The Black Eyed Peas didn’t vanish into that pop-nightmare dimension where “I Gotta Feeling” plays on repeat forever. They were just in the lab, cooking up something that actually hits harder than your cousin’s wedding playlist. Taboo and apl.de.ap dropped in to talk about ‘Street Livin,’ a single that sounds like they remembered they used to be the guys who made Behind the Front. “It’s very reminiscent of our early work,” Taboo said, clearly happy to dust off the ‘socially conscious’ badge. “We’ve always been a socially conscious group and it was only right that we came back with a huge message.”
That message? America’s a cancer patient and nobody wants to hear the diagnosis. “It’s like you go to a doctor’s office and they tell you you have high blood pressure—or worse, cancer,” Taboo said. “You get slapped across the face, like, holy shit, this is some real stuff.”
You’d think after ‘Where Is the Love?’ they might’ve run out of things to push against. Guess again. “Now everyone is really tuned in and having opinions,” apl.de.ap said, raising a cynical eyebrow at the idea that people suddenly care about politics just because the apocalypse has good ratings now.
But the new Black Eyed Peas era wasn’t just about yelling at the headlines. They were busy building Masters of the Sun—a graphic novel that mutates into augmented reality and virtual reality, with a soundtrack to match. “Art and activism is the crossroads of this new Black Eyed Peas project,” said apl.de.ap. Nothing like tackling immigration reform and the prison complex while Spider-Man’s old artist draws your panels.
And they brought some friends. “We brought aboard an amazing cast,” Taboo said. “Jason Isaacs from Harry Potter, John DiMaggio, Rosario Dawson, Queen Latifah, KRS-One, Rakim… even Stan Lee himself as the narrator. When you got Stan Lee, you know it’s special.”
If you were wondering what happened to Fergie—well, the Peas are back to their OG trio. “Black Eyed Peas, we’ve always had different pieces to the equation,” Taboo said. “We’re a family. We’re an enterprise that wants to provide opportunity for other artists that are coming up.”
So next time you hear ‘I Gotta Feeling’ at 2 AM, remember: beneath the confetti cannon lives a crew still trying to shake you awake. Or as apl.de.ap put it, “We just said to ourselves: let’s do art and activism to the best of our capabilities.” Might want to get your blood pressure checked.
Listen to the interview above and then check out "Street Livin'" below!
