Cover of Monkey Business (Dig)The Black Eyed Peas are an American hip hop group, formed in Los Angeles, California in 1995. The group is composed of rapper and multi-instrumentalist will.i.am, rappers apl.de.ap and Taboo, and singer-rapper Fergie. Since the release of their third album, Elephunk, in 2003, the group has sold an estimated 27 million albums worldwide, 20 million singles and 47 million copies with both sales combined.
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| Black Eyes Peas in Concert. Photo by flickr |
The group scored their first worldwide hit with "Where Is the Love?" in 2003, which topped over ten charts worldwide. Another single was the European hit "Shut Up". Their next album, Monkey Business was also a worldwide hit, certified 4× Platinum in the U.S., and spawning two hit singles, "My Humps" and "Don't Phunk with My Heart".
Pinoy in Black Eyed Peas
Apl.de.ap was born in Sapang Bato, Angeles City, Pampanga, Philippines, to a Filipino mother and an African-American father. His father, a U.S. airman stationed at Clark Air Base, abandoned the family shortly after his birth; his mother, Cristina Pineda, raised him and his six younger siblings as a single mother.
As a child, apl.de.ap would make an hour-long jeepney trip to and from school, and helped his family subsist by farming sweet potatoes, corn, sugar cane and rice. The Pearl S. Buck Foundation, an organization that finds healthier living environments for young abandoned or orphaned Amerasian children, matched him with a sponsor named Joe Ben Hudgens through a dollar-a-day program. He initially came to the United States at the age of 11 to treat nystagmus, an involuntary movement of the eyes. During a trip to Disneyland, Apl expressed his interest in staying in the United States. It would take another three years for Hudgens to officially adopt him, but at fourteen he moved permanently to the United States to live with Hudgens.
In Los Angeles, he attended John Marshall High School where he befriended William Adams (stage name will.i.am), the nephew of Hudgens' roommate. He went to college at Holy Angel University. Apl.de.ap's early musical influences were 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. Apl was introduced to hip-hop by 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.'"
He revealed to People Magazine in 2011 that he is legally blind in both of his eyes, suffering from nystagmus and has this condition his entire career. "I'm good at shapes. If I'm not close, even if it's big, I can't read it. I doubted myself for a long time," apl.de.ap said. "I'm comfortable not using my vision. I weave around my problems." He went on to say in the same article that "Until I discovered hip-hop, I felt I wasn't going to accomplish anything."
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| Fergie. Photo by A. Cardoso |
Two of his siblings are dead: his younger brother Arnel committed suicide (this is referenced in The Apl Song in the lines "I guess sometimes life's stresses get you down/Oh brother, wish I could have helped you out"). His youngest brother, Joven Pineda Deala, was murdered at the age of 22 in February 2009 in Porac, Pampanga.
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| Apl.de.ap and Fergie peforming. Photo by A. Cardoso |
Upcoming Concert in Germany
Where: Dusseldorf, Germany
When: June 28, 2011
Where: Esprit Arena, Dusseldorf, Germany
Buy your tickets online or visit the nearest Mr. Musik store near you. See you there!
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