00:00:00 Speaker 1: What's Love Supreme is a production of iHeart Brady. 00:00:09 Speaker 2: Yo. Look at Fante Fanti My man, what up on? 00:00:15 Speaker 3: Brother? 00:00:16 Speaker 4: Good to meet you, man, you could to meet you. 00:00:17 Speaker 2: It's an honor to meet you. Brother. No no, I mean what you've done. I mean from from slum conversations with T three to the Daylight conversations. Bro, your name is synonymous, your clue is synonymous, and I always have to show my salute from my ultimate respect to the pioneers like yourself. 00:00:34 Speaker 4: Oh man, that's love, brother, Thank you so much. I received that. 00:00:37 Speaker 2: Man. 00:00:37 Speaker 4: Likewise, thank you for sure. 00:00:39 Speaker 2: Bro. You just don't know how much your music means to all of us man, like you know, us being sons of Dayla and tribe and just coming from that cloth groups like yourselves like you Slum Village, you guys. You guys definitely continues at the time, and I'm proud of everything that you've done and even transition into this new medium. It's really dope. 00:01:00 Speaker 4: Thank you so much, man. 00:01:01 Speaker 3: So I guess we just started the episode already. 00:01:04 Speaker 1: Flowers started with flowers. 00:01:07 Speaker 3: We started with flowers. 00:01:08 Speaker 2: I start with humility, brothers, because you guys, you guys are always giving people flowers. Now it's time for you to know what you mean to hip hop culture and to hip hop kids like myself that started as be boys breakdancers on the block just wanted to put on for our communities, h you know, our ancestry. Unfortunately, hip hop was the conduit. You know, breaking was the first thing I got into. Then I got into graffiti mcm I met my tribe where I am an apple the app and we became uh, you know, we became brothers and became black eyed peas. So when I see folks like yourself, like a mirror and Fonte who set the tone for hip hop culture, I always got to give you your flowers. 00:01:46 Speaker 4: That's love, brother, Thanks, thank you. 00:01:48 Speaker 3: Wow. This is the first time where the guest actually winds up entering the show. All right, ladies and gentlemen of the internets, welcome to another exciting episode of course Live Supreme. I'm your host, quest Love. We have fun Tickeolo in the house. Brother. How's it going all right? 00:02:05 Speaker 5: Man, I'm cool, just resting and uh yeah, getting ready for Thursday and Friday of this week. This will it'll have been passed by the time it's air, But yeah, we Boston and New York this week, So I'm just resting getting ready. 00:02:18 Speaker 3: Man, is this a major tour or is this? 00:02:21 Speaker 5: Uh nah, I mean it's not. Well, it's not major in the sense of it's a lot of dates. We just did San Diego and Orange County last weekend and then this week is Boston and New York. 00:02:34 Speaker 4: June we played Roots Picnic and yeah, it's fuck this. I'm back in the outs like. 00:02:45 Speaker 3: Really, oh yeah, wait, wait, I gotta ask, do you do you feel like you? You? I know that of all of us in this on this show that you, more than anyone, has been extremely like almost it's Fort Knox level protective of not catching the VID. And you went out and then you you, you got caught out there. 00:03:11 Speaker 5: I got that my first time leaving the house, my first run in three years, our first LB run. You know that we went and we did San Diego in Orange County and. 00:03:22 Speaker 4: Yeah, I got hit. 00:03:24 Speaker 3: Well now that you got I mean, was it like for me it was like just having a cold. Was it that way for you or was it like a little worried there. 00:03:33 Speaker 5: It was like having a cold, But for me it was more so it wasn't necessarily just having a cold. It was just participating in the delusion that this ship is gone right, and like that's the part that I just refused to do anymore. Like it's not in terms of what touring is now, Touring pre COVID and turn post COVID is just very different. And it's like now, particularly for artists like us, I mean, where you're pretty much doing everything like motors don't really do shit no or so for me, I just looked at from the standpoint of like, okay, I gotta play promoter, producer, performer, curator and the fucking CDC. 00:04:10 Speaker 4: Fuck this, dude, No, damn, I'm good, I'm paid Bill. 00:04:17 Speaker 1: I went to get cigarettes again. I went to Australia. I'm back. 00:04:21 Speaker 3: You went to Australia. 00:04:22 Speaker 1: I was in Australia for a few weeks to put up a show. Now it's up. Now the show. Uh it's called and Juliette. You haven't seen it yet, but you've threatened to a few times. It's on Broadway. Now it's in Australia. 00:04:33 Speaker 3: Wait, you guys are making it worldwide already. 00:04:36 Speaker 1: Global domination, my friend, Global domination. That's how we do well. 00:04:40 Speaker 3: Dan with the songbook, I would suspect that Anne Juliet will probably be a five to ten year staple. 00:04:48 Speaker 1: I hope, so that'd be nice for my kids college tuition and all. 00:04:52 Speaker 3: That's what's up, man, That's what's up, sugar, Steve Esteemed jazz labelhead. What's going going on? 00:05:01 Speaker 6: How are you? Everything's okay? I we finished three records this past weekend. For the one of them yours. Yes, we finished mixing David Mury Ray Angry and Questlova, a four platter box set that you can look forward to see. 00:05:18 Speaker 3: She ends up making my second jazz offering in my life. 00:05:23 Speaker 1: We're calling the Philadelphi Experiment the first one. 00:05:26 Speaker 3: Yeah, that's the first one, okay, so I don't necessarily called jazz, but you know this, this one was actually probably I have more fun doing this one. I think there's a lot of treats in there. So you're saying it's a box set that we're. 00:05:39 Speaker 6: Releasing, Yeah, four platters and a seven echine side and it's going to be coming later this year. 00:05:47 Speaker 3: Have son shiit? I might have to line of news for that. Have we lost our queen today? 00:05:55 Speaker 6: Yeah, she's on stage doing something something for. 00:05:58 Speaker 3: Jill Oh okay, he came and set us up. That's nice, ladies and gentlemen. I will say that our distinguished guest today has checked many a bucket list fulfillment since having entered our lives some twenty five plus years ago, as one third or one fourth how you want to look at it, as a one third member of a legendary, legendary hip hop outfit, having created over nine studio albums that have worldwide sales over thirty three million. 00:06:33 Speaker 2: Yo. 00:06:33 Speaker 3: Just looking at the stats made me feel like I'm not working hard enough. Of ninety seven platinum awards, I was way too lazy to keep total of the gold awards, but I stopped counting after one hundred, over twelve major world tours, over sixty sixty various awards from the MAAS to BT, Soul Train Awards, Latin Awards for Bill Ward for even the NAACP Awards, six Grammys, six Grammys, countless MTV awards. But you know, it's not even about the quantity, ladies and gentlemen's. It's to me the achievements are cool. But you know, in this episode, we get to know. We aim to get to know the person behind the achievements and get to know them, and you know, many of us were pretty much a majority of us were unaware of his of his advocacy work. Now, the thing is, when I start talking, I feel like I expose myself when I try to talk sports, Shut up Steve, or comics, Shut up Steve. Okay, yes, I'm the guy that says the sports, the comics. But I you know, I'll say that with you know, having created indigenous characters and it's sort of expanding the world of Marvel is a wonderful thing, be it the Red Wolf series or Deadly Neighborhood Spider Man. He's also an author of a kid's book about identity, and most importantly, he's been extremely, extremely vocal in his memoirs and his interviews being an advocate for surviving cancer and using this platform to connect and encourage others that share that same experience. And at the end of the day, you know, I will say that he's just an overall a shining light and a really cool dude. And please welcome to QLs MC. Author, political activists, actor, dancer, singer, songwriter, producer, and yes, survivor. Jamie Gomez aka Taboo of the Black Eyed Peace, Welcome. 00:08:45 Speaker 2: To thank you for a lot. Yo. First of all, I gotta acknowledge Steve for being a comic head. Steve, salutes to you brother, the fact that Emir passed it on to you and said sports comics not my thing. It's all good, all good at storytelling. So salute to you, Steve. And then Bill, you had me at two daughters. No, seriously, when you said I'm a father of two daughters, I would say my greatest gift is being a husband and a father, because there's no motives behind that other than love. And I'm not trying to be Kumbaya a Hallmark card, but this is real. This is who I am. All the accolades and all the stuff that's monetary and all that stuff when you're battling cancer ladies and gentlemen, that shits so irrelevant. That shit is so irrelevant because you're like, YO, just give me one more chance to be with my kids, Let me hug my wife one more time, let me get on that stage one more time with my crew so that I can perform and bring healing to people that need it. So I just wanted to get that and be transparent and candidate about how much love I have for life, beyond any music, beyond any career. I'm enjoying just being able to have opportunities like this to give my testimony and meet people like you, Bill, and meet people like you Steve, who you know I've met Emir. I'm a fan of Fante. I know what they bring to culture. I love them for what they bring and who they are as human beings. But to be able to see the team that brings us all together and give you your flowers and salute you for what you make this whole team happen. You guys got to know that too, So I just wanted to kind of put that out there. I'm all about that, man. I'm telling you, humility is freaking key. A lot of people get caught up in their own ship and I'm not trying to do that. Brother. I surrendered evil a long time ago. 00:10:38 Speaker 4: And so how old are your daughters? Man? 00:10:41 Speaker 2: Well, I have one daughter. Guess what, I have three boys and one daughter. My daughter was born as a miracle baby after my doctor said you're not gonna be able to have any more children because you have stage two testicular cancer. So the chemotherapy is going to be so aggressive, intense and it's gonna break down everything that's good in your body to kill that one thing that's bad in your body. And so he said, unfortunately, you're probably not gonna have any more children. So my daughter, my one and only daughter, jet Juliana, was born as a miracle baby. And so when you said that, Bill, I was like, Yo, There's only been one other person that has inspired me like that, and that was Kobe Bryant. I had a chance to build my brother Kobe, and his love and his appreciation for being such an amazing girl dad was something that sparked me to become a writer of books and comics and be a storyteller and really focus on my kids and kids around the world, bring inclusion, bring a mosaic of cultures that's represented through storytelling, and do it in a way where it's fun. There's music, there's art, there's culture, and it's done very genuine and authentic. 00:11:51 Speaker 3: So let me ask you for your life, when was the paradigm shift in which you had this awakening and this zest for life. 00:12:03 Speaker 2: For people that remember the earlier work of the Black Eyed Peas, I was I looked very different back then because I wasn't taking care of myself. I looked more depleted. My cheek bone structure was very profound. I had long hair. I was like weighed like one hundred and ten pounds because I was using and abusing, and I'm very candid about it. When I became sobers, when I found that first moment of clarity for myself, and I only speak for me, because I was going crazy, bro. I was living the rock star lifestyle. I went from sleeping on mom's couch to having my first you know whatever success with whereas the Love, and that was in two thousand and three. So from twenty from nineteen ninety five when we started Black Eyed Peas to two thousand and three, I was building this like bravado and this energy, you know hip hop, Grab your crotch all that shit. I'm an MC, I'm a b boy. I'm gonna battle you. Yah yah yah yah. Right, your building is bravado. Your confidence sometimes turns into ego, especially when you're going crazy with over indulging. And so I started over indulging, started getting money over indulging, and I wrote a book about it, another book before I wrote the kids book about identity, because I wanted to help people that have addiction or going through addition. And in two thousand and seven, March twenty seventh, that was the day that I changed my whole perspective because I wanted to live for my kids. I was living dangerously, I was living recklessly, and you know, I had a surrender. That was my first moment of surrendering because my ego was out of control and it kept saying You're the shit, nobody could fuck with you, You're unstoppable, You're part of this mega crew, YadA, YadA, YadA. But in actuality, I was just a human that was trying to fill voids with alcoholism and drug use. And I'm candid about it because I want people to take inspiration from this, even if they're like, wow, we didn't know that you were going to that. Well, I never really publicly talked about it. I actually did the work and the due diligence and the ways to be able to get back and to be of service. And so from that point on, my first step of moment of clarity was sobriety. So now going on sixteen years of being removed from that time period, in twenty fourteen, I get hit with cancer and as man we don't talk about that shit ever. I ain't gotta get tested. Oh man, my testicles. You mean to touch my nuts? I ain't got what do you mean go to the doctor. Now, I'm gonna go on tour. I got tours. I got shows to do, right, So that was the mentality. I got shows to do. So I had this back pain and my right testicle is hurting, but I was like, ah, that's cool, it's all right, it's wearing terbit of the road. And so in twenty fourteen was the year that it all came crashing down for me and I got diagnosed with stage two testicular cancer, which it went to my two lift notes in my spine, and I did have to go into aggressive chemotherapy six days a week, excuse me, six hours a day, five days a week, many many long, strenuous hours of torture and trauma, mental and physical. 00:15:14 Speaker 3: I've only probably really been close to one person that had to go through testing and that stuff for leukemia. Shout out to Rich Nichols, who even then, like Rich was such a hard ass cynic that he didn't want to burden us with the human side of what it felt like. But what what does what is the process of going through that level of chemo where six hours every day? What is what is the process? 00:15:47 Speaker 2: It's different for every type of cancer. You know, for the Kids Unit, which is the cancer treatment center for kids McDonald's Center in Los Angeles, they have different varieties of chemotherapy that some of them are aggressive, but also you don't want to you don't want to bring trauma to the kids so much that it causes permanent damage. So with me, it was like, I'm going to go aggressive because I want to be back on stage. So I opted to do aggressive chemo because it was spreading at such a rapid rate that if I didn't do it the way that I did it with five hours a day, I mean, excuse me, six hours a day, five days a week, then it would have prolonged the process and I probably it probably would have went from my spine, my lungs, and then my brain and I would have died. And that that was how the doctor explained it to me. 00:16:38 Speaker 3: How long from the moment that you found that you had it, how long did it take you to acknowledge it? And like, all right, let me start treatment. 00:16:50 Speaker 2: From I got checked in on a Thursday. I was doing chemo on that Monday. So I had surgery Friday to get my right testicle removed. 00:16:59 Speaker 3: So as you were concerned, you were just like, damn, man, like my back is killing me. I can't dance like I used to. Let me go get this fix, and then that's how you found out you had cancer or. 00:17:09 Speaker 2: Well, it was like I had pain in my back and it was more about like being able to pick my kids up more than dancing. Okay, it was something very innate to my life, Like the dancing thing is only like an hour or two hours when I'm on stage, right, I live a daily life of being a father, and so something as simple as like trying to bend over to pick on my kid, I had this sharp pain in my back. So I was like, yo, there's something wrong with me. I just don't know what it is. Maybe it's wear and tear of being on tour. Tell my wife. My wife says, hey, if this continues to get worse, you need to go to the er. Unfortunately, at twelve midnight it got worse, so I drove. I don't know how I did it. I got in my car, drove to the er, and I went straight into getting MIRI cat scans CT scans, and by seven am they told me I was diagnosed with cancer. They didn't tell me what type of cancer. They just said, we found a mass which is for centimeters wide four centimeters long like a tennis ball, and it's in your spine and it came from your right testicle. 00:18:10 Speaker 1: In your family? Is it hereditary? 00:18:12 Speaker 2: That was the first one, brother. 00:18:13 Speaker 1: Wow. 00:18:16 Speaker 2: So so let me let me just give you guys, because I know this is a fun show and everybody. 00:18:21 Speaker 3: No no, this is a human no no, no, no, a human show and there's a human show. Normally I just start with your creative life, but you went there, so I want to know this for me. 00:18:30 Speaker 2: So so so I just wanted to give you guys the ultimate connection to me as a human being, because I love what you guys do with the show, how you guys take journeys of like the dark side the light, the career of triumphs. But this one, for me was the thing that kind of shape and molded who I am today as a father, as a husband, as a storyteller, as a creative because I probably wouldn't have understood being a voice to indigenous communities if I didn't go through this trauma. Because after I beat this horrible disease, I said to myself, what's my higher purpose beyond being an entertainertainer, beyond doing music? Wait a minute, I think I gotta go and be of service. So I went to Standing Rock. Standing Rock was a they say it's a protest, we call it a protection of sacred land. At that time, which is any rocks to tribe. They were trying to build the oil pipeline that would eventually bring oil into the water drinking water of the tribal community around. 00:19:30 Speaker 3: That you were part of those protesters that I went. 00:19:32 Speaker 2: I went there as Jimmy Gomez, an activist, as a Native kid that just wanted to stand in solidarity. It wasn't about Black Eyed Peas. It's just me. I took my oldest son, Josh, and we were there as Native activists giving back to the community, trying to just be of service. And then I figured out how I can be a voice and really use this huge megaphone that is Black Eyed Peas to bring more eyeballs and more visibility to tribal issue, whether we're talking about you know, pipelines, or we're talking about indigenous peoples be in Los Angeles, we're talking about the Native Nations March or bringing more conversation in mainstream media that has an indigenous lens that's very genuine and authentic and not stereotypical like we've seen in the past. And so that was kind of like my AHA moment to be that guy. He's like, Yo, Black Eyed Peas, Yo, Will's all about technology, Apple's all about the Philippines. Yo, I'm going to be about this. I'm going to activate this amazing opportunity to inspire the youth in tribal communities, in the Latino community because I'm Mexican as well. Why don't I use this energy that I've been putting on stage for so many years and now bring light to the fight against cancer, advocating for indigenous communities and actually do something to bring light and hope to the people. 00:20:54 Speaker 3: Yeah. I was going to say that. In doing research for your story, and you know, having just turned fifty two two months ago, I suddenly asked myself a question. I'm like, wait a minute, I think when you turn fifty you're supposed to start getting tests to see you know, because I'm one of those people, you know, I have been living with like stage two lymphedema for about yeah, like since like ninety eight, like for twenty five years. 00:21:30 Speaker 2: With you about something. 00:21:31 Speaker 3: Yeah, I noticed that. 00:21:33 Speaker 2: I noticed that about you because I saw the fluctuating of Europe. Yeah, and for exactly a friend from Afar seeing you at certain events, I'd be like, yo, you know, just going through my struggles in my illness. Same thing that happened with Dave Rest in peace for boy, I had that same conversation and it was so candid and it was so on a human level that he inspired me more than any day I saw track or any song or any message or any lyrics because we bonded as brothers. And so you know, I noticed that about you, and I gotta say, man, like you without even knowing you, you are one of those warriors that have inspired me too. 00:22:11 Speaker 3: Thank you, man, thank you. You know at the time, I just ignored it and I never heard the term limpidema. I'm just like, oh damn, I got fat, Like suddenly, I gained seventeen pounds overnight, Like how has that happened? And I didn't realize, like, you know, every day I have massive swelling and like in different limbs or whatnot, just every day. It was sort of like a roulette. Change of a roulette will result of all, right, what's going to be affected today? Oh, my arm's okay, great. That's why I asked you, like from the time you were diagnosed to the time that you immediately went to get it checked out, Like it took me nine years, nine years to finally and it's only because a mistake, like I was changed for a video. My manager saw me and like, what the fuck happened to your legs, amir? And then like he rushed me to the hospital. So you know, and I know I'm at that age now where every my mental health and my physical health is like paramount, and so like I took my first and I had a fear. You know, sometimes ignorance is bliss sometimes with people, and I had a general fear like kept putting it off. Okay, when I turned fifty one, I'm gonna get the testament. Get the testament, dude, my cancer test and all that stuff. So I definitely knew that before we started this interview. I didn't want to have to face you and been like hiding, like damn, I've been putting this off for two you so I finally got I did my test like a week and a half ago, so you know, I'm good, clean bill of health. But yeah, I just but I do know that because of our unwillingness to catch it earlier or that sort of thing, or to even find out, we'd rather just live and bliss and then it's too late and your body starts talking to you and then you have that that pain. So but yeah, I will say that. In doing research and seeing your story, then I guess that kind of pushed me over the ledge, like all right, man, just start doing your test, bro, get this together. 00:24:22 Speaker 2: So well, we need we need more heroes without capes in our communities that activate just you know, health is wealth, man. And I learned that the hard way. I'm not a preacher. I will never preach a health and wellness, but I will shine light on it and be like, yo, we need that more hip hop community. I see a lot of our pioneers that are not taking care of themselves. I'm like, yo, you know what I'm saying. And I'm a fan of these pioneers, and some of them just you know, and it's sad because with a little bit of prevention, with a little bit of a conversation and communication which can help bring that light. Like that's something that you know, I would like to do that for communities, just like just like what Lance Armstrong did. And I know the whole scandal was whacking. It just ended up like bullshit, right, But if I can be that conduit of hope with my experience so that folks don't have to go through it and can prevent it, just like what you said, Amir, You're like, oh, I saw your story and I'm like, fuck, okay, it's fifty one. Okay, I'm gonna do it right. Maybe it with a little nudge that you didn't even expect it. Maybe because you saw what I went through, you're like, you know what, all right, let me go get checked. 00:25:36 Speaker 3: Definitely in a nudge. It is the nudge that finally made me call my doctor and been like all right, I'm coming in. Let mean you know, so I want to credit you with that. 00:25:44 Speaker 2: Yeah, man, It's a conversation that I think is healthy to have. It's holistic. It's a way that we can we can bring something that that you're trying to support and nurture. The idea of just wanting to see your people succeed and not only music or art, but also in taking care of themselves. 00:26:07 Speaker 3: Now I'm really going to start style. Where were you born? 00:26:11 Speaker 2: I was born in East Los Angeles, Ball Heights, California. 00:26:14 Speaker 3: Okay, yeah, what's your what's you know for you? What's your memories of of what your childhood was? 00:26:21 Speaker 2: My grandmother, my grandmother was a beautiful Native woman from Jerome, Arizona. She represented her roots to the to the t. She was all about being of service, sometimes to her own detriment, her own health, which taught me a lot about like, hey, I'm gonna help, but I'm not gonna put my health before anybody else. She was all about the arts and music and dancing. It goes hand in hand with our ancestry. You know, we use dancing as a way of prayer healing. If you look at it old powout style dancers, a lot of it is just stories that are being told through their their style and their expression, and they use that as a form of healing in prayer and so growing up, my grandmother kind of still that that dancing performing mentality at five years old, and I would be dancing to like, you know, craft work and African Bombarda, and you know, I got into craft work because of African Bambada and Soul Solid and force. I started understanding studying where that whole electronic style came from. And then after that I saw, you know, when we saw Breaking and you saw what's his name doing the frigging, so you're like, yoh, what's that? Oh wait, that's craft work. Wait a minute. So I started doing a deep dive into like not just hip hop culture, but also where it comes from, where that that electronic vibe came from. So, you know, and and growing up, I started really sharpening my swords as a B boy breaking being inspired by breakers like Crazy Legs and the rock Steady Crew from from New York, but also a lot of dancers from from the West Coast like Popping Pete, Bugaloo, Shrimp, Jeffrey Daniels who was part of Schlamar. He was filling it, you know what I'm saying, Like he was ill with it. He taught Mike MJ a lot of the stuff. But also like Leg one, Leg two MC Lights Dancers, Mission Impossible Special Eds dancers, you know, kid and play to the scheme team which is Divine Stylers dancers. So brothers that was Deaf Jeff's dancers. Yeah, the far side, you know, and I mean the mop tops from a Buddhist stretch from from New York. Like, I had such an innate love for for freestyle dance, and then it got into housing. Once housing came in, I was like, Yo, what's this Because when I heard the younger brother said, say, girl, our house you I was like housing. And I started doing research on like soho and hot hot music, hot music, hot from Doom Doom Do. I was like, Yo, what's that style? So I started seeing these different styles Herb Alpert North on South Street, watching those videos and really immersing myself in the art fulm a dance. And then I started studying the great Nicholas Brothers, James Brown, Sammy Davis, Bob Fosse, all these amazing dancers that came from from the past, and I started incorporating these styles and wanted to to bring this this hip hop clash of like all these unique frequencies of movement. And so that was my upbringing. Man, That's what I That's what I remember. This is before me even meeting Will and Apple, before we even became black Eyed peas. I started a group called Divine Tribal Brothers, and of course who were sons of tribe and we loved the Jungle Brothers, So Tribal Brothers right right, Well, Will and Apple were tribal nation because Zulu nation and try, you know, try call quest. So eventually we became a crew and the name of our crew was Grassroots and we were trying to do like the Native Tongues in the West Coast because we were so inspired by the Native tunks. 00:30:02 Speaker 4: Wasn't just your grandmother? Was it mom and dad in the picture? Like who was it? 00:30:07 Speaker 2: My mom was in the picture, but you know she was she was born in East La. Very typical mom from from East La. She she was she didn't see it like my grandmother saw it. She knew. She's like, you get on the stage and you give the best version of yourself and don't ever stop fighting when you're on that stage. Right, So that b boy mentality, that killer, that apex predator mentality, battle came from my grandmother's will and her energy. Like yeah, I love Michael Jordan and you know, Magic Johnson and all these sports figures and Bruce Lee. It was a big, huge, inspiration. I love Kumfort movies, Marsha black Belt Theater, loved Billy Jack. You know, I love watching those old school eighties movies too. But my grandmother was my superhero, and that's I think that's why I kind of really got into storytelling and being a superhero advocate because my grandmother was my hero. 00:30:58 Speaker 4: Without a kid. 00:30:59 Speaker 3: You mention hot music by Soho. Just found out that Soho was basically are you are you? You remember Pal Joey? Absolutely? I did not know so Pal Joey, who was kind of an engineer for karas One, So I guess around the time when they're making Sex and Violence. I think d Nice told me the story that basically all those patches belonged to d Nice and karas One, like that's how he made hop music. But Pal Joey was making like house records on the side, just you know, for extra cash and whatnot. So wow, and did not know it. 00:31:36 Speaker 2: That's kind of like how we looked at when we when we started getting that frequency of international ed M electronic music around the world, whether it was Justice or the the you know, uh, David Ghetto were traveled the world and we're like, yo, remember that era of like Girl a House, Hugh and the technotronic clump up the gym Ya remember remember so Hot hop me. We started talking about how we can connect and bring whatever was happening around the world and bring that same frequency that Jungle Brothers was doing when they did Grow a House, but just doing the Black Eyed Peace stuff and utilizing those inspirations and those sounds and those frequencies that were electronic that were popping in around the world that in turn became the Boom Boom Pals and the I Gotta Feelings and those big records that we did in two thousand and eight to twenty eleven, and so all we did was just regurgitate the inspiration that came from Jungle Brothers and those folks that were transitioning into that. 00:32:42 Speaker 3: Yeah, electro music, Yeah, electual music. 00:32:44 Speaker 4: Yeah. 00:32:44 Speaker 3: When I talk to anyone from LA that's a dancer, the first thing they always tell me is that, you know, it wasn't Vogan. It's called whacking. There's a whacking culture. Whacking culture whacking like what was I guess from outside of his standpoint, I mean, I'm a DJ, but I don't really get many opportunities to do like house parties like on frequently, maybe like four or five times a year some club will hire me to do a house set or whatever. But you know, were you at all part of the whacking community like those? 00:33:20 Speaker 2: It was a pretty tight niche. We were part of the freestyle that Adrian Young's you know Adrian Young before he became a producer. Wait, yeah, before Adrian Young became a producer with at least Shahid mohamad Yo. This dude was an incredible dancer, bro Like, he had the dreadlocks. My man, Adrian Young was one of the illest dancers, and we all came up together. You know. So shout out to Adrian Young for his transition into becoming an amazing cultivist of the culture. He just he's just such a big inspiration because he did start as a dancer. He started as a freestyle dancer with us. 00:33:55 Speaker 3: So were you part of the good life community at all or was that like sort of before we. 00:33:59 Speaker 2: Had our own thing. We had our own thing called Peace and Justice Center, which Black Eyed Peas spawned out of it. We also had punpkind Ahead. We used to come out of there. Not a lot of main artists came out of there, but we had love and appreciation for the abstract routes and the fellowships and you know Medusa and all those folks. Yeah, Medusa. But we weren't that part of La. We weren't in Lamert Park. We were in East La Glendale, Sangabo Valley, Los Feeliss Like that was our world. That was our stomping grounds. And we were more in the Filipino community because of Apple Apples. He was the guy that will bring us to the Hi Filipino parties. So that's kind of where we we were sharpened our swords and battle other crews. 00:34:44 Speaker 3: My idea of battling really just stems from watching Beech Street and that sort of thing. But you know, when you go to a function, like take us back to nineteen ninety or ninety one, if you're going to a function, are you going there to flex that? I will dance out dance to all of you, like how does a battle start? 00:35:08 Speaker 2: It's more of a spiritual warfare, bro, more than our bat out dance you. It's more like when you know, when you see the X Men battleling Scratch Pickles, or you see the beat junkies battling these other DJs and they're going there, they're killing. It's the same mentality for for dancers or b boys or freestyle dancers, like we are in there as apex predators to see who's got the illest shit, How dope are you repid? What's the what's the dopest moves that you're bringing to be able to show that you're representing your crew. And we, you know, we watch movies like rac Shop by the mop Tops and and Wild Style, and you know, we learned from the greats watching the battles between rock Steady and the other crews and seeing how they would go into it and be able to present this beautiful art form that was ghetto gymnastics that we were do in our backyards practicing, and then we would bring it to the stage and it was a performance. Basically, it was like people were watching us battle and then Will would get on the mic and battle on the m C tip. He was a killer. He was a killer on the m seats on the freestyle tip. And so there was this club called Ballistics which Bud Bundy aka David Foxtino used to put out and it was a hip hop club and basically we would have you know, cruise from Pasadena, from LA from South Central come to battle at the spot in Hollywood, and that's where Buckwheat was at. That's where the Far Side exhibit Robin Thick call of Patton, Leonardo DiCaprio. We all came to Alyssa, Milano. We all came to this club and we were all teenagers and black eyed peas. That's where we met and that's where we started kind of like conjugating at this club called Ballistics. 00:36:57 Speaker 3: When these battles happened, Like is there a ticular crew or a person to whom you were like, nah, man, I'm gonna destroy and when I see him next, or that sort of thing, like like what's the battle mentality? To discredit another dancer? Not discredit another dancer, but like, how does one determine who won a dance battle? 00:37:23 Speaker 2: I think it's more about the cruise, you know, and and just getting the name up and getting your name because the crew would give you merit in every city if you're dominating these battles. It wasn't about money back then, there was no money. It was like you know when you watch eight mile, like eminems just battling. There was no like it's like yo, you're battling for reputation, right, and then you're battling at that time in the eighty nine to ninety, it's like, Yo, I might be seen by somebody that I can probably make this a living, right because we don't know. We're like we see people on television, we see people in the movie. He's like, oh, yeah, I'm a dancer, I'm a b boy. Maybe I can get a footloose opportunity. Maybe I can be on a dated letterman, like the way that Crazy Legs was. You know what I'm saying. So this just as a kid from the inner cities, You're just like, Yo, this is my opportunity to express myself. At that time, I wasn't rapping. I was just break dancing or freestyle dancing. And then I started elevating my mentality to be able to utilize performance dancing. And then with the guidance and the strength and the leadership of Will, I was like, Yo, maybe I can do this thing too and represent and utilize this as another weapon production songwriting breaking and like the way Chris Brown was, you know, Chris Brown had that same type of philosophy. It's like I could be a triple threat break it down because he wasn't just a regular dancer or not just a regular dancer. He's actually one of my favorites because he's able to do street dancing and not you know, he can do choreography, but he can also have his own freestyle bous to. 00:39:06 Speaker 3: What was the point in which you knew or seriously pursued like, Okay, this is what I want to do for a living. What was your life into your daily life into free entertainment, like as far as school or a job or that sort of thing. 00:39:26 Speaker 2: My first first job was at Disneyland picking up horsemen after the electrical Parade, which was I was dealing with a lot of shit back then, ladies and gentlemen that I was dealing with a lot of shit, But it taught me being on point as far as like, you know, being punctual, work, ethic, humility, because I was dealing with a lot of shit, but also being part of a corporate structure. And during the day I was I was working at Disneyland, and at night I was performing with Will and Apple, which was what was to become Black Eyed Peas, And so I had a day job to be able to facilitate my dream at night, just like what you guys used to do a mirror at the was it called Leilah's Was that spot? 00:40:13 Speaker 3: What was that spot called the five Spot? 00:40:15 Speaker 2: Yeah? Yeah, yeah, the early years. Yes, So we used to do that same thing. We used to go to this Peace and Justice Center and just sharpen uswars do like a jam or we had a live band and we would rock out and we would do these performances. And so even though we weren't getting paid a lot of money, maybe like one hundred and two hundred bucks, we looked at it like, oh, this is the start of something. Maybe we can, you know, continue to grow this art form and this this vehicle called Black Eyed Peas and this could become something. So, you know, we're straight out of high school, man, We're seventeen eighteen year old kids that that had a dollar in a dream or two dollars in a dream for gas. And so Disneyland was my first initial job fulfilling the dream because that was the way I was able to pay for gas or meals to get to the studio or to my performance. 00:41:05 Speaker 5: I was gonna had y'all officially become at band clan at that point, No so Will. 00:41:10 Speaker 2: And Apple got signed at sixteen as an ad Bank clan, and it was another brother named Mookie that was part of that trio. Easy actually discovered Will and Apple at Ballistics the Bud Bundy joint, and so he signed him. He was like, Yo, I love, I love what you guys represent. You guys are kind of like the West Coast version of a Trap cal Quest or Diggable Planets. You guys are like, you know, you got that whatever whatever he said, Bohemian rap or whatever, because he didn't know how to explain it. And so he's like, I'm gonna do the same thing Diggable and Troy did in the East Coast. I'm gonna do that for you guys here in the West Coast. And so unfortunately Easy he passed away in ninety five, and so that's that was kind of the moment where Will was like, Yo, we got to start a new thing. It can't be ad Bank plan So let's just I don't know, called it blue Unit. Nah, that's why. Uh let's call it, uh, let's call it uh Beans of rice why? Nah, it's just kind of whack. What about uh? What about black eyed peas peas? What does that represent black eyed peas is so food we could feed the soul with our music. Oh shit, okay, black eyed peas and black eyed peas brings good luck during New Year's we bring good luck with our music. So we started coming with a cool ideas about what black eyed peas represented. And plus, there wasn't a lot of food groups out there other than the chili. 00:42:35 Speaker 3: Right, Fante, You're kind of a part of this, but you, you and Pooh don't necessarily do like run DMC Tug of War style. But you know in the piece there are various songs in which you guys trade lines and that sort of thing. Can you describe to me, like what is the creative process when you are one third of a unit and you're creating a song, and you know, of course there's the old all right, you get one verse, you get one verse, you get one verse, but you know who decides which verse goes first? He's the first verse to be heard. Who decides like when you guys are writing songs and which you are are trading like tug of War lines, Like walk me through just the creative process of how you guys develop your lyrics. 00:43:32 Speaker 2: Yeah, I would say the best way to describe the most recent exchange of even shared contributions is this album called Masters in the Sun, which we put out in twenty eighteen, which is probably about that love that record, Yes, thank you Brother, which is our best work. It's not a pop record, it's a strictly Black Eyed Peas is showing you what we still are capable of doing as hip hop kids. As MC's we got to work with our freaking one of our mentors, Lallo Shipperd doing all these tres. So that being said, you know, we were just in the studio just viben, like jumping around and just acting like we were seventeen again. And that's what the piece is like. It's a friendship. You know. We've had different iterations of as you mentioned earlier about like is it a third, is it a fourth? You know, shout out to all the ladies that have been part of our journey. But at the end of the day, like Black Eyed Peas is myself where I am an apple and it's always been that, and so what you see on stage is us jumping around having a good time, just you know, not taking ourselves too seriously, not to dayl out soul, not to daylight because they said the same thing that inspired us. So we just we do that. We are in the studio and we're building and we say a couple of words. I don't like that line. Maybe we've changed that line. All right, app what do you got? Apple? Say something? And then we just start exchange and then you have your traditional like you know, tab what you got? You? I got this first? Okay, you go first? All right, well we got this. So there's no recipe. It's just we're scientists in there. We we tap into a frequency that we want to display on every song and it comes out magical because we know our formula. We know how to maneuver on stage and in the studio as a trio. 00:45:25 Speaker 5: You spoke about briefly about the ladies that y'all worked with over the years. 00:45:29 Speaker 4: I want to ask you specifically about Kim Hill. 00:45:31 Speaker 5: I really love her, Like, what memories do you have of working with her during that time of. 00:45:36 Speaker 2: First of all, I just want to acknowledge all the ladies that have worked with us, and Kim Hill set the tone. You know, She's been such an amazing piece of our history. And for those folks that don't know, she's an amazing designer as well. She has some pieces. Yeah, DJ She's a great mom and she's just she's all around amazing. So she just set the tone for us because she was older than us at the time when we're when we started Black Eyed Peas, so she was kind of like an older sister figure to us, and she kept us online when we're on tour. You know, we're like teenagers. She was in her early twenties and we were like, you know, still kind of goofy and messing around, and she'd be like, Yo, guys, we gotta we gotta show them arow or whatever. But it was cool because we looked at her as like an older sister and she always showed love. She was always inspirational, and you know, to this day, I'll hit her up on Instagram and we just we have a mutual respect for each other. So so I'm glad you said that, man, because she contributed a lot to the first two albums behind the front and bridging the gap, and you know, she's just she's amazing and I'm proud of everything she's doing now. So salute to Kim Hill. 00:46:52 Speaker 3: He walked us through the process of what led to the deal with Interscope from the time that you got form the group to getting that deal, Like, what was the process? 00:47:06 Speaker 2: A lot of a lot of shows, man, a lot of shows, A lot of no's, Black eyed peas, You're not tangible enough. There's already a slum village, there's already roots, there's already a Fuji's What makes you thinks you're gonna sell records? 00:47:20 Speaker 3: I feir. 00:47:28 Speaker 2: Man, it was. We dealt with a lot of no's. It's not tangible enough. I don't hear any uh, you know, who are the black eyed peas? What are the black eyed peas? Like? You know what? You got a ninja and a black guy in a Filipino like, what are you guys? You know? So it's just not understanding what what we were going to contribute to the world. And we always had an international mindset because Apple came from the Philippines, so we knew wanted to make music for the world. And even if domestic didn't understand what we were trying to do with our music, because we were inspired by you know, Georgie Benjor and Sergio Mendez and Brazil sixty six and all these amazing Brazilian artists and We loved the samples. We loved those ideas of being able to go to Brazil one day and being able to tour Europe and making a stamp in Europe, just like the way Jimmy Hendrix did, the way that the Doors did, the way that you guys did at a jazz cafe. You know, it was just that that idea of always wanted to go international, and so you know, it was it was a journey man. It was a journey of belief, of doubling down on ourselves when people were doubting us, and we just we just continued tucking on and fortuneen Jimmy Ivy and saw the genius and what was to become Black Eyed Peas. And the thing that he said to us is we were going through a bidding war. It was poly Anthony and Sony Rest in Peace at five fifty, and it was also Tom Wally at Oarner Brothers and then at Jimmy Ivy and so so Jimmy's like, you know, you can make records here, no matter how many records you sell. You can have a career here with me. You can get a million dollars from Sony, But who knows what they're gonna do as far as you're touring, you guys are a touring band. If you guys are about the money, you can go to Son. But if you're about a career and have longevity and belief, come here. So you know, fortunately we chose, we chose right, and Jimmy was kind of like the He was the godfather that led us on that path. 00:49:32 Speaker 3: Whenever an artist puts the big hit at the very end of the album, then I always feel like, Okay, maybe they didn't believe in the product or whatever. And I know that when behind the front bridging the gap, not behind it. Yeah, so you know, there was a second where it's like, okay, you guys get in traction on on TRL and this is about to happen. You guys have out to do it. Could you describe what the feeling is like when it's it's kind of a close but no cigar moment, and then you have to make a decision on what your your surviving is going to be sink or swim? Like, did you walk through that period? 00:50:20 Speaker 2: That's when we knew the internet was real? 00:50:24 Speaker 3: Oh shit, Okay, this is when. 00:50:26 Speaker 2: We found out the Internet existed and it I mean it swallowed ourselves. It was this thing called Nabster. 00:50:35 Speaker 3: Okay, we had all the. 00:50:37 Speaker 2: Promo marketing, all the looks you can have. We were on tour, on a college invasion tour with Daylight and White Left and I believe it was Bismarquis, and we would go to these like little after parties and they were playing Bridging the Gap. We're like, yo. Will gets all mad. It's like, tap, did you did you bring bring the record? Because the record wasn't out yet? Did you bring the record here? I was like, no, what are you talking about? He's like, who's playing the fucking record? So it was a girl She's like, I love your new albums, and Will was like, what do you mean our new album it's not even out. He's like, yeah, it's out, it's out on Napster. He's like, what the fuck is Napster. It's like, what's Napster? She's like, Napster's like the new pirting shit, like you can get all these like new albums. So we basically found out that our album had been pirated and been freaking downloaded for free, and so the momentum was like, oh shit, we did all this promo. We did. We were on tour, TRL picked up the song, but we only sold we sold less than behind the front because people are now going to Napster, so they got they get it for free instead of buying the record, buying the CD. So then we said, yo, we got to go into creating the next record. So that's when we went into creating the Elephant album. This is two thousand and one. 00:52:00 Speaker 3: Right, So how are decisions made as far as who to work with, who to bring, like what producer to work with, what members to let in the group? Where all those things, like how are you guys just around this point in the early aughts in terms of communication, It's like. 00:52:21 Speaker 2: We're all going through our own individual issues. And I remember at being away from from the studio a lot. So it's me and Will heavy in the studio on elephone. And at that time, nine eleven happened, so we were recording Bodega Bay. Nine eleven happens. We're supposed to go on tour in September twelve. We go on tour September twelve, and we travel around the US and we see all this divide, all this, you know, all this hatred towards Middle Eastern people, and so we were like, yo, we kept asking the question, No, where's the love within humanity? So we would go to these different spots asking the same question, where's the love within humanity? Where's the love? Okay, that's that's kind of dope. There's something there with this topic where's the love? So we started creating where's the love? The record the song, and we recorded these records where's the Love? Let's get it started. We recorded Hey Mama, all these joints off at elephone, and I remember we played it for Ron Fair and he said, I don't hear a single? What I don't hear a single? So are exacts? Are like, we don't hear a single on elephone? So we're like, we gotta double down. If this is our last record, what are we gonna do? So at that time, we had been dealing with a girl that Will had been working with named Stacy, and she was working on a solo project and she had been singing like you know when you have a girl in the studio, she's singing the girl parts that we will roll yeah, so so referencing stuff. But it actually sounded good and we kept it on there and her voice was something that we gravitated to. She was dope. She had had her own group prior to us having her in the studio. She was a teenage or like a kid star, and so we're like, yo, this maybe there's some magic here. So we kept on the records and then we're like, yo, are we gonna put put her in the group? Like, yo, we we've had all these different females. It's not anything new. We've never you know, it's it's not that we've not had a female, because we have. We had Kim Hill, Macy Gray, Stero, Don Beckman, Noel Skaggs, all these females have worked with us, DeBie Nova. But now there was going to be a female that might not fit the mold because he's coming from a group that was more of like a pop group. So we just said, fuck it, let's go, let's let's make this happen. Let's just bring in the crew, let's take her on tour. We took her on tour. People hated it. They were like, oh man, what's this. This ain't black eyed Peas. I'm not feeling this. So they were hate, Like yo, it just turned like it turned negative because we have this new girl in the group Fergie, and so we put out Where's the Love? And it smashes Oh. Before that, we actually I went to a club in La called Josephs and I met this kid who was a part of this boy band and he's a dancer, and so he's transitioning from like this boy band to becoming a solo artist. I'm like, yo, man, if you have talent, I don't care where you're coming from. Bro, Like, if you got talent, let's go, let's work. He's like, yeah, I'm working with Pharrell. I got this new project that I'm doing. I'm transitioning from this group to now doing my solo thing. I was like, Yo, you think you can sing a hook on this record? We have right now? Is Where's the Love? The Love? The Love? 00:56:03 Speaker 4: That was it? 00:56:04 Speaker 2: I said, can you give me something like mercy mercy me or like What's going on by Marvin Gaye? He says, all right, cool, give me a minute. He goes creates whatever he's gonna create. He calls me like, tab I got it. He sings it over the phone. People killing, people dying, children hurt, and you hear them crying. I'm like, yo, what the what? 00:56:25 Speaker 3: Yo? 00:56:26 Speaker 2: I gotta call Will. I call Will. I tell him, Yo, Will I got the hook? You're like, you got the hook? No, I got the person to sing the hook from. Where's the Love? He's like, who I said, justin Timberlake? He's like justin Timberlake? The Backstreet boy he's he's not a Backstreet boy, he's part of in Sync. He's in Sync. He's like, that's even fucking worse. Tab Why are we gonna have that guy sing on our hook? But I saw what he brought. I didn't care what his past or where he was coming from. It's like, if the song is great, I don't care who's singing it. Let's go. So he comes in and he records it, and the left the rest is magic. We put it out, creates this huge, huge, amazing frequency around the world. It becomes our first number one record, and Ron Fairs puts strings on it, and that was his connection to it. I always knew it was. 00:57:24 Speaker 4: To be a hit. 00:57:25 Speaker 3: Little buddy, when this song finally takes off, what was the first paradigm shift that occurred in your life? I guess you can only have one time to have that experience in which you instantly see the shift of first we were a niche, underground group and suddenly we might be the establishment, So what what is happening? 00:57:50 Speaker 1: Like? 00:57:51 Speaker 3: What's the feeling like? What happens? 00:57:53 Speaker 2: I love that you said that because I was so proud of you transitioning into Late Night Fellon because it was dope to see you guys like you know, and that umbrella sparked you to be able to be in the space of the oscars and have to people, to be acting and all the great things that you guys have been doing. So that being said, I think for us because I'm I love comedy man, I'm a big big I love comedy and humor. When we were on parody on Saturday Night Live, yeah. 00:58:25 Speaker 3: I was gonna say, how did that feel to be? 00:58:28 Speaker 2: Yo? We made it boy from East to La that just loves hip hop culture and yes it was tongue in cheek. It was funny. It's like they're making fun of the black eyed Peas, but they're mentioning the black eye ps. 00:58:42 Speaker 3: Yeah, you know what I'm saying. 00:58:45 Speaker 2: My brother Apple came from Philippines not knowing a word of English because hip hop taught him how to speak English. Do you write a dictionary? Learned how to rap and became a freaking huge international superstar from the. 00:58:59 Speaker 4: Film pop y'all are pop culture references like that. 00:59:02 Speaker 2: So I'm like, yo, you gotta own it. Who else but us? I mean, we get ship if it's there, own it. And if people hate all good Oh you guys shell outs. Yeah, we're selling out stadiums around the world. 00:59:16 Speaker 3: Yeah. You know. My manager used to tease Tarika and I about like he would always say, well, you guys are salty because you never got your what he calls your Bentley moment and his short His short Bentley moment was sort of a shorthand for like whatever it is the life that rappers think that rappers should be going through. We should be walking in slow motion. We should be you know, pouring champagne all over women and whatever whatever hype William's slow motion kind of life. That Yeah, like that experience. 00:59:53 Speaker 2: So you like this bill. For me, it was getting custody my son. Being able to pay twenty thousand dollars to get full custody of my son Josh. I was like, Yo, that's worth more than than any gold chain, than any Bentley because now I'm able to raise my son on my playing ground the way that I want to raise it. And so that was something that always bothered me because I was a teenage parent and honestly, I didn't know what parenting was. Bro Like, I was a little kid having a kid. So when the where's the love moment happened, that was when financially I was able to actually provide a stable home for my son. Right although I had help for my mom because I was still young, I was a twenty one to twenty two, at least I have some form of stability financially to be able to take my son away from the way he was being brought up, to be able to get him now a home the way I was brought up. And so that was like for me, that was a moment beyond any Bentley moment or or any gold chain or you know. And I bought a house, yeah, but it was like taking care of Josh was like yo, I made it. And it was because of that ways of love money that brought me this opportunity to be a dad. 01:01:12 Speaker 4: How old were you when you had Josh? 01:01:13 Speaker 2: You said you were seventeen. I actually walked. I walked my graduation with a son, bro Like, I was like only it was crazy dude, and it was like, yeah, Okay, this guy's not gonna make it. He's got a kid at seventeen. But it also it gave me the fire to be able to not give up on my dreams and my aspirations even though I was a teen parent and I'm not in any way form a fashion don't e teen parents parenting, but I am saying like it put a fire in my ass and it just like that was like a Okay, now I got to come to grips to be able to give my son a better opportunity of life because I know that that's my motivation. 01:01:56 Speaker 3: Of all those records, I would probably say that maybe Monkey Business was probably the hardest to create because it's like how do you keep the momentum up? Then that becomes bigger, So I don't even want to go to the to the E n D. But going into monkey Business, what was the pressure? 01:02:16 Speaker 2: Like, I mean, bro, like we uh we went in there and actually tried to make hits elephant wasn't trying to make his We're just making records like yo, what's popping over there? Ship? What's what's what's uh? What's Timberland? Doing, What's what's Pharrell doing? What's this person doing? Like it was all over the place being students and like how do we compete? And so records like Don't Lie, which is my least favorite record, even though it was a smash. I don't like performing it's just then we had Don't Funk with My Heart, which is cool because we studied Bollywood and we liked that frequency and we loved Leasa Lisa and Code Jam love that record. I wonder if I take yeah so that record and it was like, oh, okay, this kind of sounds like weekends from Uh from from Uh Bridging the Gap, which we sampled Debbie Dabb look got weekends because here we come, and so there was like a formula happening. And then we sampled dig Dale, Misery Loot. 01:03:23 Speaker 7: For Pump It, and then Will did my humps and then we finished it off with with the James Brown Joint, which is my favorite. 01:03:33 Speaker 3: Yeah, talk about that session. I spun the ship out that record when I was jealous, man, how did that happen? 01:03:42 Speaker 2: We were at the mojo. 01:03:44 Speaker 3: They don't want music, they don't want music. 01:03:46 Speaker 2: Yes, Boom that was our first Boom Boom song, and mister Brown, as he liked to be referred to, mister Brown. We met him at the Mobile Awards in London and we're like, mister Brown, we're working on a new record with huge fans. You know, b boys, we love what you've done with you know, your work, blah blah blah, giving them flowers. Well, I don't have to work with anybody, but something says that I need to work with the Black Eyed Peas yo yo. 01:04:20 Speaker 1: Also, James Brown impressions. 01:04:24 Speaker 2: It's it's it's trying, but but he says, Okay, I'm gonna show up to the studio. We're recording at uh Metropolis in London, Paramount No Metropolis Studios. He comes, he has his whole entourage. Bro, when I tell you this dude is a mega superstar. He walked in with the lady that combs his hair. So he's sitting down Brown. They bring out a mirror. The lady sits down, combs his hair, and then he's like, okay, I'm ready. I don't ready. So we're like okay, cool. So so so our band. They go in there, they start doing their thing. He's like no, no, no, everybody out. He brings his horn players so his horn players are leading the dance. That's that his horn players are leading the dance. We're like, oh, yo, just let him do his thing. So like, what kind of style can we bring to what James Brown's bringing mister Brown's bringing? What about like that Greg nice and that that nice smooth joint Yo Disney Gless. He plays the sad like Max. So that's that's the frequency that we tapped into for the rap part that Will is doing with James Brown. And I just remember, like after the session were breaking bread. He's sitting at the table and he's talking to us and somebody comes over and starts cutting his food. Like his meat is his steak. He has someone to cut his steak, he has someone to brush his hair, and then he goes like this, so he comes and wipes his mouth. 01:06:06 Speaker 3: I was like, wait a minute, hey, Steve, that's like one of my favorite tracks of me too. 01:06:17 Speaker 2: Thank you. I mean that record just came so natural. And the fact that we got tipped to start the song, you know, it's he said something really special when we were on the road. It was with him, Dave Chappelle. He said, well, black Eyed Peas, we want you guys to carry the baton of what we started and take it international and all the stuff that you guys are doing international, you guys are representing the essence of the native tongue. So that was very important. That was around that time, the monkey Business era. But during that time we also got to tour with amazing rock groups. Can I just tell you about the rocky. 01:06:52 Speaker 3: Yeah, I want to know what tour life was like at this point in your life. 01:06:56 Speaker 2: I mean, we're touring with with with I mean seven Dust, uh, no doubt, when Stefani lit Blink one eighty two, it was just Dope Metallica. We were just toying with all these amazing rock groups because those are the type of festivals we were doing, and we're the only hip hop group part of that that journey. So we learned how to perform in front of the audiences that weren't necessarily hip hop audiences, and so our pellet kind of expanded, and that's why we had, you know, we worked with Travis Barker, and we worked with popa Roach and all these these rock groups so that we could learn how to bring that frequency as well and just be students of the game and learn how to perform in front of these audiences that you know, you better be just doing something other than just playing instruments or just rapping, because they're gonna they're gonna tell you, they're gonna throw stuff at you, they're gonna flip you off. So we were learning how stage died, we're learning how to do mosh pits all that stuff around Europe and and and feeing us that we can bring that same rock energy with with the Black Eyed Peas essence. 01:08:06 Speaker 3: Oh, this is a question I always wanted to know. Okay, So for the longest I'll say that basically, before the Internet kind of colonized the world and had us all thinking like at the same time, whereas before you go to different territories and this section of town didn't get what New York has or that sort of thing. But there was a moment where I remember, uh, when you guys first came out. Uh, you guys went to Australia and you did Big Day out right. 01:08:40 Speaker 2: Yes, loved it. 01:08:41 Speaker 3: And I remember, uh Jurassic five telling me, you know, we we've yet to go to Australia. They're like, yo, dog, you got to come to Australia. Man, Like we play stadiums over there, and I was like Jurassic five playing the stadium. It's like no, dog, Like you don't get it. Like the artists that are club artists in the United States when they go to Australia, they're like mega And he was like, yeah, man, Ben Harper plays stadiums and it was like yoyo, Black Eyed Peas can set out a stadium. I was like black the Black Eyed Peas just opened for me last week to sound the stadium. I literally I was like my mind was blown. But for you, what was the feeling to get and and yes, to put in context, like Australia is just different. You know, they're not really controlled by like corporate radio the way that it is over here with clear channel and you know that sort of thing where playlists are determined, like still DJ's played whole music over there, like a person like Eric Abadu can still find space on pop radio along with whoever is like Hitten and pop and that sort of thing. Like they've always been balanced that way. So as a result, a lot of the music that we like, that's thee in underground music gets the same platform that something mainstream is. But for you, like what was the feeling in breaking breaking that ceiling and finally, you know, getting to a point where I'm certain that you know where Michael Jackson's like, hey, I'm a big fan of you guys, and like what was that feeling? Like like who are the people that you're meeting and those sort of things. 01:10:26 Speaker 2: So, so being able to travel to Australia, you're seeing all these actors and actresses and kind of like the the experience of the Oscars world. That's the transition of going from like the music world to now meeting actors, actresses, directors. That's actually where we met James Cameron. And so you're meeting all these people and you're getting this after effect of like yo, I didn't know they liked the music, right, We're just we're just kind of like nomads, just traveling and you don't feel the effects of the impact that you're having because you're just doing You're just being you and you're just creating music. So we were we were just embracing the beauty that was Australia and is Australia because they supported us before any before anyone actually gave us that then Flowers, it was Australia and New Zealand. Let me show you something. Yes, this is my first plaque bridging back to New Zealand. This is the first plaque that actually got gold. Wow. So that being said, in New Zealand and Australia, they had love for us before any any domestics, so especially on our first earlier work with Behind the Front of Bridge the Gap, so you know, it just it just affirmed everything that we had been doing. We had been working towards being able to tour the world and be international and just bring that energy. And I would say Australia was probably the place where we spent most time because we did the big day out for months right and every year we did it up until that point when they stopped doing it. 01:12:06 Speaker 3: Okay, So I have a theory about mega songs. Every mega song that I've ever known from Louis Louis to shout to Tequila, like mega song songs that will never die. The story always starts the same where it's like we created that in like twenty minutes, Like we didn't really put calculated thought in it. You're co creator of a mega song like long after Life Ends or whatever. Like I seriously doubt that I got a feeling will ever go away or not be played at any function, be it wedding, celebration, barbarments. Yeah, the amount of times I've had to spend it as a DJ. What was the process in making that song? 01:12:59 Speaker 2: I just remember we'll talking about what's that song we're building, what's that song that plays at every freaking sporting events, wedding, the earth Winding Fire song, And I'm like, September, Yeah, we need something like that in that space where it's like everywhere, it's playing everywhere. Yo. We need something like say, celebrate good time, come on, yeah, we do. We need we need something that's like gonna live sporting events, colleges. Yo, We're gonna make a college anthem. Yo. College. Oh shit, let's make a college anthem. And it's the first time that we had ever created a song where all of us are singing at the same time. We had never done before because every single song, like you said earlier, Amir, we have each one has a verse or you know, you have like a bridge or something. But in this song, we strategically said, we want the energy of this song to feel like one right. So I remember David Gheta sent the track to Will he's like, oh, I have this remix for the Love is Gone. Right now that the love is gone, remember that song? So this is the remix track to that song. 01:14:16 Speaker 3: Okay, he didn't use it. 01:14:18 Speaker 2: Oh really, yeah, he didn't use it. He's like, you guys can use it. So we used that track and Will came up with that chorus, and then we all came to the studio and we started jumping around. Like I said, when we started jumping around, that's when you know it's something. The first time we performed it, it was a disaster. Who performed at the Tangle It was horrible. 01:14:42 Speaker 3: Where was it? 01:14:43 Speaker 2: Wango Tangle Kiss Fama Ryan Seacrest, It was like I want to say it was. It was in in Anaheim. We performed it and people are likeive, no, We're like discouraged. 01:14:59 Speaker 3: No. 01:14:59 Speaker 2: It's like, oh, this might not be the one. Maybe it's this other Boom Boom Pal song. There was a knockout punch Boomoom Pal came first, right right, That was at number one for like twelve weeks. Yeah, so we're like, yo, how do we outdo Boom Boom Pow? Because that was like, bro, we already we're already at number one twelve weeks and then we came with it. I got a filling and then it just knocked it out and it just stayed on the charts. And then we're doing all the award shows, all the the uh you know, all the sporting events. We did the Super Bowl, we did the World Cup. That song is blowing up everywhere. And then it just let us know that something that we thought was gonna be a college anthem became an anthem that the national Yeah, it's an anthem forever. So you know, No, we didn't do it in twenty seconds or twenty minutes or five minutes. It was done. It was It was a nice process. Yes, it was quick, but the idea that we wanted to present to the world was something that was very unison and very connected as one. And that's why that representation of us doing the lyrics together is a synonymous for that song, how it brings everyone together. 01:16:18 Speaker 3: When you're having this level of success. And again, like the question was like, can you guys, I'll do Elephunk okay, can you guys, I'll do monkey business? Okay? Can you I'll do the end? At any point? And you know, I know that you went through this in your memoir, But what was the point where like this wasn't fun anymore? Or it has it ever been a time where it's just like, was there ever a be careful for what you ask or wish for a moment for you? 01:16:54 Speaker 2: Right? For me? Will an App. I'm only speaking for us because you know, I can't say anything of the ladies that journeyed with us because maybe they have the same experience. But I love being on that stage with my brothers, bro, Like that's like our livelihood. When we're on stage. We're seventeen year old kids that just love performing and love you know, creating music and performing for the world. So there's never a moment, there's never a moment other than that moment when we took a break. That shit was bullshit, bro, That's like suicide. That eight year break. That a year break from twenty eleven to twenty nineteen when we put out Reepmore with j Balbin, when Sylvia Rone signed us from Interscope to Sony, and then we had success with Sylvia Ron and reinvented ourselves as a trio, which that's how we started. But that time period of being away for eight years, yes, I got cancer in twenty fourteen. But man, we were very lucky to come out of that, that your hiatus, because usually groups are gone for eight years. They're gone. There's no way you could come back. Do we come back at a filling level? No? 01:18:10 Speaker 3: How has that conversation happened? Are you guys actively communicating with each other and saying like, hey, need a break, need to have some me time, Well reconvene. 01:18:23 Speaker 2: No, it was it was. It wasn't a choice that me and Will and Apple had the I'm just being honest with you, guys, that's the reality. We would have kept going. We're at the height of our career. Why stop? But I get it, you know, not all of us wanted to continue. And so that being said, when it came back to coming back to wanting to do music again, this is after I battled cancer. I reached out to Will, I reached out to Apple, I reached out to Ferg. I said, yo, I'm ready. I need I need this to red like I need I need my healing performing Black Eyed Peas. We need to do it again. Will and Apple were like, let's go. And that's what it is. Me, Will and Apple are going. And that's how it's going to be. And fortunately at that time Apple the app met a singer from the Philippines named Ja Ray soul Right, and she was a young artist that inspired him to be able to bring her to the US and give her an opportunity to be able to to you know, to journey with the Black Eyed Peas and just be part of this amazing new I guess you can save this new lease on life because, like I said, we were on Interscope and then we got dropped, and then we got picked up by Silvia Rohan. 01:19:39 Speaker 3: Explain to me the process of getting dropped by Interscope when you're literally one of their biggest money makers. 01:19:45 Speaker 2: Well, Jimmy was gone, bro, Like Jimmy was now beats World. He's like, I don't have anything to do with So who took over? John Janet and Steve Berman Berman? 01:19:56 Speaker 3: Oh damn, Okay, I believe Burman is the cat if you remember the Dre Day video, Yeah, when he's playing the role with Jerry Heller. I didn't realize, like, wow, Berman took over in Scope. Okay. 01:20:11 Speaker 2: Yeah, So we put out Master of the Sun and they're like, this ain't it. This is not what we want from Black Eyed Peas and so the album was great but not today. So in their eyes it was a failure. It wasn't what they expected. And so they're like, you know what, we're going to part ways. I think we've exhausted all the energy the years. Thank you for all your contribution, but we're not going to renew the contract. So me, Will and Apple were like, yo, what what are we going to do? And like Will always does, Will's like, don't worry about it, guys, We're going to figure it out. So I trust him since I was seventeen, he's always been the don't worry about it, guys. We're going to figure it out. And that energy was like, yeah, we are going to figure it out. It's all good. We got songs, we got you know, relationships. So we had this song called Retmo that we recorded with Jay Bowin right, So I remember Zeke from from Sony comes to the studio and he hears it and he's like, yo, I'm working on this this soundtrack. Would love this song to be part of the soundtrack, and so Will was like, yeah, but we want this for us, like we want this to be a Black Eyed Pea joint off of our new project. He's like, well, what label are you on. He's like, We're not on the label. So he leaves the studio called Sylvia Rome. Sylvie Roon shows up to the studio. Will plays the record for her and she's like, great, I love this record. Let's put it on the Bad Boys three soundtrack with Martin Lawrence and Will Smith before the slap and so he does that. Zeke is like, Yo, this is this is the future of Black Eyed Peas, this whole Latin afrobeat fusion whatever you guys are doing this with this frequency. It's international and it's popping right now. We're gonna sign black Eyed Peace soon to epic. So we get signed. We we create this album, which was Translation, which we put out during the pandemic. We still put out a record. We had songs like bro Like Me with Shaquita, We had Mamasita Withosuno via the Loco with Nikki Jam and Tiga. So all these records just represented where we were at in that state of our career and how we were inspired by these Latin affrobeat rhythms that were happening around the world, and so that was kind of our nod to that. And then We created another record which we put out called Elevation, and that one featured Don't You Worry with Shaquita and David Ghetta, and then we did a record with Anita from Brazil and Alalfa and the next record we're dropping is with Daddy Yankee. 01:22:49 Speaker 3: After having done it all, like, what is what is left for you as far as like in terms of what you would like to achieve with the group. 01:22:58 Speaker 2: With the group Docus series, be able to make the Black Eyed Peas movie, whatever that means, do it in a way where it's like stranger things fantasy, kind. 01:23:09 Speaker 3: Of to be a scripted series like that. I don't think it's a movie, it's a it's a series. 01:23:14 Speaker 2: Like the Beatles did a docu series, like the Beatles did a Yellow Submarine, where it's kind of like mystic magical, you know, something like that, whereas you can add fantasy because we're big sci fi guys. We love stranger things and just that whole creativity of creating stuff that's not just a typical like oh, these are hip hop kids, and then they became popular around the world. It's like, now we want to tell all these amazing stories like cancer survivor and tech guy. He's the he calls himself the Black iron Man because he's all about tech. And then you got this kid from the Philippines who was a farmer that didn't speak English and came to America. First person he met was where I am. So all these crazy stories. It's a little bit sensation wise, and it's it's entertaining and and and still appealing to the eye. 01:24:03 Speaker 3: I see, I see, well, man, dude, this is definitely worth the wait, and for you know, this is like our first in depth conversation with each other. 01:24:14 Speaker 1: Man. 01:24:14 Speaker 3: So I'm really glad that we got this. Wait, Steve, you're about to say something. 01:24:18 Speaker 6: No, I was about to come wipe wipe something off your mouth. 01:24:24 Speaker 2: That's there. I just want to do a little, a little promo real quick on something that me. So I invested in this company called a Kid's Book, about which you already I sent it to you. The first book that I wrote is called the Kid's Book about Identity. And then we have a whole series of other books, like, you know, a kid's book about mindfulness, its book about addiction, book about anxiety, and it's all about having uncomfortable conversations with kids because a lot of times parents tiptoe around these conversations, and so we said, no, why don't we have these these books where we actually unlock those and make it a comfortable conversation out of something that's very uncomfortable to some families. And so, you know, it's just it's something that I invested in because I want to be able to give back. Just like I'm telling you, dude, Kobe really inspired me being with Kobe, being around him and seeing how he went from being a basketball player to actually being you know, winning an oscar, just like you writing books, almost creating an animation studio for inspired by his daughter. 01:25:41 Speaker 1: So this is just so, what's the name of the book series. 01:25:46 Speaker 2: A kid's book about? 01:25:48 Speaker 6: And where do we find that online? 01:25:50 Speaker 2: We get that on Amazon's Kids book About dot com. And basically it's all these different writers out there kids that are doing the forward so that they that you empower the kids to really be part of this journey along with the books that I'm writing for Marvel. Being an author is very important to me because then I'm able to inspire just like we did with lyrics, Like now I'm putting that same energy in that same approach to writing. Eventually, wanted to do my own script and create the first Native American feature film that will live in that same Marvel space that Black Panther lives. So that's my goal, and I'm doing my due diligence. I'm putting in the groundwork and putting in my ten thousand hours to be able to transition from music into being a creator and a screenwriter and eventually one day on wood are directed. 01:26:45 Speaker 4: Film Make it Up. 01:26:48 Speaker 3: I mean, you lived a life in which you know you may moves with no trepidation and you know you put your foot forward, so that's definitely going to happen. 01:26:57 Speaker 2: Yeah, brother, I appreciate that. And again, uh fante, thank you man, thank you for the inspiration. I hope you feel better. Oh yeah, I want to say Tarique and Pharaoh Munch my two favorite ms of all time, of all time. 01:27:12 Speaker 8: I shall relate that to and And honestly, we didn't we didn't touch on daylight, bro, And that was something very important because when you text me about about Dave and that that piece you guys put together, everybody put together, that was beautiful, man, So. 01:27:25 Speaker 3: Well, thank you for being a part of that. 01:27:27 Speaker 7: Man. 01:27:27 Speaker 2: Yeah, I want to dedicate this one to Dave bro and his impact that he had on all of us and what Daylight means to us. And now with their music being on all streaming platforms, I'm proud of Postinus and Mace and Dave. 01:27:41 Speaker 3: I'm still listening to music like like It just came out yesterday. Well on behalf of the QLs crew, on Behaving laya cousin, Jake, Telo, Steve and Unpaid Bill came home from a cigarette. Thank you, Taboo, thank you for joining us and this is us Love. We will see you on the next go around, of course, Love Supreme, all right, see you. What's Love Supreme is the production of iHeart Free. For more podcasts from iHeart Radio, visit the iHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen to your favorite child