Biographic - Sunday August 2, 2009 Comic Strip Licensing and Permissions

Transcript

In the early 1990s, William J Adams, and Allen Pineda Lindo adopted the names, will.i.am and apl.de.ap and formed a break-dancing crew called Tribal Nation in their native Los Angeles. By the time the pair signed to Easy-E's Ruthless Records label in 1992, the name had morphed to Atban Klann (An acronym for a tribe beyond a nation), but Easy-E's death in 1995 ended the groups association wiht the label. Undaunted, the pair recruited dancer and M.C. Taboo (Jaime Luis Gomez) and formed Black Eyed Peas, their 1998 debut album "Behind The Front" earned critical acclaim, as did the 2000s "Bridging The Gap." By the third album, 2003's "Elephunk" backing vocalist had been replaced by Stacy "Fergie" Ferguson. The single "Where Is The Love?" Featured Justin Timberlake and provided the breakthrough, hitting the U.S. top 10 and topping charts around the world, including the U.K where it was best-selling single of 2003. Further hits, including the Grammy-winning "Let's Get It Started" propelled "Elephunk" to multiplatinum success and established Black Eyed Peas as major Pop Stars. Two years later, the quartet released the "Monkey Business" album, which thanks to the grammy-winning hits "My Humps" and "Don't Punk With My Heart" brought even greater success. Fergie used the platform to launch her solo career, topping the charts worldwide with her single "Big Girls Don't Cry" from the multiplatinum "Duchess" album. Black Eyed Peas returned in 2009 with the album "The E.N.D." and were soon occupying the top two spots on the charts with the singles "Boom Boom Pow" and "I Gotta Feeling."

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