Black Eyed Peas
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

The Black Eyed Peas are an American pop group from Los Angeles. The group is currently composed of will.i.am, apl.de.ap, Taboo, and Fergie. Since their breakout album Elephunk in 2003, they have seen international fame for their pop/dance-oriented style of hip hop music. The Black Eyed Peas have sold an estimated twenty-seven million albums and singles worldwide.

History
The Black Eyed Peas got their start in 1988 when will.i.am (born 1975 William James Adams Jr.) and apl.de.ap (born 1974 Allan Pineda) began rapping and performing together around Los Angeles. The pair signed to Ruthless Records (run by Eazy-E) after catching the attention of the nephew of Jerry Heller (Eazy-E's manager). Along with Mookie Mook (Burning Star), Dante Santiago & DJ Motiv8, they called their group "Atban Klann". Their debut album, Grass Roots, was never released because Ruthless did not consider the social themes reflected in the group's music to be marketable to their audience. After Eazy-E died of AIDS in 1995, They changed their name to The Black Eyed Peas; will.i.am explained on the front cover of the Monkey Business album that "Black Eyed Peas are food for the soul", hence the name. will.i.am has cited the Red Hot Chili Peppers as an influence and said he named his band after a food, like them. They replaced their original third member Mookie, with Dante Santiago the Peas original singer. Then Taboo (born Jaime Gomez) joined the group. In 1996, they produced and appeared on a song entitled "That's Right" for Brian Austin Green's hip-hop album One Stop Carnival. Later, they began using Kim Hill as a steady background singer. Unlike many hip-hop acts, they chose to perform with a live band and adopted a musical and clothing style that differed wildly from the "gangsta rap" sounds of other Los Angeles-based hip-hop acts at the time. Through the mid-'90s, they performed in the local club circuit alongside fellow acts such as Ozomatli and Jurassic 5.

The group were signed to Interscope Records and released their debut, Behind the Front, in 1998. The album won the group (and their accompanying live band, the Bucky Jonsons) critical acclaim. The album featured the single "Joints & Jams", which was included on the Bulworth soundtrack. Their second album, Bridging the Gap, was released in 2000; it featured the single "Request + Line" featuring Macy Gray.

Recently the album "Grass Roots" was released onto the internet.

more...http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Black_Eyed_Peas
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About....apl.de.ap
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Allan Pineda Lindo, (b. 28 November 1974) better known as apl.de.ap, is a hip hop musician, record producer, and member of the The Black Eyed Peas. He was born in the Barangay (Barrio) of Sapang Bato, Angeles City, Pampanga, in the Philippines, to a Filipino mother and African American father.

Early life
apl.de.ap, together with will.i.am, is one of the original members of the hip hop group The Black Eyed Peas. His father, a U.S. airman stationed at nearby Clark Air Base, abandoned the family shortly after his birth. The eldest of 7, his mother, Cristina Pineda, raised him and his four brothers and two sisters in their small barrio. He would ride the jeepneys to school an hour away from his family home. In order to make money, apl farmed sweet potatoes, corn, sugarcane and rice until he moved to the United States at the age of 14.

Apl was sponsored by the Pearl S. Buck Foundation, an organization that finds healthier living environments for young abandoned or orphaned Amerasian children, most of whom have been abandoned by their American fathers. He was sponsored by Joe Ben Hudgens through a dollar-a-day program, and initially brought to the United States at the age of 11 to treat nystagmus, an involuntary movement of the eyes.1 During a trip to Disneyland, apl expressed his interest in staying in the United States. It would take another 3 years for Hudgens to officially adopt him.

After adoption, Apl moved to the US to live with Hudgens, where he met will.i.am, the nephew of Hudgen's roommate. He attended John Marshall High School in Los Angeles, California.

Music had always been part of Apl’s life, his early influences having been Stevie Wonder, The Eagles, The Beatles, A Tribe Called Quest, De La Soul, Leaders of the New School and the popular Filipino rock/folk group, Asin. Hip-hop was part of Apl's life from his youth, through break dancing, "I would take the jeepney all the way to Angeles City, and that's how I got introduced to break dancing," he said. "I would see kids at the corner break-dancing and I'm like, 'I wanna do that.'"

more...http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Apl.de.ap