The Black Eyed Peas are an American hip hop group from Los Angeles. As of 2009, the group is composed of will.i.am, apl.de.ap, Taboo and Fergie. Since its breakout album Elephunk in 2003, the group's pop/dance-oriented style of hip hop music has sold an estimated twenty-seven million albums and singles worldwide.
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, & 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, the group changed their name to Black Eyed Peas; Will.i.am explained on the front cover of the Monkey Business album that "The 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 food, like them. 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. Kim worked on a solo project with Interscope Records. In 2000 Kim Hill left the band. It is often thought that she was replaced by Fergie (Stacy Ferguson), who joined the group in 2003. However, Fergie was just to be featured in one song, but later Will decided to offer her a position of being in the band. 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 other Los Angeles-based hip-hop acts at the time. Through the mid-90s, the group performed in the local club circuit alongside artists such as Ozomatli and Jurassic 5.
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