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Will. I. Am, founding member of “The Black Eyed Peas,” appeared on Wyclef Jean’s Run That Back podcast. During the discussion, he lamented the fact that the Black Eyed Peas were not regarded as a Black group.
He said the mainstream success they enjoyed, beginning with their 2004 album Elephunk, folks weren’t quick to attribute their greatness to Blackness.
“I’m a Black dude, but when you think of Black Eyed Peas, we got so big … and it hurts, it still hurts a little bit that we’re not considered a Black group … because we got that big. And when you think of Black Eyed Peas … it’s no longer urban or Black culture. [It] is not good for the Black community that Black Eyed Peas is not looked at as a Black group because we had international success. That should be credited to the Black community more so than letting it be adopted. That’s just a thing that we suffer from all the time. When you think of jazz, you no longer think of Black anymore. When you think of rock ‘n’ roll, you don’t think of Black anymore. When you think of even country, you don’t think of Black. A lot of the things that we create and we invent, we dispose of or it gets stolen from us to the point where it’s not associated with its origins.”
It’s a valid point and an interesting question. Why don’t we consider The Black Eyed Peas, Black? Well, I think Will. I. Am neglected to mention a very key element, the fact that the group’s lead singer and front person was a white woman: Fergie. When you saw the group, you saw her—first.
The Black men to the side of her seemed almost ornamental, secondary to Fergie’s star power.
But if you know anything about the history of Black Eyed Peas, you know that wasn’t the group’s original design.
The group’s front woman used to be a Black woman—Kim Hill.
Just last year, she shared her story with New York Times. Hill joined the group in 1995 and quit in 2000, to find her own voice and raise her son, Cassius. Shortly after, the group would skyrocket into superstardom.
In an 18-minute Instagram Live video, Hill responded to Will. I. Am’s comments after she said people questioning her about his comments.
“I’ll speak to you directly Will, I love you. I’ve made it plain. I’ve made it clear. I have supported the Peas, post my departure, publicly and privately. I’ve reached out to all three of the guys over the years at all their big milestones to congratulate them and that has come from a very pure place. And I say that not really being a fan of the direction or the music at all. I say this with love. I was in the Black Eyed Peas, it became the Navy beans or something else. It’s not my band. It’s not what I was in. And that’s totally fine. But Will, why I’m coming on camera and addressing you today, as if the onus is on the Black community to celebrate you and the band, when you didn’t celebrate us. It’s almost like there’s this cultural smudging… I’ve heard that when you have the opportunity to say my name, you don’t. But to actually see it, to see that you would not talk about the evolution of The Black Eyed Peas, at a time when Wyclef referenced it and I was there—it’s mind blowing. It feels like the erasing of the imprint of a powerful Black woman. You may have more money than I’ll ever have in a lifetime but I have something you cannot buy. As I said in the doc, I have my happy. I always stayed rooted in my Blackness. And I fought for that when I was at Interscope as a soloist and when I was in the Black Eyed Peas and I constantly got pushback…You want to have the same community that helped build you—us coming out of the Native Tongue movement, to now hold you in the space where we hold Mos Def and De La [Soul] and Tribe [Called Quest] and Slum Village. These are all our people because we all toured with them. All these brothers, to this day, hold me to the highest regard. But I don’t get it from you, not publicly. You want that same community to validate you and you put a white girl in that place…I’m just Black enough for there not to be a thumb big enough to smudge me out of this story. God has me covered. But so many Black women that love me and follow me, they don’t have it like me. They don’t have enough representation. When Black women keep holding y’all down, it’s still the reindeer games.”
You can watch the full video below.
