaker 1: was dealing with a lot of shit. But it taught
Speaker 1: me being on point um as far as like um,
Speaker 1: you know, being punctual, work ethic um, humility, because I
Speaker 1: was dealing with a lot of shit but also being
Speaker 1: part of a corporate structure. And during the day I
Speaker 1: was working at disneland and at night I was performing
Speaker 1: with Will and Apple, which was what was to become
Speaker 1: Black Eyed Peas, And so I had a day job
Speaker 1: to be able to facilitate my dream at night. Um,
Speaker 1: just like what you guys used to do a mirror
Speaker 1: at the what was it called Leila's was that? What
Speaker 1: was that spot called? Yeah? Yeah, yeah, yeah, the early years. Yes,
Speaker 1: So we used to do that same thing. We used
Speaker 1: to go to this Peace and Justice Center and just
Speaker 1: sharpen our swords, do like a jam, or we had
Speaker 1: a live band and we would rock out and we
Speaker 1: would do these performances. And so even though we were
Speaker 1: getting paid a lot of money, maybe like one hundred
Speaker 1: and two hundred bucks, we looked at it like, oh,
Speaker 1: this is a start of something. Maybe we can you know,
Speaker 1: continue to grow this art form and this this this
Speaker 1: vehicle called Black Eyed Peas and this could become something. So,
Speaker 1: you know, and we're straight out of high school. Man,
Speaker 1: We're seventeen eighteen year old kids that that had a
Speaker 1: dollar in a dream or two dollars in a dream
Speaker 1: for gas. And so Disneyland was my first initial job
Speaker 1: fulfilling the dream because that was the way I was
Speaker 1: able to pay for gas or meals to get to
Speaker 1: the studio or to my performance. I was gonna ask
Speaker 1: had y'all officially become at band clan at that point? No, So,
Speaker 1: Will and Apple got signed at sixteen as an ad
Speaker 1: band clan, and it was another brother named Mookie that
Speaker 1: was part of that trio. Easy actually discovered Will and
Speaker 1: Apple at Ballistics the Bud Bundy joint, and so he
Speaker 1: signed him. He was like, Yo, I love I love
Speaker 1: what you guys representing. You guys are kind of like
Speaker 1: the West Coast version of a trip Call Quest or
Speaker 1: Diggible Planets. You guys are like, you know you got
Speaker 1: that whatever whatever he said, Bohemian rap or whatever, because
Speaker 1: he didn't know how to explain it. And so he's like,
Speaker 1: I'm gonna do the same thing Diggible and Tried did
Speaker 1: in the East Coast. I'm gonna do that for you
Speaker 1: guys here in the West Coast. And so unfortunately Easy
Speaker 1: passed away ninety five, and so that's that was kind
Speaker 1: of the moment where Will was like, Yo, we got
Speaker 1: to start a new thing. It can't be ad Bank clan.
Speaker 1: So let's just I don't know this called Blue Unit. Nah.
Speaker 1: That's why let's call it uh, let's call it uh
Speaker 1: beans of rice? Why nah, it's just kind of whack.
Speaker 1: What about what about black eyed peas? Peas? What does
Speaker 1: that represent? Black eyed peas is so food? We could
Speaker 1: feed the soul with our music? Oh shit, Okay, black
Speaker 1: eyed peas and black eyed peas brings good luck during
Speaker 1: New Year's We bring good luck with our music. So
Speaker 1: we started coming with it cool ideas about what black
Speaker 1: eyed peas represented. And plus, there wasn't a lot of
Speaker 1: food groups out there other than the chili pepper, right, Fante,
Speaker 1: you're kind of a part of this, but you, you
Speaker 1: and poo don't necessarily do like run DMC tug of
Speaker 1: war style. But you know in the Peas there are
Speaker 1: various songs in which you guys trade lines and that
Speaker 1: sort of thing. Can you describe to me, Like, what
Speaker 1: is the creative process when you are one third of
Speaker 1: a unit and you're creating a song, and you know,
Speaker 1: of course there's the old all right, you get one verse,
Speaker 1: you get one verse, you get one verse, but you
Speaker 1: know who decides which verse goes for us? He's the
Speaker 1: first verse to be heard. Who decides? Like when you
Speaker 1: guys are writing songs and which you are are trading
Speaker 1: like tug of war lines like walk me through just
Speaker 1: the creative process of how you guys develop your lyrics. Yeah,
Speaker 1: I would say the best way to describe the most
Speaker 1: recent exchange of even shared contributions is this album called
Speaker 1: Masters in the Sun, which we put out in two eighteen,
Speaker 1: which is probably about that love that record Thank You Brother,
Speaker 1: which is our best work. It's not a pop record.
Speaker 1: It's a strictly Black Eyed Peas is showing you, which
Speaker 1: we still are capable of doing as hip hop kids,
Speaker 1: as mcs. We got to work with our freaking one
Speaker 1: of our mentors, Lalo Shipperd doing all these transitions. So
Speaker 1: that being said, you know, we're just in the studio
Speaker 1: just vibing, like jumping around and just acting like we
Speaker 1: were seventeen again. And that's what the Peas is is,
Speaker 1: like we're it's a friendship. You know. We've had different
Speaker 1: iterations of as you mentioned earlier about like is it
Speaker 1: a third is it a fourth um? You know, shout
Speaker 1: out to all the ladies that have been part of
Speaker 1: our journey. But at the end of the day, like
Speaker 1: black Eyed Peas is myself, I am an apple and
Speaker 1: it's always been that, And so what you see on
Speaker 1: stage is us jump jumping around having a good time,
Speaker 1: just you know, not taking ourselves too seriously. Not to
Speaker 1: Day Last, so not to day La because they said
Speaker 1: the same thing that inspired us. So we just we
Speaker 1: do that. We are in the studio and we're building
Speaker 1: and we say a couple of words. I don't like
Speaker 1: that line. Maybe we've changed that line. All right, app
Speaker 1: what do you got? Apples say something, and then we
Speaker 1: just started exchange and then you have your traditional like
Speaker 1: you know, tab what you got yo? I got this first? Okay,
Speaker 1: you go first? All right, well we got this. So
Speaker 1: there's no recipe. It's just we're scientists in there. We
Speaker 1: we tap into a frequency that we want to display
Speaker 1: on every every song, and it comes out magical because
Speaker 1: we know our formula. We know how to maneuver on
Speaker 1: stage and in the studio as a trio. You spoke
Speaker 1: about briefly about the ladies that y'all worked with over
Speaker 1: the years. I want to ask you specifically about Kim Hill.
Speaker 1: I really love her, Like, what memories do you have
Speaker 1: of working with her during that time of First of all,
Speaker 1: I just want to acknowledge all the ladies that have
Speaker 1: worked with us, and Kim Hill set the tone. You know,
Speaker 1: She's been such an amazing piece of our history. And
Speaker 1: for those folks that don't know she's she's an amazing
Speaker 1: designer as well. She has some pieces. Yeah, she's a DJ,
Speaker 1: she's a great mom, and she she just she's all
Speaker 1: around amazing person. So she just set the tone for
Speaker 1: us because she was older than us at the time
Speaker 1: over when we're when we started Black Eyed Peas, so
Speaker 1: she was kind of like an older sister figure to us,
Speaker 1: and she kept us a line when we're on tour.
Speaker 1: You know, we're like teenagers. She was in her early
Speaker 1: twenties and we were like, uh, you know, still kind
Speaker 1: of goofy and messing around, and she'd be like, yo, guys,
Speaker 1: we gotta we gotta show them all whatever. But it
Speaker 1: was cool because we looked at her as like an
Speaker 1: older sister and she always showed love. She was always inspirational,
Speaker 1: and you know, to this day, I'll hit her up
Speaker 1: on Instagram and we just we have a mutual respect
Speaker 1: for each other. So so I'm glad you said that, man,
Speaker 1: because she contributed a lot to the first two albums
Speaker 1: behind the front and bridging the gap, and you know,
Speaker 1: she's just she's amazing and I'm proud of everything that
Speaker 1: she's doing now, So salute to Kim Hill. He walks
Speaker 1: us through the process of what led to the deal
Speaker 1: with Interscope, from the time that you got guys formed
Speaker 1: the group to getting that deal, Like, what was the process?
Speaker 1: A lot of a lot of shows, man, a lot
Speaker 1: of shows, A lot of nose, black eyed peas. You're
Speaker 1: not tangible enough. M there's already a slum village, there's
Speaker 1: already a route, there's already a Fuji's what makes you
Speaker 1: think you're gonna sell records? I feel the spirit of
Speaker 1: run fairy Man. It was. We dealt with a lot
Speaker 1: of nosse it's not tangible enough. I don't hear any
Speaker 1: singles of you know, who are the black eyed peas?
Speaker 1: What are you the black eyed peas? Like you know what?
Speaker 1: You got a ninja and a black guy and a
Speaker 1: Filipino Like what are you guys? You know? So it's
Speaker 1: just not understanding what what we were going to contribute
Speaker 1: to the world. And we always had an international mindset
Speaker 1: because Apple came from Philippines, so we knew we wanted
Speaker 1: to make music for the world, and even if domestic
Speaker 1: didn't understand what we were trying to do with our music,
Speaker 1: because we were inspired by you know, Georgie Banjour and
Speaker 1: Sir Joe Mendez and Brazil sixty six and all these
Speaker 1: amazing Brazilian artists, and we loved the samples. We loved
Speaker 1: those ideas of being able to go to Brazil one
Speaker 1: day and being able to tour Europe and making a
Speaker 1: stamp in Europe, just like the way Jimmy Hendricks did,
Speaker 1: the way that the Doors did, the way that you
Speaker 1: guys did at Jazz Cafe. You know, it was just
Speaker 1: that that idea of always wanted to go international, and so,
Speaker 1: you know, it was it was a journey man. It
Speaker 1: was a journey of belief, of doubling down on ourselves
Speaker 1: when people were doubting us, and we just we just
Speaker 1: continued trucking on. In fortunely, Jimmy Ivey saw the genius
Speaker 1: and what was to become Black Eyed Peas, and the
Speaker 1: thing that he said to us is we were going
Speaker 1: through a bidding war. It was poly Anthony and Sony
Speaker 1: Rest in Peace at fifty and it was also Tom
Speaker 1: Wally at Warner brothers and then at Jimmy Ivy and
Speaker 1: so Jimmy's like, you know, you can make records here.
Speaker 1: No matter how many records you sell, you can have
Speaker 1: a career here with me. You can get a million
Speaker 1: dollars from Sony, But who knows what they're gonna do.
Speaker 1: As far as you're touring. You guys are touring band. Um.
Speaker 1: If you guys are about the money, you can go
Speaker 1: to some but if you're about a career and have
Speaker 1: longevity and belief, come here. So you know, fortunately we chose,
Speaker 1: we chose right, and Jimmy was kind of like like he
Speaker 1: was the godfather that led us on that path. Whenever
Speaker 1: an artist puts the big hit at the very end
Speaker 1: of the album, then I always feel like, Okay, maybe
Speaker 1: they didn't believe in the product or whatever. And I
Speaker 1: know that when behind the front bridge of the gap,
Speaker 1: not behind it. Yeah, so you know, there was a
Speaker 1: second where it's like, okay, you guys getting traction on
Speaker 1: on TRL and this is about to happen. You guys
Speaker 1: are how to do it? Could you describe what the
Speaker 1: feeling is like when it's it's kind of a close
Speaker 1: but no cigar moment, and then you have to make
Speaker 1: a decision on what you're you're surviving is going to
Speaker 1: be sink or swim? Like, did you walk through that period?
Speaker 1: That's when we knew the Internet was real. Okay, this
Speaker 1: is when we found out the Internet existed, and it,
Speaker 1: I mean it swallowed our sales. It was this thing
Speaker 1: called Napster. Okay, you had all the promo marketing, all
Speaker 1: the looks you can have. We were on tour, on
Speaker 1: a college Invasion tour with Dayline White Left and I
Speaker 1: believe it was bisin Marquis and we would go to
Speaker 1: these like little after parties and they were playing Bridging
Speaker 1: the Gap. We're like, yo, Will gets all mad. It's like,
Speaker 1: tab did you did you bring bring the record? Because
Speaker 1: the record wasn't out yet? Did you bring the record here?
Speaker 1: I was like no, what are you talking about? He's like,
Speaker 1: who's playing the fucking record? So it was a girl
Speaker 1: She's like, I love your new albums and we was like,
Speaker 1: what do you mean our new album it's not even out.
Speaker 1: It's like, yeah, it's out, it's out on Napster. He's like,
Speaker 1: what the fuck is Napster. It's like, what's Napster. She's
Speaker 1: like Napster's like the new pirrating ship, like you can
Speaker 1: get all these like new albums. So we basically found
Speaker 1: out that our album had been pirateed and been freaking
Speaker 1: downloaded for free. And so the momentum was like, oh shit,
Speaker 1: we did all this promo we did, We were on tour,
Speaker 1: TRL picked up the song, but we only sold we
Speaker 1: sold less than behind the front because people are now
Speaker 1: going to Napster sot theyd get it for free instead
Speaker 1: of buying the buying the CD. So then we said, yo,
Speaker 1: we got to go into creating the next record. So
Speaker 1: that's when we went into creating the ELEPHONK album. This
Speaker 1: is two thousand and one, right, So how our decisions
Speaker 1: made as far as who to work with, who to
Speaker 1: bring like our producer to work with, what members to
Speaker 1: let in the group, where all those things like how
Speaker 1: are you guys just around this point in the early
Speaker 1: aughts in terms of communication, It's like we're all going
Speaker 1: through our own individual issues. And I remember at being
Speaker 1: away from from studio a lot so to me and
Speaker 1: Will Heavy in the studio on Elephant and at that
Speaker 1: time ninety eleven happened. So we're recording Aboudego Bay nine
Speaker 1: eleven happens, we're supposed to go on tour in September twelve.
Speaker 1: We go on towards September twelve, and we travel around
Speaker 1: the US and we see all this divide, all this,
Speaker 1: you know, all this hatred towards Middle Eastern people, and
Speaker 1: so we were like, yo, we kept asking the question, No,
Speaker 1: where's the love within humanity? So we would go to
Speaker 1: these different spots asking the same question, where's the love
Speaker 1: within humanity? Where's the love? Okay, that's that's kind of dope.
Speaker 1: There's something there with this topic, where's the love? So
Speaker 1: we started creating where's the Love? The record the song,
Speaker 1: and we recorded these records where's the loves Let's get
Speaker 1: its started. We recorded Hey Mama, all these joints off
Speaker 1: the elephone, and I remember we played it for Ron
Speaker 1: Fair and he said, I don't hear a single. Wow,
Speaker 1: I don't hear a single. So our exaction like, we
Speaker 1: don't hear a single on elephone. So we're like, we
Speaker 1: gotta double down. This is our last record. What are
Speaker 1: we gonna do? So at that time, we had been
Speaker 1: dealing with a girl that Will had been working with
Speaker 1: named Stacy and she was working on a solo project
Speaker 1: and she had been singing like you know when you
Speaker 1: have a girl in the studio, She's singing the girl
Speaker 1: parts that we yeah so so referencing stuff, but it
Speaker 1: actually sounded good and we kept it on there and
Speaker 1: her voice was something that we gravitated to. She was dope.
Speaker 1: She had had her own group prior to us having
Speaker 1: her in the studio. She was a teenage or like
Speaker 1: a kids star, and so we're like, yo, this maybe
Speaker 1: there's some magic here. So we kept on the records
Speaker 1: and then we're like, yo, are we gonna put put
Speaker 1: her in the group? Like yo, we we We've had
Speaker 1: all these different females. It's not anything new, we've never
Speaker 1: you know, it's it's not that we've not had a female,
Speaker 1: because we have. We had Kim Hill, Macy Gray as Sterile,
Speaker 1: Don Beckman, Noel Skags, all these females have worked with us,
Speaker 1: Debbie Nova. But now there was going to be a
Speaker 1: female that might not fit the mold because she's coming
Speaker 1: from a group that was more of like a pop group.
Speaker 1: So we just said, fuck it, let's go, let's let's
Speaker 1: make this happen. Let's just bringing the crew. Let's take
Speaker 1: her on tour. We took her on tour. People hated it.
Speaker 1: People like, oh, man, what's this? This ain't black eyed Peas.
Speaker 1: I'm not feeling this. So they were hated, Like yo,
Speaker 1: it just turned like it turned negative because we have
Speaker 1: this new girl in the group, Furgi, and so we
Speaker 1: put out Where's the Love? And it smashes oh. Before that,
Speaker 1: we actually I went to a club in La called
Speaker 1: Josephs and I met this kid who was a part
Speaker 1: of this boy band and he's a dancer, and so
Speaker 1: he's transitioning from like this boy band to becoming a
Speaker 1: solo artist. I'm like, yo, man, if you have talent,
Speaker 1: I don't care where you're coming from. Bro, Like, if
Speaker 1: you got talent, let's go, let's work. He's like, Yeah,
Speaker 1: I'm working with Pharrell. I got this new project that
Speaker 1: I'm doing. I'm transitioning from this group to now doing
Speaker 1: my solo thing. I was like, Yo, you think you
Speaker 1: can sing a hook on this record we have right now?
Speaker 1: Is where's the love? The love? The love? That was it?
Speaker 1: I said, can give me something like mercy? Mercy me
Speaker 1: or like what's going on? By Marvin Gaye. He says,
Speaker 1: all right, cool, give me a minute. He goes creates
Speaker 1: whatever he's gonna create. He calls me, like, tab I
Speaker 1: got it. He sings it over the phone. People killing,
Speaker 1: people dying, children hurt, and you hear them crying. I'm like, Yo,
Speaker 1: what the what? Yo? I gotta call Will I call Will?
Speaker 1: I tell him, Yo, will I got the hook? You're like,
Speaker 1: you got the hook? No, I got the person to
Speaker 1: sing the hook. But where's the love? He's like, who
Speaker 1: I said, justin Timberlake. He's like justin Timberlake the Backstreet boy.
Speaker 1: He's he's not a Backstreet boy, he's part of in Sync.
Speaker 1: He's in Sync. He's like, that's even fucking worse. Tab,
Speaker 1: Why are we gonna have that guy thing on our hook?
Speaker 1: But I saw what he brought. I didn't care what
Speaker 1: his past or where he was coming from. It's like,
Speaker 1: if the song is great, I don't care who's singing it.
Speaker 1: Let's go. So he comes in, he records it, and
Speaker 1: the left the rest is magic. We we put it out.
Speaker 1: It creates this huge, huge, amazing frequency around the world.
Speaker 1: It becomes our first number one record, and Ron Ferris
Speaker 1: put strings on it and that was his connection to it.
Speaker 1: I always knew it was going to be a hit.
Speaker 1: Little buddy, when this song finally takes off, what was
Speaker 1: the first paradigm shift that occurred in your life? I
Speaker 1: guess you can only have one time to have that
Speaker 1: experience in which you instantly see the shift of first
Speaker 1: we were a niche, underground group and suddenly we might
Speaker 1: be the establishment. So what what is happening like? What's
Speaker 1: what's the feeling like? What happens? I love that you
Speaker 1: said that because I was so proud of you transitioning
Speaker 1: into late night me felon because it was dope to
Speaker 1: see you guys like you know, and that umbrella sparked
Speaker 1: you to be able to be in the space of
Speaker 1: the oscars and have to re people, to be acting
Speaker 1: and all the great things that you guys have been doing.
Speaker 1: So that being said, I think for us because I'm
Speaker 1: I love comedy, man, I'm a big big I love
Speaker 1: comedy and humor. When we were on parody on Saturday
Speaker 1: Night Live, Yeah, I was gonna say, how did that
Speaker 1: feel to be? Yo? We made it? Boy that just
Speaker 1: loves hip hop culture and yes it was tongue in cheek.
Speaker 1: It was funny. It's like they're making fun of the
Speaker 1: black eyed peas, but they're mentioning the black eyed peas. Yeah,
Speaker 1: you know what I'm saying. My brother Appletypp came from
Speaker 1: Philippines not knowing the word of English because hip hop
Speaker 1: taught him how to speak English. He reading dictionary, learned
Speaker 1: how to wrap, and became a freaking huge international superstar
Speaker 1: from the fact pop y'alla pop culture references like that.
Speaker 1: So so I'm like, yo, you gotta own it. Who
Speaker 1: else but us? I mean, we get shit if it's there,
Speaker 1: own it. And if people hate all good, Oh, you
Speaker 1: gotta sellouts. Yeah, we're selling out stadiums around the world. Yeah.
Speaker 1: You know. My manager used to tease to reconni about
Speaker 1: like he would always say, well, you guys are salty
Speaker 1: because you never got your what he calls your Bentley
Speaker 1: moment and his short his short Bentley moment was sort
Speaker 1: of a shorthand for like, whatever it is the life
Speaker 1: that rappers think that rappers should be going through. We
Speaker 1: should be walking in slow motion, We should be you know,
Speaker 1: pouring champagne all over women and whatever whatever. Hype Williams
Speaker 1: slow motion kind of life that shiny Yeah, like that
Speaker 1: experience you like this bill. For me, it was getting
Speaker 1: custody my son, being able to pa twenty thousand dollars
Speaker 1: to get custom full custody of my son, Josh. I
Speaker 1: was like, Yo, that's with more than any gold Chain,
Speaker 1: than any Bentley because now I'm able to raise my
Speaker 1: son on my playing ground the way that I want
Speaker 1: to raise it. And so that was something that always
Speaker 1: bothered me because I was a teenage parent and honestly,
Speaker 1: I didn't know what parenting was bro Like, I was
Speaker 1: a little kid having a kid. So when the whereas
Speaker 1: a love moment happened, that was when financially I was
Speaker 1: able to actually provide a stable home for my son.
Speaker 1: Right although I had health with my mom because I
Speaker 1: was still young, I was twenty one, twenty two, at
Speaker 1: least I have some form of stability financially to be
Speaker 1: able to take my son away from the way he
Speaker 1: was being brought up, to be able to get him
Speaker 1: now a home the way I was brought up. And
Speaker 1: so that was like for me, that was a moment
Speaker 1: beyond any Bentley moment or any gold chain or you know.
Speaker 1: And I bought a house, yeah, but it was like
Speaker 1: taking care of Josh was like, you know, I made
Speaker 1: it and it was because of that wears love money
Speaker 1: that brought me this, this opportunity to be a dad.
Speaker 1: How old were you when you had Josh? Seventeen? I
Speaker 1: actually walked I walked my graduation with a sign bro
Speaker 1: Like I was like, only it was crazy, dude. It
Speaker 1: was like, Okay, this guy's not gonna make it. He's
Speaker 1: got a kid at seventeen. But it also it gave
Speaker 1: me the fire to be able to not give up
Speaker 1: on my dreams and my aspirations even though I was
Speaker 1: a teen parent and I'm not in any way form
Speaker 1: of fashion. I don't eat teen parents parent team. But
Speaker 1: I am saying like it put a fire in my
Speaker 1: ass and it just like that was like a Okay,
Speaker 1: now I got to come to Grips to be able
Speaker 1: to give my son a better opportunity of life because
Speaker 1: I know that that's my motivation. Of all those records,
Speaker 1: I would probably say that maybe Monkey Business was probably
Speaker 1: the hardest to create because it's like, how do you
Speaker 1: keep the momentum up? Then that becomes bigger. So I
Speaker 1: don't even want to go to the to the E
Speaker 1: and D. But going into Monkey business. What was the pressure? Like,
Speaker 1: I mean, bro, like we uh we went in there
Speaker 1: and actually tried to make hits. Elephant wasn't trying to
Speaker 1: make hits. We're just making records like, Yo, what's popping
Speaker 1: over there? Shiit? What's what's what's uh Timberland doing, What's
Speaker 1: what's Forrell doing? What's this person doing? Like it was
Speaker 1: all over the place being students and like how can
Speaker 1: we compete? And so records like Don't Lie, which is
Speaker 1: my least favorite record, even though it was a smash,
Speaker 1: I don't like performing it. It's just um. Then we
Speaker 1: had Don't Funk with My Heart, which is cool because
Speaker 1: we studied Bollywood and we like that frequency and we
Speaker 1: loved Lisa. Lisa and Nicole jam love that record. I
Speaker 1: wonder if I take yeah so that record, and it
Speaker 1: was like, oh, okay, this kind of sounds like weekends
Speaker 1: from u um uh from from Bridging the Gap um,
Speaker 1: which we sampled um Um Debbie Dap look at weekends
Speaker 1: because here we come, and so there was like a
Speaker 1: formula happening. And then we sampled Dick Dale Misery Loot
Speaker 1: for Pump It and then Well did My Humps, and
Speaker 1: then we finished it off with with the James Brown joint,
Speaker 1: which is my favorite. Yeah, talk about that session record
Speaker 1: when I was jealous, man, how did that happen? We
Speaker 1: were at the mojole. They don't want music, they don't
Speaker 1: want music. Yes, that was the first Boom Boom song.
Speaker 1: And mister Brown, as he liked to be referred to,
Speaker 1: mister Brown Brown, we met him at the Mobile Awards
Speaker 1: in London and we're like, mister Brown, we're working on
Speaker 1: a new record with huge fans. You know, b boys,
Speaker 1: We love what you've done with you know, you work
Speaker 1: blah blah blah, giving them flowers. What I don't have
Speaker 1: to work with anybody, but something says that I need
Speaker 1: to work with the Black Eyed peas. Yo. Yo. Also impression,
Speaker 1: it's it's, it's, it's it's trying. But but he says, Okay,
Speaker 1: I'm show up to the studio. We're recording at um
Speaker 1: Metropolis in London Paramounts No Metropolis Studios. He comes, he
Speaker 1: has his whole entourage. Bro. When I tell you this
Speaker 1: dude's a mega superstar. He walk in with a lady
Speaker 1: that cos his hair. So he's sitting down. They bring
Speaker 1: out a mirror. The lady sits down, combs his hair,
Speaker 1: and then he's like, okay, I'm ready. I don't ready.
Speaker 1: So we're like okay, cool. So so s our band
Speaker 1: they going there, they start doing the thing. He's like no, no, no,
Speaker 1: everybody out. He brings his horn players, so his horn
Speaker 1: players are leading the dance. That his horn players are
Speaker 1: leading the dance, We're like, oh yo, just let him
Speaker 1: do his thing. What kind of style can we bring
Speaker 1: to what James Brown's bringing mister Brown's bringing. What about
Speaker 1: like that Greg nice and that that nice smooth joh
Speaker 1: Yo Disney go less. He plays a sad and I
Speaker 1: like Matt. So that's the that's the frequency that we
Speaker 1: tapped into for the rap party that Will is doing
Speaker 1: with with James Brown. And I just remember like after
Speaker 1: the session we were breaking bread. He's sitting at the
Speaker 1: table and he's talking to us and somebody comes over
Speaker 1: and starts cutting his his food, like his meat, his steak.
Speaker 1: He has someone to cut his steak. He has someone
Speaker 1: who brush his hair, and then he goes like this
Speaker 1: like some he comes and wipes his mouth. I was like,
Speaker 1: wait a minute, hey, Steve, Yeah, that's like one of
Speaker 1: my favorite tracks of y'alls man me too, d thank you.
Speaker 1: I mean that record just came so natural, and the
Speaker 1: fact that we got tipped to start the song, you know,
Speaker 1: it's he said something really special when we were on
Speaker 1: the road. It was with him, Dave Chappelle. He said, well,
Speaker 1: black Eyed Peas, we want you guys to carry the
Speaker 1: baton of what we started and take it international and
Speaker 1: all the stuff that you guys are doing international, you
Speaker 1: guys are representing the essence of the native tongue. So
Speaker 1: that was very important, and that was around that time
Speaker 1: the Monkey business Eric. But during that time we also
Speaker 1: got to tour with amazing rock groups. Can I just
Speaker 1: tell you about the Rockets? Yeah? Yeah, I want to
Speaker 1: know what tour life was like at this point in
Speaker 1: your life. I mean, we're we're touring with with uh,
Speaker 1: with um, I mean, seven Dust, No Doubt, Whence to
Speaker 1: Find Me, Lit Blink one eighty two, it was just
Speaker 1: Dope Metallica. We were just touring with all these amazing
Speaker 1: rock groups because those are the type of festivals we
Speaker 1: were doing, and we're the only hip hop group part
Speaker 1: of that that journey, So we learned how to perform
Speaker 1: in front of audiences that weren't necessarily hip hop audiences,
Speaker 1: and so our pellet kind of expanded, and that's why
Speaker 1: we had UM. You know, we worked with Travis Barker,
Speaker 1: and we worked with Papa Roach and all these these
Speaker 1: rock groups so that we could learn how to bring
Speaker 1: that frequency as well and just be students of the
Speaker 1: game UM and and learn how to perform in front
Speaker 1: of these audiences that you know, you better be doing
Speaker 1: something other than just playing instruments or just rapping, because
Speaker 1: they're gonna they're gonna tell you, we're gonna throw stuff
Speaker 1: at you, they're gonna flip you off. So we're learning
Speaker 1: how stage died, we're learning how to do mosh pits
Speaker 1: all that stuff around Europe, and as that we can
Speaker 1: bring that same rock energy with with the Black Eyed
Speaker 1: Peas essence. Well, this is a question I always wanted
Speaker 1: to know. Okay, So for the longest I'll say, like basically,
Speaker 1: before the Internet kind of colonized the world and had
Speaker 1: us all thinking like at the same time, whereas before
Speaker 1: you go to different territories and the section of town
Speaker 1: didn't get what New York has or that sort of thing.
Speaker 1: But there was a moment where I remember when you
Speaker 1: guys first came out. Uh you guys went to Australia
Speaker 1: and you did Big Day out right. Yes, loved it.
Speaker 1: And I remember, uh Jurassic Five telling me you know
Speaker 1: we we we you have to go to Australia. They're like, yo, dog,
Speaker 1: you got to come to Australia, man, Like we play
Speaker 1: stadiums over there. And I was like, Jurassic Five playing
Speaker 1: the stadium there's like no dog, Like you don't get it.
Speaker 1: Like the artists that are club artists in the United
Speaker 1: States when they go to Australia, they're like, yeah, mega
Speaker 1: And he was like yeah man, Ben Harper play stadiums
Speaker 1: and he was like yo, yo yo, black Eyed Peas
Speaker 1: can set out of the stadium. I was like, black
Speaker 1: Eye peat the Black Eye Peas are just opened for
Speaker 1: me last week the Solid Stadium. I literally I was
Speaker 1: like my mind was blown. But for you, what was
Speaker 1: the feeling to get and and yes, to put in context,
Speaker 1: like Australia is just different. You know, they're not really
Speaker 1: controlled by like corporate radio the way that it is
Speaker 1: over here with clear channel and you know that sort
Speaker 1: of thing where playlists are determined like still DJ's play
Speaker 1: whole music over there, like a person like Ericabadu can
Speaker 1: still find space on pop radio along with whoever is
Speaker 1: like hidden pop and that sort of thing, Like they've
Speaker 1: always been balanced that way. So as a result a
Speaker 1: lot of them, music that we like that's deemed underground
Speaker 1: music gets the same platform that something mainstream is. But
Speaker 1: for you, like, what was the feeling in breaking breaking
Speaker 1: that ceiling and finally, you know, getting to a point
Speaker 1: where I'm certainly met you know, where Michael Jackson's like, hey,
Speaker 1: I'm a big fan of you guys, and like what
Speaker 1: was that feeling? Like like who are the people that
Speaker 1: you're meeting and those sort of things. Uh So, so
Speaker 1: being able to travel to Australia, you're seeing all these
Speaker 1: actors and actresses and kind of like the the experience
Speaker 1: of the Oscars world. That's the transition of going from
Speaker 1: like the music world to now meeting actors, actresses, directors.
Speaker 1: That's actually where we met James Cameron um and so
Speaker 1: you're meeting all these people and you're getting this after
Speaker 1: effect of like yo, I didn't know they liked the music, right,
Speaker 1: We're just we're just kind of like Nomad's just traveling
Speaker 1: and you don't feel the effects of the impact that
Speaker 1: you're having because you're just doing you're just being you,
Speaker 1: or you're just creating music. So we were we were
Speaker 1: just embracing the beauty that was Australia and it is
Speaker 1: Australia because they supported us before any before anyone actually
Speaker 1: gave us that then Flowers, it was Australia, New Zealand.
Speaker 1: Let me show you something. Yes, this is my first
Speaker 1: plaque bust New Zealand. This is the first plaque that
Speaker 1: I actually got gold. Wow. So that being said, in
Speaker 1: New Zealand and Australia, they had loved for us before
Speaker 1: any any domestics, so especially on our first earlier work
Speaker 1: with behind the front of Bridge of the Gaff. So
Speaker 1: you know, it just it just affirmed everything that we
Speaker 1: had been doing. We have been working towards being able
Speaker 1: to toward the world and be international and just bring
Speaker 1: that energy. And I would say Australia was probably the
Speaker 1: place where we spent most time because we did the
Speaker 1: Big Doubt for months and every year we did it
Speaker 1: up until that point when they stopped doing it. Okay,
Speaker 1: So I have a theory about mega songs. Every mega
Speaker 1: song that I've ever known from Louie Louie to shout
Speaker 1: to tequila. Like mega songs, songs that will never die.
Speaker 1: The story always starts the same where it's like we
Speaker 1: created that in like twenty minutes, Like we didn't really
Speaker 1: put calculated thought in it. You're co creator of a
Speaker 1: mega song like long After Life Ends or whatever. Like
Speaker 1: I seriously doubt that. I gotta feel and will ever
Speaker 1: go away or not be played at any function, be
Speaker 1: it wedding, celebration. Yeah, the amount of times I've had
Speaker 1: to spend it as a dj M. What was the
Speaker 1: process in making that song? I just remember we're talking
Speaker 1: about what's that song we're building, what's that song that
Speaker 1: plays at every freaking sporting events, wedding the Earth Winning
Speaker 1: Fire song, And I'm like, September, Yeah, we need something
Speaker 1: like that in that space where it's like everywhere, it's
Speaker 1: playing everywhere. Yo. We need something like say little Great
Speaker 1: good Time, come on, yeah we do. We need we
Speaker 1: need something that's like gonna live sporting events, colleges. Yo,
Speaker 1: We're gonna make a college anthem, yo. College. Oh shit,
Speaker 1: let's make a college anthem. And it's the first time
Speaker 1: that we had ever created a song where all of
Speaker 1: us are singing at the same time. We had never
Speaker 1: done before because every single song, like you said earlier
Speaker 1: in Mire we have each one has a verse or
Speaker 1: you know, you have like a bridge or something. But
Speaker 1: in this song, we strategically said, we want the energy
Speaker 1: of this song to feel like one. Yeah. Right, So
Speaker 1: I remember David Ghetta sent the track to Will. He's like, oh,
Speaker 1: I have this remix for the Love is Gone right
Speaker 1: now that the Love is gone? Remember that song? So
Speaker 1: this is the remix track too, that song. Okay, he
Speaker 1: didn't use it. Oh really, yeah, he didn't use it.
Speaker 1: He's like, oh, you guys can use it. So we
Speaker 1: used that track and Will came up with that chorus
Speaker 1: and then we all came to the studio and we
Speaker 1: started jumping around. Like I said, when we started jumping around,
Speaker 1: that's when you know it's something. Um. The first time
Speaker 1: we performed it, it was a disaster. We performed at
Speaker 1: the Tangle it was horrible. Where was it Wangle Tangle Kiss?
Speaker 1: At Bam Ryan Seacrest, it was like I wanted to
Speaker 1: say it was. It was in in in Anaheim. We
Speaker 1: performed it and people are alive. Nope, We're like this
Speaker 1: scourged no words like, oh, oh, this might not be
Speaker 1: the one. Maybe it's this other Boom Boom Power song. Again,
Speaker 1: there was a knockout punch. Boom Boom Power came first,
Speaker 1: right right, that was that number one for like twelve weeks. Yeah,
Speaker 1: so we're like, yo, how do we outdo Boom Boom
Speaker 1: Power because that was like, bro, we already We're already
Speaker 1: at number one twelve weeks. And then we came with
Speaker 1: I got a fill in and then it just knocked
Speaker 1: it out and it just stayed on the charts. And
Speaker 1: then we're doing all the awards shows, all the the
Speaker 1: you know, all the sporting events. We did the Super Bowl,
Speaker 1: we did the World Cup. That song is blowing up everywhere,
Speaker 1: and then, um, it just let us know that something
Speaker 1: that we thought was gonna be a college anthem became
Speaker 1: an anthem that yeah, it's an anthem forever. So you know, No,
Speaker 1: we didn't do it in twenty seconds or twenty minutes
Speaker 1: or five minutes. It was done. It was It was
Speaker 1: a nice process. Yes, it was quick, but the idea
Speaker 1: that we wanted to present to the world was something
Speaker 1: that was very unison and very connected as one and
Speaker 1: That's why that representation of us doing the lyrics together
Speaker 1: is a synonymous for that song, how it brings everyone
Speaker 1: together when you're having um this level of success. And again,
Speaker 1: like the question was like, can you guys out do elephunt? Okay?
Speaker 1: Can you guys, I'll do monkey business? Okay? Can you
Speaker 1: I'll do the end at any point? And you know,
Speaker 1: I know that you went through this in your memoir,
Speaker 1: but what was the point where like this wasn't fun anymore?
Speaker 1: Or has it? Has it ever been a time where
Speaker 1: it's just like, was there ever a be careful for
Speaker 1: what you ask or wish for a moment for you? Right?
Speaker 1: I don't for me will an app. I'm only speaking
Speaker 1: for us because you know, I can't say anything of
Speaker 1: the ladies that journeyed with us because maybe they have
Speaker 1: the same experience. But man, I love being on that
Speaker 1: stage with my brothers. Bro, Like that's like our livelihood.
Speaker 1: When we're on stage. We're seventeen year old kids that
Speaker 1: just loved performing and loved you know, creating music and
Speaker 1: performing for the world. So there's never a moment, there's
Speaker 1: never a moment other than that moment when we took
Speaker 1: a break that ship was bullshit, bro, that's like suicide.
Speaker 1: That eight year break. That a year break from twenty
Speaker 1: eleven to twenty nineteen, when we put out Leetmore with
Speaker 1: Jay Balvin, when Sylvia Rohan signed us, learned from Interscope
Speaker 1: to Sony, and then we had success with Sylvia ron
Speaker 1: and reinvented ourselves as a trio, which that's how we started.
Speaker 1: But that time period of being away for eight years. Yes,
Speaker 1: I got cancer in twenty fourteen, but man, we were
Speaker 1: very lucky to come out of that your hiatus because
Speaker 1: usually groups are gone for eight years. They're gone. There's
Speaker 1: no way you could come back. Do we come back
Speaker 1: at a filling level? No? How is that conversation happened?
Speaker 1: Are you guys actively communicating with each other and saying like, hey,
Speaker 1: I need a break, need to have some me time.
Speaker 1: We'll reconvene in any year right now? It was it was.
Speaker 1: It wasn't a choice that mean Will and Apple had
Speaker 1: just being honest with you guys, that's the reality. We
Speaker 1: would have kept going We're at the height of our period.
Speaker 1: Why stop? But I get it, you know, um not
Speaker 1: all of us wanted to continue. And so that being said,
Speaker 1: when it came back to coming back to wanting to
Speaker 1: do music again. This is after I battle cancer. I
Speaker 1: reached out to Will, I reached out to Apple, I
Speaker 1: reached out to fird I said, Yo, I'm ready. I
Speaker 1: need I need this to reduce life. I need I
Speaker 1: need my healing performing Black Eyed Peas. We need to
Speaker 1: do it again. Will and Apple were like, let's go,
Speaker 1: and that's what it is me. Will and Apple are going,
Speaker 1: and that's how it's going to be. And fortunately at
Speaker 1: that time, Apple the app met a singer from the
Speaker 1: Philippines named Jay Ray Soul and she she was a
Speaker 1: young artist that inspired him to be able to bring
Speaker 1: her to the US and give her an opportunity to
Speaker 1: be able to to you know, to journey with the
Speaker 1: Black Eyed Peas and just be part of this amazing
Speaker 1: new I guess you can save this new lease on
Speaker 1: life because, like I said, we were our Interscope and
Speaker 1: then we got dropped and then we got picked up
Speaker 1: by Silvia. Rohne explained to me the process of getting
Speaker 1: dropped by Interscope when you're literally one of their biggest
Speaker 1: money makers. Well, Jimmy was gone, bro, Like Jimmy was
Speaker 1: now beats World He's like, I don't have anything to
Speaker 1: do it. So who took over Interope? John Janet and
Speaker 1: Steve Burman? Burman? Oh damn okay. I believe Burman is
Speaker 1: the cat if you remember the Dre Day video, Yeah,
Speaker 1: where he's playing the role with Jerry Heller. I didn't realize, like, wow,
Speaker 1: Burman took over Enescope. Okay. Yeah. So we put out
Speaker 1: Master the Sun and they're like the saying it, this
Speaker 1: is not what we want from Black Eyed Peas and
Speaker 1: so the album was great, but not to that. So
Speaker 1: in their eyes there was a failure. It wasn't what
Speaker 1: they expected. And so they're like, you know what, we're
Speaker 1: gonna part ways. I think we've exhausted all the energy
Speaker 1: the years. Thank you for all your contribution, but we're
Speaker 1: not going to renew the contract. So me, Will and Apple,
Speaker 1: we're like, yo, what what are we gonna do? And
Speaker 1: like Will always does, Will is like, don't worry about it, guys,
Speaker 1: we're gonna figure it out. So I trust him. Since
Speaker 1: I was seventeen, he's always been the don't worry about it, guys,
Speaker 1: We're gonna figure it out. And that energy was like, yeah,
Speaker 1: we are going to figure it out. It's all good.
Speaker 1: We got songs, we got you know, relationships. So we
Speaker 1: had this song called Reepmo that we recorded with Jay
Speaker 1: Bowin right. So I remember Zeke from from Sony comes
Speaker 1: to the studio and he hears it and he's like, Yo,
Speaker 1: I'm working on this this soundtrack. Would love this song
Speaker 1: to be part of the soundtrack, and so Will was like, yeah,
Speaker 1: but we want this for us, like we want this
Speaker 1: to be a Black Eyed Pea joint off of our
Speaker 1: new project. He's like, well, what label are you are.
Speaker 1: He's like, we're not on the label. So he leaves
Speaker 1: the studio called Sylvia Roone. Sylvie Rone shows up to
Speaker 1: the studio. Will plays the record for her and she's like, great,
Speaker 1: I love this record. Let's put it on the Bad
Speaker 1: Boys three soundtrack with Martin Lawrence and Will Smith before
Speaker 1: the slap and so he does that. Zeke is like, Yo,
Speaker 1: this is this is the future of Black Eyed Peas.
Speaker 1: This whole Latin afrobeat fusion, whatever you guys are doing
Speaker 1: with this frequency, it's international and it's popping right now.
Speaker 1: We're gonna sign black Eyed son to Epic. So we
Speaker 1: get signed. We create this album which was translation, which
Speaker 1: we put out during the pandemic, we still put out
Speaker 1: a record. We had songs like We're Like Me with Shakida,
Speaker 1: We had Mamasita with Thosuna, Viva Loco with Nikki Jam
Speaker 1: and Tiger. So all these records just represented where we
Speaker 1: were at in that state of our career and how
Speaker 1: we were inspired by these Latin applebeat rhythms that were
Speaker 1: happening around the world, and so that was kind of
Speaker 1: our nod to that. And then we created another record
Speaker 1: which we put out called Elevation, and that one featured
Speaker 1: Don't You Worry with Shakida and David Ghetta, and then
Speaker 1: we did a record with Anita from Brazil and Alalfa
Speaker 1: and the max record would drop in is with Daddy Yankee.
Speaker 1: After having done it at all, like what is what
Speaker 1: is left for you as far as like in terms
Speaker 1: of what you would like to achieve with the group.
Speaker 1: With the group, docuse series, be able to make the
Speaker 1: Black Eyed Peas movie, whatever that means, do it in
Speaker 1: a way where it's like Stranger Things fantasy kind of
Speaker 1: like a scripted series, Like I don't think it's a movie,
Speaker 1: it's a it's a series like the Beatles did a
Speaker 1: docu series like the Beatles did a Yellow Submarine, where
Speaker 1: it's kind of like mystic magical, uh, you know, something
Speaker 1: like that, whereas you can add fantasy because we're big
Speaker 1: sci fi guys. We love stranger things and just that
Speaker 1: whole creativity of creating stuff that's not just a typical
Speaker 1: like oh, these are hip hop kids. And then they
Speaker 1: became popular around the world. It's like, no, we want
Speaker 1: to tell all these amazing stories like cancer survivor and
Speaker 1: and tech guy he's he's the he calls himself the
Speaker 1: Black Iron Man because he's all about tech. And then
Speaker 1: you got this kid from the Philippines who was a
Speaker 1: farmer that didn't speak English and came to America. First
Speaker 1: person he met was well, I am so all these
Speaker 1: crazy stories. It's a little bit sensation wise, and it's
Speaker 1: it's entertaining and and and still appealing into the eye.
Speaker 1: I see, I see well, man, dude, this is definitely
Speaker 1: worth the weight. And for you know, this is like
Speaker 1: our first in depth conversation with each other. Man. So
Speaker 1: I'm really glad that we got this. Wait, Steve, you're
Speaker 1: about to say something. No, I was about to come
Speaker 1: wipe wipe something off your mouth. For that's theirs. I
Speaker 1: just want to do a little, a little promo real
Speaker 1: quick on something. So I invested in this company called
Speaker 1: a Kid's Book, about which you already I sent it
Speaker 1: to you. Yes, the first book that I wrote is
Speaker 1: called the Kid's Book about Identity, and then we have
Speaker 1: a whole series of other books like, you know, a
Speaker 1: kid's book about mindfulness, this book about addiction, um, this
Speaker 1: book about anxiety. And it's all about having uncomfortable conversations
Speaker 1: with kids because a lot of times parents tiptoe around
Speaker 1: these conversations. And so we said, no, why don't we
Speaker 1: have these these books where we actually unlock those and
Speaker 1: make it a comfortable conversation out of something that's very
Speaker 1: uncomfortable to some families. And so, you know, it's just
Speaker 1: it's something that I invested in because I want to
Speaker 1: be able to give back. Just like I'm telling you, dude,
Speaker 1: Kobe really inspired me being with Kobe, being around him
Speaker 1: and seeing how he went from being a basketball player
Speaker 1: to actually being you know, winning an oscar, just like you,
Speaker 1: writing books, almost creating an animation studio for inspired by
Speaker 1: his daughter. So this is just so what's the name
Speaker 1: of the of the book series, A kid's book about
Speaker 1: and where do we find that online? We get that
Speaker 1: on Amazon Kid's Book About dot Com. And basically it's
Speaker 1: all these different writers, authors, kids that are doing the
Speaker 1: forward so that that they that you empower the kids
Speaker 1: to really be part of this journey along with the
Speaker 1: books that I'm writing for Marvel. Um, being an author
Speaker 1: is very important to me because then I'm able to inspire,
Speaker 1: just like we did with lyrics, Like now I'm putting
Speaker 1: that same energy and that same approach to writing. Eventually,
Speaker 1: wanted to do my own script and create the first
Speaker 1: Native American feature film that will live in that same
Speaker 1: Marvel space that Black Panther lives. So that's my goal, um,
Speaker 1: and I'm doing my due diligence. I'm putting in the
Speaker 1: groundwork and putting in my ten thousand hours to be
Speaker 1: able to transition from music into into being a creator
Speaker 1: and a screenwriter and eventually one day on wood a
Speaker 1: director films make it happen. I mean, you lived a
Speaker 1: life in which you know you you made moves with
Speaker 1: no trepardation and you know you put your foot forward,
Speaker 1: So that's definitely going to happen. Yeah, brother, I appreciate that.
Speaker 1: And again uh fante, thank you man, thank you for
Speaker 1: the inspiration. I hope you feel better. Oh yeah, thank you.
Speaker 1: I want to say Tar and Pharaoh Munch I'm my
Speaker 1: two favorite mcs of all time of all I shall
Speaker 1: relay that to him. And honestly, we didn't we didn't
Speaker 1: touch on Daylight Bro, and that was something very important
Speaker 1: because when he text me about about Dave and that
Speaker 1: that piece you guys put together, everybody put together, that
Speaker 1: was beautiful man, So well, thank you for being a
Speaker 1: part of that. Man. Yeah, I want to dedicate this
Speaker 1: one to Dave Bro and his impact, um that he
Speaker 1: had on all of us and what Daylight means to us.
Speaker 1: And now with their music being on all streaming platforms,
Speaker 1: I'm proud of Pasta, Nous and Mace and Dave. I'm
Speaker 1: still listening to music like like it just came out yesterday.
Speaker 1: We're well on behalf of the QLs crew, on behalf
Speaker 1: of yea cousin, Jake, Steve and I'm paid. Bill came
Speaker 1: home from a cigarette. Thank you Taboo for joining us
Speaker 1: and this is what's love. We will see you on
Speaker 1: the next go round of course. Love Supreme, all right,
Speaker 1: see you M. What's Love? Supreme is the production of
Speaker 1: I Heeart Freed Well More podcasts from my Heart Radio,
Speaker 1: visit the iHeart Radio app, Apple podcast, or wherever you
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